Zip2Tax News Blog

North Carolina Senate unveils plan to reduce sales tax rate but expand sales tax base

Lucinda — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:34:50 +0000

This past week Republicans in the North Carolina Senate released a plan to revamp the state’s tax code. This new plan slightly reduces the sales tax rate across the state while also expanding the tax base by removing many sales tax exemptions. Right now, consumers pay a combined state and local sales tax rate of [...]

Maine lawmakers considering raising and expanding sales taxes

Lucinda — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:32:15 +0000

On May 1st, a bipartisan group of Maine lawmakers released a plan to both raise and expand sales taxes in the state. These extra revenues would be used to reduce the state income tax rate and provide tax relief to Maine homeowners. Under this new law, Maine would raise its sales tax from 5 to [...]

How to file a sales tax return

Lucinda — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:13:27 +0000

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to collect sales taxes from your customers and submit the money to the appropriate state(s) along with a sales tax return. To avoid audit problems and penalties, you need to make sure you file your return according to each state’s rules and filing schedule. While each state [...]

Sales and/or use tax changes for May 1, 2013

Angel — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:00:57 +0000

Sales and/or use tax rates in the states of Alaska, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia have changed in Zip2Tax products since April 2013. In Alaska, tax rates changed for Akutan, Anderson, Kobuk, Kodiak, Pilot Point and the Northwest Arctic Borough. In Alabama, tax rates changed for Warrior, Headland, Jemison, Selma, Thomasville and Jacksonville. [...]

Oregon lawmakers discuss state sales tax

Lucinda — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:54:44 +0000

Oregon is currently one of only five states without a sales tax. This may change though with upcoming legislation. On April 15th, Oregon lawmakers held a hearing to discuss whether the state should add a 5 % sales tax on most goods and services. As written, this proposal would exclude a few items like food [...]

Temporary Kansas sales tax may become permanent

Lucinda — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:45:23 +0000

Nearly three years ago, Kansas temporarily increased its sales tax to 6.3 percent up from 5.7 percent. This tax increase is set to expire this July 1st. Governor Sam Brownback is now pushing to keep this tax increase permanent to help Kansas fund its public school system. Kansas is currently facing a school financing lawsuit [...]

Marketplace Fairness Act progresses to Senate debate

Chuck — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:46:38 +0000

This month the United States took a big step toward throwing out the concept of nexus. On April 22nd, the Senate voted 74-20 to bring the Marketplace Fairness Act (S.743) to the floor for debate. This is significant progress as bills typically need at least 60 votes to clear this procedural hurdle. The Senate titled [...]

Desktop widget version 1.2 released

Lucinda — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:02:41 +0000

We’ve made a few more upgrades to our desktop widget that allows subscribers to look up sales and use tax rates from their computer’s desktop. 1) Bug fix: corrects inproper rounding off to two digits when calculating dollar amounts by tax rate with more than two decimal places. 2) Allows use with all three subscription levels: ZIP Code, [...]

The taxability of warranty repairs

Lucinda — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:16:50 +0000

As a vendor, it is your job to collect sales taxes according to state laws. This can seem a bit confusing for a service like warranty repairs that is sold and delivered at different times. If your business handles repairs in multiple states, these transactions can be even more confusing because of nexus rules. Fortunately, [...]

The basics of exemption certificate validity periods

Lucinda — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:09:06 +0000

As a vendor, there are a number of times when you can make sales without charging sales tax. Before you can make these transactions, you need to have a valid exemption certificate from the purchaser. Each state has different rules for the validity periods of its exemption certificates. It’s your responsibility to keep track of [...]