NYCPHP Meetup

[John Campbell]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:14 PM, (Margaret) Michele Waldman
<mmwaldman at optonline.net> wrote:
> Here's another question.
>
> Is an ebusinesses supposed to file taxes and licenses in every state they
> are doing business?

No, only in states which they have a "nexus".  The judicial system
ruled that it is too much of a burden for small businesses to file
taxes covering 4000+ tax jurisdictions.

> How else are those sales taxes paid?

They aren't.

> If you charge them you are supposed to pay them to the state.

Don't charge sales tax for states you don't have to.

> NY has a line on the tax return for people to pay their online purchases
> taxes.

Yeah, but the number of people who actually do this can be counted on one hand.

> That's crazy.  If the store is in NJ, it should pay NJ taxes.  That's where
> the product is being sold and shipped from.

Why should a customer in California have to pay NJ sales taxes?
If that was the case, every mail order business in the country would
be located in New Hampshire where there is no sales tax.

> You would definitely need a cron job to keep track of the changing sales
> taxes.

You only have to keep track in NJ.  It doesn't change that often.  You
generally only have to make updates 1 a year... and for sales tax
holidays.

-John C.