WHERE precisely did I say that??
"I have to do it everyday and I don't want to have to do it for anyobdy else, even if they do pay a little for the service. I have a business that I worked long and hard to build. I have to keep up with what goes on in my field or I am out of business.
Uh, you just said you ALREADY have to do it, so the incremental adder to your "misery" is small. Add to that the fact that you no longer have to fill out INCOME TAX FORMS, which is probably MORE time consuming that the work you ALREADY do for sales tax.
So your TOTAL time involved with taxes will go DOWN, probably significantly.
"I don't have the time or inclination to be a tax collector, that isn't the reason I went into business in the first place."
But you have already said that you ALREADY DO THAT, so the argument doesn't wash.
For our business, the sales tax calculations actually take more time than the income tax calculations.
For sales tax we have to go through every sales transaction we make. We have to seperate the taxable transactions from the the non-taxable. For every non taxable transaction we have to make sure we have the proper and complete exemption information for every customer or vendor. We have to keep copies of their certificates on file (which takes up space).
We also have to make sure that out of state vendors are applicable for sales tax exemptions if they ask for it.
For every taxable transaction, we have to account for the sales tax taken in and many of us open seperate bank accounts for those funds (since they are not ours, we do however get the pathetic little bit of interest from them). So we also have to make sure those bank accounts mesh with our book figures.
We have to file regularly (monthly and pay quarterly) even if we don't have any sales tax income to report. We have to go through the whole process over again when we sell out of state at trade shows and it becomes a real mess when you have sales tax due to several jurisdictions and you have to sort out which transaction goes to which jurisdiction and when it is due.
If we go to a trade show where there is a tax inspection and we forgot our certificate, we can be forced to close until we provide the certificate (if it's 100 miles away back at the office, we have to drive back and get it). If the inspector determines that you have missed a payment or forgot to file at any time, you can be asked to close until you straighten things out. Luckily this rarely occurs but it does happen.
If the state thinks you are withholding sales tax, you are in deep sh*t and you will likely have every transaction audited for the period in question, so you better have every receipt, every voucher, every i dotted and t crossed.