You’re starting to feel like a fish out of water. You’re hearing about all these legislative changes and additions regarding online sales tax compliance. To top it all off, you’re trying to figure out a way to make the process of collecting, filing, and remitting sales tax as easy as possible. You just don’t have the time to do it all in-house while trying to grow your company at the same time. It’s common knowledge that fish don’t do well out of water. They just kind of flop around and it’s hard to watch. Perhaps, you should consider sales tax outsourcing to help you get swimming again as soon as possible.
Now, we understand if you have some concerns about this. You might be thinking that flopping around is better than the alternative. Trusting someone else with such an important part of your business seems like a big step. But, as tempting as it may sound to just stick your head in the sand and pretend none of this exists, that’s not a viable option. (Lots of animal similarities today!)
Sales tax isn’t going away and some states are getting quite aggressive about getting their money from sellers. It’s a much better idea to just take the bull by the horns now and get this thing taken care of.
So, how do you do that? Let us show you some sales tax outsourcing options, and then we’ll talk about what you need to consider when deciding which option to choose. Either way, our goal is to meet you where you’re at on your sales tax journey and help you get to where YOU want to be.
SO, first of all, sales tax outsourcing comes in lots of varieties and doesn’t have to be 100% outsourcing. It can look like:
- Do It Yourself (with some guidance)
- Do It WITH You
- Do It FOR You
If you need some guidance on which of these might be the best fit for you, take our sales tax maturity assessment.
Do It Yourself (with Some Guidance)
Many sellers are fine with doing their sales tax and feel like they’ve got a pretty good idea of what they’re doing. But they still have some questions and want to make sure they’re on the right track. They’re really just trying to reduce their learning curve and get their questions answered, while still doing it themselves.
If that’s the case with you, a sales tax consultation with one of our sales tax experts may be the right answer for you. During the consultation, our expert (who does sales tax everyday for our full-service clients and knows exactly what they’re doing) can address any sales tax-related questions you have.
We can also help you with:
- Determining which states you have nexus in
- Give setup guidance for your channels
- Give guidance on registration, collection and remittance issues
- Address any other sales questions you have
If this sounds like a good option for you, click here to schedule a call.
Do It WITH You
Another option is to outsource your education journey and learn directly from the experts. eCommerce sales tax is complicated and asking Google for help may only end in tears!
Do you ever feel like…
- You don’t even know what you don’t know with sales tax?
- You could totally manage sales tax if you just knew what to do?
- You are afraid of expanding your business because you know you have to deal with sales tax, but you don’t know what to do? (I envision a bomb icon next to this one. ?)
- You’ve spent tons of time researching, but it’s just left you more confused because of all the conflicting information?
- You’ve gotten bad advice, and now you’re frustrated and even more confused?
- This stuff is different in every state? What the heck?!? ?
There is A LOT of conflicting information about sales tax on the internet. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. But we doubt you really want to spend hours and hours doing research, trying to figure out who’s right and who’s wrong. Besides, there’s a LOT of legal-ese involved. Have you tried to read sales tax laws?!? That’s best left to the experts!
There are plenty of sales tax classes you can take, but most of them are geared towards accountants who are already familiar with the jargon and accounting skills necessary. Not helpful for the small business owner who certainly didn’t say as they were starting their business, “YES! I get to do accounting and sales tax! Woohoo!!”
We’ve talked to a lot of small ecommerce business owners over the years, and many of them just want to know what to do and how to do it. Plain and simple. That’s why we created a course for online sellers that lays out an easy-to-follow roadmap for sales tax compliance. Not fluff, no jargon. Just the basics.
So, if you want to learn what to do, how to do, and when you need to do it, consider our Sales Tax Roadmap for Online Sellers course.
The course includes:
- Phases of sales tax “give-a-damn“ – When do you need to care about it?
- Determining which states you need to worry about for sales tax – So THAT’S what nexus is about!
- How to get registered – Yes, it’s different in every state!
- How to configure your sales channels – Do this right to keep yourself out of trouble!
- When and how to file your returns – Send them all that money that AIN’T yours!
- How to CORRECTLY keep track of sales tax on your financial statements – Because sales tax is NOT income. Quit cookin’ the books, bruh!
Also, you’ll have access to our sales tax experts through our online community for continued support.
If this sounds like something that fits what you need, check it out here.
Do It FOR You
Are you sick & tired of doing your own sales tax? Is the time it’s taking stealing time away from other things you need to be doing to help your business grow? Are you ready to just turn the whole thing over to someone else? You may be ready for our sales tax services.
So, let’s talk about some of the common concerns sellers have with do-it-for-you outsourcing.
Reliability and Experience
You might be worried that the outsourcing company won’t do as good of a job as an inhouse staff. It’s understandable that you want to stay in control of the process. It’s hard to trust someone else with something so important to you.
Having your own in-house sales tax team may seem like a good idea at first. However, there are fewer people entering the tax field and many in-house departments have a high turnover rate (with you getting stuck with those costs). The people that work in outsourcing firms have a lot of experience and they can be highly focused on your taxes. They also are very aware of the current laws and can help you make sure you follow them correctly. This ensures that you are sales tax compliant and don’t have to pay those pesky penalties and fees.
Costs Versus Benefits
Another thing to consider is cost. This is influenced by the size of your company and the complexity of your sales tax. If your company is very small and you only have a few sales tax returns every month, then maybe it is more cost effective to keep your sales tax services in house. When you start having more than a few sales tax returns every month (usually somewhere between 15 to 20) it may be more cost-effective to outsource.
If your sales taxes are more complex because you’re selling on multiple channels and in multiple states, it might also save you time and money to outsource. If you are experiencing rapid growth, it may be worth it to outsource your services, even as a small business. This helps set you up for long-term growth, without the hassle of having to find a good outsourcing firm later. You can just focus on growing your company, knowing that you’ve already got this area taken care of.
Tax Software Considerations
Can’t companies just find some miracle sales tax software and call it good? Outsourcing companies have experience with helping businesses know which sales tax software would best meet their needs. Not all sales tax software is the same. (For more information on sales tax software) Many outsourcing firms have already done their homework when it comes to sales tax software options. They know the ins and outs, and have already put in the huge initial time investment to familiarize themselves with it. You probably don’t have that kind of time to invest in that process while running a business.
Above and Beyond Automation
On top of that, sales tax software alone may not be enough for your business needs. At LedgerGurus, some of our top sales tax professionals have the experience to know this. They follow more in-depth processes to make sure the software is getting things right. Software is helpful, but it can make mistakes and be unforgiving when things aren’t matching up. At LedgerGurus, our professionals verify the client’s data.
The Process
LedgerGurus professionals verify client data by:
- Pulling reports from their selling platforms (Shopify, Amazon, etc.).
- Summarizing key numbers such as gross sales, taxable sales, amount collected, number of transactions and applicable states and local jurisdictions. This easily shows if the software captured everything it should have.
- Looking for key issues. For instance, if the client collects more than what the software collects. It’s important to make sure they remit the whole amount. It’s illegal to pocket any of it. This is especially important for businesses who use software such as TaxJar. Sometimes TaxJar uses its own number for certain states and this creates an excess. This creates the need to manually file or file an amended return at a later time.
- Making needed manual adjustments. LedgerGurus professionals take care of these manual steps that would otherwise be tedious and time-consuming. We guarantee that companies remit all that was collected. We also manually adjust transactions as needed to show the correct amount of taxes, so that you don’t remit more than is necessary. Every filing is approved before it is filed. We can help automate a lot of your sales tax process. But the software (automated or not) will not manually check that data for you to ensure your sales tax isn’t over or under-stated. That’s where we come in!
What Type of Sales Tax Outsourcing is Right For You?
If you are looking into your options when deciding whether to outsource your sales tax needs, first decide how much help you need. Would you prefer to DIY it with some guidance, our sales tax roadmap for online sellers (do it with you), or turn it over to our experts to do for you? Make sure to take into account considerations like time, cost, experience, and your business needs. Again, if you need more guidance on which of these might be the best fit for you, take our sales tax maturity assessment.
Feel like a fish out of water? Flop no more. Outsourcing your sales tax can help you ride those tides of growth! Whether you are just starting off on the sales tax journey, or your sales tax staff have too much on their plate, we are here to help.
For information on how LedgerGurus can take on your sales tax workload, click here.
