Internet Sales Tax Legislation: a Plain English Guide (Whitepaper)

SalesTaxSupport.com releases new whitepaper, Internet Sales Tax Legislation: What It Means to Small-Medium E-Commerce (A Plain English Guide), written by Sylvia F. Dion, CPA. To download the whitepaper, or read more about it, see the following post:

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Internet sales tax on e-Commerce transactions? It’s an issue that many e-Commerce businesses haven’t had to worry about – at least not in states where they lacked a substantial physical presence. But things could be changing!

If you’ve been following my contributions to SalesTaxSupport’s Sales Tax Issues, Insights and Ideas BLOG, there’s a good chance you’ve read my prior posts on the three federal bills that could require all but the smallest of internet sellers to begin collecting sales tax in many states – the Main Street Fairness Act (S. 1452, H.R. 2701), the Marketplace Equity Act (H.R.3179) and the Marketplace Fairness Act (S. 1832).  In my prior posts, I covered the three proposals in great detail primarily focusing on the specific requirements that states would need to meet in order to require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax on sales to in-state customers.

Today, I’m back to reporting on the three federal internet sales tax proposals in a newly released SalesTaxSupport.com whitepaper.  You can download a .pdf of the whitepaper by clicking on the title here: Internet Sales Tax Legislation: What It Means to Small-Medium E-Commerce (A Plain English Guide)

As the name implies, the whitepaper is a primer for the small-medium e-Commerce business owner and focuses on those features of the three proposals that a small-medium e-Commerce business owner would be the most concerned with – such as how an exempt “small-seller” is defined under each proposal.  The paper opens with an explanation of internet taxation from both a buyer’s and a seller’s perspective - and addresses that common internet sales tax myth about “internet sales being tax free” - a myth too many people still believe.  The paper also explains why internet sellers aren’t in fact required to collect sales tax in many states and explains the importance of the Quill decision. While comparing the three bills, the whitepaper also provides an overview of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) and explains how certain states – those that are full members of the SSUTA – would have immediate authority to require out-of-state sellers to collect their sales tax under two of the proposals. And although the whitepaper is comprehensive, this isn’t just another whitepaper filled with legalese and bunch of tax rules – it’s a plain English version, a succinct explanation of internet sales taxation and an overview of the three federal proposals (with confusingly similar names).

By the way, you can also access the whitepaper directly from the Sales Tax Articles section of the SalesTaxSupport.com site; here you’ll find a synopsis and link to the whitepaper.  If you’re on SalesTaxSupport.com’s distribution list, you may have also seen the PRWeb Press Release which describes and also links to the whitepaper.

I hope you’ll find the whitepaper communicates this confusing topic in an easy to understand fashion and that it contains relevant and useful information. If you’re an educator, e-Commerce business, service provider or simply interested in sharing or quoting from the whitepaper, we’ve allowed readers to be able to share or quote with appropriate permissions and/or attributions. (See the Table of Contents page for permission to reprint and attribution requirements for quoting from the whitepaper.)

And if you’re interested in leaving a question or comment about the whitepaper, please feel free to do so below – I’d love to hear your feedback!

Finally, as this is a top state tax development, I’ll continue to follow and report on developments on the three bills.  If you’d like to stay on top of this discussion simply open this RSS Updates link and click the “Subscribe to this feed” link which will be near the top of the page which opens.  As soon as any updates to this issue are posted in the Internet Sales Tax /E-Commerce section of the SalesTaxSupport.com blog – we’ll send them right to your desktop!