The economic nexus laws have changed how businesses operate in the United States. Now, even online sellers need to factor in the sales tax payment for their products if they plan to sell them interstates. So, there will be a lot of adjustments that sellers in the United States need to do to comply with the new economic nexus laws. In the recent past, this taxation law only applied for sellers that have physical business presences in other states. However, because of the case of Wayfair Inc. in 2018, now all sellers need to collect sales tax nexus if they sell their products in other states, regardless of whether they have any physical business presence there.
Is the Economic Nexus All about Sales Tax?
In simple terms, yes, the economic nexus is all about sales tax interstate sellers need to collect from the sales of their products if they have customers in other states. From the state’s point of view, it can help them raise the state revenue by taxing the sellers from other states, provided that they have reached a certain threshold. It might be easy for the state to determine if the interstate businesses need to pay the economic nexus tax by looking at their sales. However, from the business’ perspective, it might not be as simple as that.
With the economic nexus laws, it means that businesses need to be aware of their customers if they operate in various states. They can’t just sell their products to the customers from other states and not calculate the number of sales they get from each state. Now, even online businesses need to know and record all the interstate customers that bought their products and services, as they need to keep track of the sales, in case they have reached the state’s threshold rules.
So, for businesses, economic nexus means more than paying sales tax to other states. There are things they need to adjust, which might get complicated for them to do. They also need to keep track of their sales record in a more careful way, so that they don’t miss their tax obligation when reaching the state’s threshold rules.
Here are the things businesses need to prepare to comply to the economic nexus laws:
- Registering for permission to collect sales tax in each state. Businesses need to register with the local authorities before they can collect any sales tax from their customers. This can take a lot of time if they need to do it in each state.
- Filing sales tax reports in each state. It’s the same when they need to file their tax reports. They also need to file the tax report for the sales of their products in various states.
- Knowing more about their customer’s location. They need to know the customer’s location to make sure that they can calculate their sales and determine if they have reached the state’s economic nexus threshold.
- Hiring tax experts to help them resolve problems related to economic nexus. Tax experts for the economic nexus are important to help them deal with all the problems and complicated steps related to complying with this sales tax rule. It can add more costs to their business operations.
- Adjusting their prices to meet with the competition in each state. The additional sales tax payment will also change the prices of their products, and some businesses will need to adjust their product prices, promotion strategies, and many other aspects to ensure that they are still running a profitable business.
