Is there an accountant in the house?

[Bogie]

Jen says that I need to collect sales tax on everything, including orders from out of state. I've seen stuff otherwise. However, she's demanding a single definitive answer. Is there such a thing?
 
HELP!
 

[charby]

check Mo law.

I'm pretty sure but I am not an accountant that you do not need to collect sales tax for out of state sales via mail, catalog, phone or internet.

[Monkeyleg]

You should be collecting sales tax from purchasers within your own state, but your state probably doesn't require you to collect taxes from purchasers outside your state. (I'm not aware of any states that do).

Most states' tax laws require the purchaser to report online or mail order sales and pay the sales tax on them. I don't think a lot of people do that, though.

The exception to the above paragraph is cigarette sales. Many states, including Wisconsin, have forced online cigarette retailers to give them customer lists. Two years ago, some Wisconsin citizens who had purchased cigarettes online received letters from the revenue department telling them that they owed taxes for the cigs they bought.

[cordex]

I am not an accountant, but it has always been my understanding that you have to collect sales taxes on any items sold to customers living within a state that you do business from.  So, if Bogie's Badass Bumperstickers LLC has locations in Missouri and Indiana, you'd have to collect taxes on all customers in Missouri and Indiana.

[Bogie]

Great. Now I have to go get another web site.
 
FINALLY got it all ironed out with Jen this morning. I think she sorta believes what's on the Missouri DOR web page.
 
I'm thinking that her accountant got sales tax confused with tax on gross sales or somesuch... I just know that it was about eight hours out of my life...
 

[Racehorse]

Actually, you should research a concept called "Nexus." Nexus usually constitutes a physical location or some sort of operation in a given state. If you don't have Nexus, you don't have to collect sales tax. I work for a large-ish online retailer and we don't have to collect tax anywhere but in our own state. We ship products all over the country.

My guess is that you probably don't need to collect tax.

Edited to add: That was determined by our tax accountant and our auditors. We used to be a public company, and we never had any issues with it.

[geronimotwo]

ny has a line on our yearly income tax returns specifically for residents to pay sales tax on items purchased out of state (whether from online, catalog, or in person) to be brought into, or used within ny. it seems ny wants to make it the consumers responsibility to pay the tax, not the retailers to collect it.

[Brad Johnson]

State sales tax for anyone but MO residents is their responsibility.  They are SUPPOSED to report the purchase to their state taxing authority and pay accordingly.

Brad