Sales Tax Compliance Services for Multi-State Businesses

Nexus is the connection to a state that obliges you to collect its sales tax. Physical nexus comes from things like an office, inventory in a warehouse, an employee or a trade show booth. Economic nexus comes from sales volume. Many states set the threshold at $100,000 in sales into the state, and some add a transaction count. The numbers and the measurement periods differ by state and states revise them, so we check the current rule for each state rather than apply one threshold to all of them.

We start with your sales by state for the past several years, your fulfillment locations and the marketplaces you sell through. From that data we build a nexus map showing where you must register, where you are close to a threshold and where you may already owe back tax.

If the review shows you should have been collecting in a state and were not, you have options. Most states run voluntary disclosure programs that limit the look-back period and waive penalties for businesses that come forward before the state contacts them. We prepare the application, negotiate the terms and file the back returns. Acting before a notice arrives is almost always the cheaper path.

Selling through Amazon, Etsy, eBay or Walmart Marketplace changes who collects the tax. Most states have marketplace facilitator laws that make the platform collect and remit on your behalf. Those sales still count toward your thresholds in some states, and you may still need a permit and a return. Sales from your own website and wholesale sales follow different rules again.

Businesses also owe use tax on purchases where the seller did not charge sales tax, such as equipment bought from an out-of-state vendor. We review your purchases for use tax exposure as part of the engagement, since it is one of the areas auditors check.