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Expanding Your Digital Value Via State And Local Tax Advisory Services. Ray Bigley – VP Business Development; Avalara Andrew Johnson – Partner; Peisner Johnson & Company. December 6, 2013. Today’s Discussion. Market Forces & Evolving Markets Market Place Fairness Act (67 to 29)
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Expanding Your Digital Value Via StateAnd Local Tax Advisory Services Ray Bigley – VP Business Development; Avalara Andrew Johnson – Partner; Peisner Johnson& Company December 6, 2013
Today’s Discussion Market Forces & Evolving Markets Market Place Fairness Act (67 to 29) Peisner Johnson & Company – Client Service Opportunities Summary
$55,000,000,000 $107,000,000,000 $130,000,000,000
Market Forces: State Budget Gap $23,800,000,000 $12,500,000,000
Market Forces 46 States, WA DC & Guam
Sales & Use Taxes In “LOTS” of Jurisdictions There are over 11,000 North American Taxing Jurisdictions Alaska has no State Sales Tax, But does have Local Sales Taxes • 46 States (Including The District of Columbia) have some form of Sales And Use Tax • NOMAD States – No Sales Tax in NH, OR, MT, AK, DE
Evolving Markets • Mobile payments (Affirm, Square, GoPayment, Fortumo, Zong) • Gaming ( mobile devices, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii)
Next up after Marketplace Fairness? • Digital Goods – MP3 Files, Movie / TV downloads, Purchased Image, etc. • Virtual Items – Exist within a specified environment. Example -Xbox Live marketplace, MapleStory: Flower bouquets, Games-weapons Sheldon’s dilemma from the Big Bang Theory
Marketplace Fairness Act (67 to 29) “Very Brief Overview” • Grants authority to states to require a remote retailer to collect sales tax • Defines a remote retailer as any seller who makes interstate sales of products or services • Applies only to remote retailers with annual remote sales in excess of $1 million, but remote sales includes exempt sales • Requires very little simplification from states, and most of that is only for remote retailers
The 5-Point Assessment Nexus Tax Rates and Taxability Use Tax Exemption Certificates Tax Returns
What is nexus? Nexus: A connection; a link or tie Minimum level of physical presence that allows a jurisdiction to require you to register, collect, and remit sales and use tax
How do states find you? • Auditing your customers • Sharing with IRS and other states • Special task forces • Leads • Former employees • Competitors
Assessment #1 Analyze the Nexus Footprint
Something taxable in one jurisdiction may not be taxable in another... • Except when it is. • Rules are constantly changing - more than 5,000 changes in the last year alone
Tangible Personal Property (TPP) Fundamentals
ALL sales of TPP are taxable unless there is a specific exemption for that item. • What about digital products? Fundamentals
Assessment #2 Make Sure Clients Charging Tax on Taxable Stuff at the Right Rate
Accruing Use Tax • Putting Your System in Place • Decide who should manage use tax accrual • Accounts payable department • Purchasing department • Service opportunity for CPAs
Assessment #3 Make sure clients have a system for accruing use tax on taxable purchases —don’t overpay though
Assessment #4 Review certificates actually collected by client.
Tax Returns Screenshot/CBS
Assessment #5 Review returns filed
Protect Your Clients The 5 Point Assessment: Nexus Tax Rates and Taxability Use Tax Exemption Certificates TaxReturns
PeisnerJohnson.com Training SALTsource newsletter Blog Charts and white papers
Who is Avalara • Market Leader in Automated Sales & Use Tax • Located on Bainbridge Island, WA & Seattle • Offices across North America, in EU & Asia • 11,000 customers 60,000 registered users • 4 million calculations per day – approaching 1.5 billion annually • Manage 5million exemption certificates & file 500,000 sales tax returns • Filing & remitting $14 billion in sales & use tax annually • Original member Streamline sales tax & Certified provider
Questions andrewj@peisnerjohnson.com ray.bigley@avalara.com