How to Handle Sales Taxes When You Sell Across State Lines

E-commerce provides businesses with access to much larger markets, but it also complicates even the simplest of retail transactions. One of the most challenging aspects can be figuring out which sales taxes apply to individual sales, especially when you're selling to out-of-state customers.

This article will provide an overview of when you should collect sales taxes for out-of-state sales. Learn how to keep track of everything along the way.

When to Charge Your Own State's Sales Tax

As a business owner, you would generally collect your own state's sales tax on orders placed from within your own state or delivered there. You should not collect local sales tax on out-of-state orders in most states.

For example, Massachusetts charges its sales tax when the purchaser does any of the following:

• Picks up the item in Massachusetts
• Has the item delivered to a Massachusetts address
• Places their order while in Massachusetts

You would not collect your own state's sales tax if your out-of-state buyer places an order using their computer at home in another state for delivery there. To keep track of the details, keep the charged sales tax funds in separate accounts for each state, and set up automatic sales tax payments to each required state.

What About Local Taxes?

Many states collect both a statewide sales tax and local city or county sales taxes as well. You must collect all applicable taxes, and you should generally collect the sales tax rate that applies at the location of the sale. This will depend on the state. California, for example, follows this rule, with sales taxes being collected at both a statewide and local level.

When to Charge Another State's Tax

You would typically collect sales tax for another state only if you have a physical presence in that state. In legal terms, this is known as having a "sales tax nexus" there.

Your physical presence might be a retail store, a warehouse, or a corporate office, even if the facility is not open to the public. Entering into an affiliate agreement with a resident of the state may also establish a physical presence or nexus there, in some states.

If you do business at your customer's locations, check with your tax advisor as to whether traveling to a state and conducting business there would create nexus. This might cause that state's sales tax rules to go into effect.

How to Determine the Location of Online Sales

Online sales can complicate sales tax rules. A retail transaction that takes place entirely online is sometimes taxed according to the shipping address, depending on the state.

States presume that online orders are physically placed from the shipping address with the intent to use the item at the shipping address. When it comes to online sales, make sure that you read the rules for the specific states in which you do business.

How to Keep Track of Tax Rates

You're responsible for collecting the correct and current sales tax rate on all sales that require that you collect sales tax. Sales tax rates can change at virtually any time with different rates in each state, county, and city, so it's important to keep on top of them. Each state usually has an online database with current sales tax rates.

Most e-commerce platforms look up the customer's address automatically and charge the applicable tax rate. You're only responsible for selecting the jurisdictions for which you must collect the taxes.

What to Do With the Taxes You Collect

You must send the sales taxes that you charge to the appropriate state, which is why it is important to keep detailed records of your transactions. Many states, such as Michigan, require that you submit monthly sales tax returns when you make a payment.

In this case, you are collecting the tax directly from the consumer and segregating it in its separate business bank account, so you wouldn't consider it to be part of your income.

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