SmallBusinessNewz

The growth of Internet sales is causing some interesting tax issues for small business owners and casual sellers.

My bookkeeper has spent hours on the phone with the IRS trying to figure the best way to handle the new Washington State tax regulations that went into effect July 1, 2008.

You see, the system for local retail sales tax in the State of Washington has gone from an origin-based system to a destination-based system. Basically, how you tax goods now depends on where the product is shipped to, not on where the product comes from.

This applies to electronic products like e-books or audios that never go in the mail as well as physical products sold and shipped to anyone in Washington (as opposed to bought at your retail location).

The problem is that, in addition to everything else a small business owner has on their plate, we now have to know the sales tax for every city and county in Washington and set up our shopping cart system to charge accordingly. So far this is proving to be a huge pain in the butt!

I haven’t come up with a good solution yet, and neither has my shopping cart system. At this point, it’s likely that I’m going to just estimate the best average rate based on where most of my Washington sales come from, then hope it’s enough to cover what I actually owe at the end of the year (Uggh!). This is so not how I like to do business!!!

Has anyone else found a way to handle this latest set of tax laws?

If so, please share by leaving a comment below.

You’d be helping a lot of other small business owners out, and if your suggestions work for me, I’ll even send you an electronic copy of my latest publication “101 Practical Marketing Tips for growing Your Small Business” as a big Thank You.

Get all the details on the new tax regulations here:
http://dor.wa.gov/Content/FindTaxesAndRates/RetailSalesTax/DestinationBased/MoreSST.aspx