Undergoing a state sales & use tax audit can be stressful and going it alone can be risky. We represent a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of companies in sales tax audits and we sometimes hear, “Why fight it? You can’t win against the state!” From personal experience, we can tell you that is not true, and here are several reasons you should aggressively fight a sales & use tax audit. Surgical Audit Selection Process States use data mining and lead generation tools to determine which taxpayers are likely to under report. If you bought or sold something to or from a company who was audited ..read more

STRG has added sales tax return preparation and filing to its consulting services. Whether you are a multi-state corporation or online retailer trying to navigate the new “Wayfair” decision, or whether you are a single location business, we an handle any state and local sales & use tax return, regardless of size or complexity. Some of the benefits of our services include: Sales-Down or Tax-Up Reporting; Data Insights; Economic Nexus Threshold Monitoring; In-House Audit Representation Please continue reading for more information, or feel free to contact us at (714) 377-2600, or email grah ..read more

We’re getting a lot of calls and questions these days about the Wayfair decision, so here’s what we are recommending regarding Wayfair … First, we are trying to get the word out that companies really need to be proactive in dealing with Wayfair.  States aren’t going to reach out to the company and tell them they now have sales & use tax nexus, and the online marketplaces won’t either.  Also, Amazon is telling states who their marketplace sellers are, so the states already have the list of unregistered sellers.  Furthermore, large retailers are already compliant, s ..read more

California has always been known as one of the most aggressive states in the nation when it comes to sales tax audits. Despite this, companies selected for California sales tax audits had the opportunity to appeal their case before the five-member Board of Equalization, who were not government employees, but were elected to represent the people and taxpayers who elected them. The system was not perfect; decisions were often issued along 3-2 political party lines, Board members were perceived to overstep their authority by using Department employees for pet projects, and the office itself was ..read more

The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that could have a dramatic impact on American retailers, and not only those who primarily operate on the Internet.  In what has been called the Wayfair sales tax case, the court on June 21, 2018 said that states can impose sales taxes on businesses even if they do not have a physical presence in the state. The ruling effectively overturns Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which was a Supreme Court decision handed down in 1992.  In that case, the court said that the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution forbids states from imposing sales t ..read more

The California Supreme Court last week declined to hear the appeal of Lucent Technologies, Inc. v. Board of Equalization, 193 Cal. Rptr. 3d 323 (2015), a move which brings the California State Board of Equalization (“BOE”) one step closer to facing the reality that millions of dollars of taxpayer refund claims will eventually have to be reviewed and possibly paid. In part, the Lucent case ruled that telephone companies’ purchases of telecommunications equipment included software which could not be excluded from the definition of “technology transfer agreement,” or TTA. The importance of this ..read more

The Michigan Department of Treasury released guidance explaining what virtual currency is and how sales tax applies when virtual currency is used. Virtual currency, such as Bitcoin, has a monetary equivalent to real currency. If a person purchases taxable property using virtual currency, the person must figure out the dollar value of the virtual currency. This value must be calculated as of the day and exact time the sale occurred, and the seller must keep records of this value. Sales tax applies based on the dollar value of these sales. However, virtual currency is not itself considered ..read more

Despite being issued in March, an Arizona ALJ Decision regarding Software as a Service (SaaS) has been receiving a lot of attention lately.  In its March 15, 2015 ruling, the ALJ decided that a customer located in Arizona, logging into a research website located outside the state with a username and password, was actually leasing tangible property in Arizona.  Consequently, the company owed Arizona’s sales tax (TPT) on the subscription fees for the research site. The Department argued that since the customer “perceives the research and data content through the customer’s sense of si ..read more

The California Enterprise Zone Program is out, a new broad-based manufacturing and research and development exemption are in.  As you may be aware, a new California law allows businesses engaged in manufacturing and certain research and development to take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% (plus applicable district taxes) on the purchase of certain property used in their business activities. In order to take advantage of the exemption, you must be a: “Qualified person” purchasing “Qualified property” for “Qualified uses.” Now that’s a lot of QUALIFIERS! We’ve been getting calls ..read more

With the stroke of a pen, California’s Enterprise Zone program, that lucrative state tax credit program many critics chided as being merely a “eureka credit” has been replaced by a broad manufacturer’s exemption and a vastly scaled back version of the EZ. Critics of the EZ argued that the program was not actually encouraging investment in California’s disadvantaged areas, but was only being claimed by companies after consultants discovered the credits, claimed refunds, and usually took a percentage of the refund. Add to that the fact that many large and small corporations who did not pay emplo ..read more