SERVICES / MULTI-STATE SALES TAX
Multi-state complianceYou may owe tax in states
you've never visited
Since the Wayfair decision, selling enough into a state can create a tax obligation there without any physical presence at all. Most businesses that cross those thresholds do not find out until much later.
Economic nexus,
and why it caught everyone
For most of modern history, sales tax obligations followed physical presence. If you had no office, no employee and no inventory in a state, you generally had no duty to collect its sales tax. That changed with South Dakota v. Wayfair in 2018, and the ground has been shifting ever since.
States now set economic thresholds — typically a dollar amount of sales into the state, sometimes a transaction count, sometimes either. Cross the threshold and an obligation begins, regardless of where you are based.
The numbers vary by state, and so does what counts toward them. Some states count gross sales including exempt ones, others count only taxable sales. Some count marketplace sales toward your threshold even though the marketplace collects the tax. The inconsistency is the hard part.
What makes this genuinely difficult is that the obligation begins automatically. Nobody writes to tell you. A growing e-commerce business can cross thresholds in several states in a single strong quarter and be non-compliant in all of them without any change in how it operates.
Then there is the interaction with marketplace facilitator laws. If you sell on Amazon and through your own site, the marketplace handles its portion in most states while your direct sales remain your responsibility — and in some states the marketplace sales still count toward your threshold.
What triggers a review
- Growing e-commerce sales across many states
- Selling through both a marketplace and your own site
- Remote employees or contractors in other states
- Inventory held in fulfilment centres in multiple states
- Crews or technicians working across state lines
- Trade shows or temporary physical presence
- Rapid growth in any single out-of-state market
From $200/month · Nexus review included
Getting multi-state
compliance right
Starting with where you actually owe, rather than registering everywhere and creating obligations you did not have.
Nexus review
Sales analysed by state against current thresholds, so you know where an obligation exists and where it does not.
Marketplace analysis
Which of your sales are covered by facilitator laws and which remain yours, state by state.
Registration
Handled in states where you have an obligation, with effective dates set to limit unnecessary exposure.
Multi-state calendar
Different frequencies and deadlines across every registered state, tracked in one place.
Rate management
Destination-based rates applied correctly across jurisdictions, including local components.
Ongoing monitoring
Thresholds re-checked as you grow, so new obligations are caught when they arise rather than years later.
From exposure
to compliant
Sales analysis
We look at where your sales actually go and compare against each state's current thresholds.
Exposure assessment
Where you have crossed a threshold, we assess how long ago and what the practical exposure looks like.
Register and resolve
Registration where required, and where there is historical exposure we discuss options including voluntary disclosure.
Ongoing filing
Every state filed on schedule, with thresholds monitored as sales patterns change.
Why this is worth
dealing with early
Sales tax you failed to collect is still owed. Unlike income tax, this is money you were supposed to take from customers and pass on. If you did not collect it, the liability generally sits with you, and you cannot realistically go back and invoice past customers for it.
That is why exposure compounds. Every month of unregistered selling into a state where you have crossed the threshold adds to a balance you will eventually pay from your own margin.
Voluntary disclosure programs exist for exactly this. Most states offer reduced look-back periods and waived penalties for businesses that come forward before being contacted. That option disappears once a state approaches you.
And it matters at exit. Unresolved multi-state sales tax exposure is one of the most common findings in diligence when a business is sold, and it typically becomes a price adjustment or an escrow. Resolving it years earlier is considerably cheaper.
BOOK A FREE CALLEvery client gets
- Replies within 48 hours, guaranteed
- Books closed by the 15th, every month
- Flat monthly pricing, no hourly billing
- A plain-English summary with every report
- The same team every single month
- Cancel any time, files handed over cleanly
Multi-state compliance questions
They vary by state and change periodically. A common pattern is a dollar threshold of sales into the state, sometimes combined with or replaced by a transaction count. Because the specifics move, we check current rules against your actual sales rather than working from a memorised list.
In some states yes, in others no, and this is one of the least intuitive parts of the rules. It is why an Amazon seller can have an obligation for their Shopify sales in a state where Amazon is already collecting.
No. Registering creates a permanent filing obligation in that state, including zero returns in quiet periods. Registering in forty states you do not owe in creates forty ongoing administrative duties for no benefit.
Voluntary disclosure is usually the right route. Most states limit the look-back period and waive penalties for businesses that approach them first. It is a real option and it closes once a state contacts you.
Often yes. An employee working from another state can create physical presence there, which may trigger obligations for both sales tax and state income tax. Worth reviewing if you have hired remotely.
From $200 per month for ongoing multi-state filing, with the nexus review included. Registration and any voluntary disclosure work is quoted separately based on how many states are involved.
Find out where you
have exposure
Thirty minutes, no pitch. We will look at where your sales go, flag where obligations may exist, and quote you a flat monthly price.
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