Seminar to help businesses understand sale tax impact

The Illinois CPA Society Fox Valley Chapter will offer a sales/use tax seminar from 8-10 a.m. May 2 at the Hilton Inn - Lisle/Naperville in Lisle.

The seminar will be led by Eric Fader, CPA, JD, managing director at BDO USA in Chicago,

For many businesses that make over-the-counter sales of goods, sales tax rules can be relatively easy to apply. For others, the rules can be terribly complex. Some business owners don't learn the extent of their sales tax noncompliance until they are contacted for audit and receive an assessment.

Many businesses are only now coming to grips with a significant sales tax law change that happened last summer. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state may legally require a seller to collect and remit sales tax on sales shipped to a customer even if the seller has no physical presence in the destination state. With the court's Wayfair decision, many companies are finding the need to invest in a sales tax engine, such as Avalara, to properly manage sales taxes on sales shipped nationwide.

Knowing where to register for sales/use tax is just the starting point. Whether a sale is taxable or not often differs from state to state. For example, some states impose sales/use taxes on downloaded software, SaaS (software as a service), other digital products, but others do not. Some cities have special taxes, such as Chicago and its personal property lease transaction tax and amusement taxes. Nonprofit organizations may owe sales tax on their purchases made in some states, but not others.

In Illinois, the sales/use tax laws are particularly complex. An Illinois service business, such as a hair salon or veterinarian, may find that its sales/use tax liability can be measured four different ways. Illinois also has unique rules concerning which local sales tax applies to a transaction.

For more information or to register, visit www.ilcpas.org/eventscalendar/ or contact Fader at (312) 730-1432 or efader@bdo.com.