2. Tax Structure
- The USA has separate Federal, State, and Local
Govt. with different taxes imposed at each of these levels.
- Taxes are levied on income, payroll, property, sales, capital
gains, dividends, imports, estates and gifts, as well as various
fees.
- Most important source of revenue for the Federal Taxes is
Individual Income Tax, Corporate Tax & Social Security &
Medicare Taxes & Excise Tax.
- Major source of revenue at State & Local level are Sales Tax,
Income Tax and other local taxes.
- There are cases where taxes are levied at all the three levels.
E.g. Income Tax.
- Taxes are mostly administered by the Internal Revenue
Service administered by the Department of Treasury.
- In addition, every state has it own tax Administration or Tax
Department.
5. - In US Sales Tax in imposed at the States &
Local Levels I.e. County & City.
- Sales Tax not levied at the Federal Level.
- E.g. In India we have GST. GST is applicable
both at Central Level I.e. at Federal Level and
at the State level.
- However in US Sales Tax is applicable at the
state, County & City Level.
- Each state have the different set of Rules &
regulation for collecting Sales Tax.
- So at present there are 50 states in the US.
Only 5 states do not impose sale tax and
knows as “NOMAD” states.
- New Hampshire
- Oregon
- Montana
- Alaska
- Delaware
6. What is Sales Tax;
• Sales tax is a consumption tax imposed on Retail Sales to end consumers. Sales made along the supply
chain (i.e. resales) to parties other than the end consumer (e.g., resales) are generally not taxable.
• Sales tax is generally imposed on all sales of tangible personal property, but usually only certain
enumerated services depending on the state. The sale of intangibles and real property are generally
not taxable.
• There is not a uniform sourcing rule across the US but generally it is where tangible goods are delivered
or where a service is performed or the benefit is received.
• The economic burden of the sales tax is generally borne by the consumer, but the tax is collected and
remitted by the seller to the state.
• Sellers may be required to remit tax to the state on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. If a seller
does not collect tax, the purchaser owes USE tax which is complementary to the sales tax.
7. Example;
A sale that is sourced to the City of Chicago is 10.25% consisting of:
Illinois state sales tax is 6.25%
County sales tax 1.75%
City sales tax is 1.25%
Regional Transportation Authority rate is 1%
So if the Seller is in Texas and making a taxable Sales transaction in Chicago, the taxes
will be applicable as above.
So it is critical to “source” the sale to the correct jurisdiction because tax rates vary
drastically among states and localities.
And to check the applicability and tax rates we have to establish the “NEXUS” first and
then the applicable rules & regulation of the state.
8. What is Use Tax;
• The Use Tax acts as a complement to the sales tax and is imposed in a situation where no sales tax was
collected by the vendor and paid by the purchaser.
• Use tax is generally imposed on the use, storage, consumption, or importation of tangible personal
property or services in the state, where no sales tax was paid.
• Originally the use tax was intended to discourage purchasers from buying from vendors (out-of-state)
who did not have to collect sales tax because they did not have sufficient contacts in a particular state.
“Buy Local!”
• The use tax imposes a tax equal in amount to the sales tax that would have been imposed on the sale
of the property or services in question if the sale had occurred within the state’s taxing jurisdiction
• The purchaser generally bears the burden of the use tax.
9. Example;
Mr. A residence of New York purchases goods from Chicago.
Assuming that the Vendor does not have any nexus established in New York, no sales
tax is charged on the purchases by Mr. A.
So in this case Mr. A has to pay Use Tax to the New York state.
Assuming the tax rate of 10% in the state of New York, Mr. A has to pay Use Tax @ 10%
along with his Income tax.
In the above manner at the end of the FY, Mr. A need to work out on all the purchases
whether he has already paid sales tax or not. In case sales tax is not paid then he
should determine the value of all the purchases on which sales tax has not been paid
and need to make Use Tax Payment on all such purchases along with the Income tax.
10. What is Nexus
• Nexus is a relationship between a taxing authority, such as a state, and a business.
• There are two types of Nexus, Physical Nexus & Economic Nexus.
• Generally, a business has Physical Nexus when it has a physical presence there, such as a
retail store, warehouse, inventory, or the regular presence of traveling salespeople or
representatives.
• Common causes of Physical Nexus are;
Offices.
Employees.
A warehouse.
An affiliate.
Stored inventory.
• If the physical nexus is established then business need to collect the taxes from day one.
• In case the physical presence is not established then need to check the “Economic Nexus”
11. • Economic nexus is created when a business generates a certain amount of sales in a
particular state. Some state governments measure this figure based on the overall USD
amount of transactions generated, while others combine the concept with the total
number of individual sales transactions completed.
• E.g. For Texas Economic Nexus is established when;
Threshold/Limit Sales crosses USD 500,000 in Texas.
Evaluation Period In Previous Calendar Year.
Effective Date October 1, 2019. (The initial timeframe for calculating these
revenues is July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019).
Sales Meaning Gross Sales.
When need to
Register
The first day of the fourth month after the month in which the
seller exceeded the threshold.
12. • One the Economic Nexus is established the entity should take the registration with the
Tax Authorities with the recipient state and start collecting taxes and filing Sales Tax
Returns.
• Lets see one more example of Economic Nexus of some other state I.e. New York
Threshold/Limit USD 500,000 per year in gross revenue
AND
Sales made into New York in more than 100 separate
transactions.
Evaluation Period Last 4 quarters.
Effective Date July 21, 2018.
Sales Meaning Gross Sales.
When need to
Register
Register within 30 days after meeting the threshold and begin
to collect tax 20 days thereafter.
• Hence you can see both the states I.e. Texas and New York have different set of rules for
establishing the Economic Nexus. The same applies to the rest of the states.
• Also definition may also vary. E.g. for some states Sales means Gross sale I.e Retails +
Wholesale sales for calculating the threshold, while for other states, like Nebraska Sales
means only Retail sales.
14. • Unimed is USA based diagnostic company which is engaged in hospital equipment like
robots, mops etc.
• They currently operating through 4 subsidiary entities operating from different states
namely;
• Lighthouse Healthcare Partner, LLC
• Lighthouse Life Science Partner, LLC
• UGS Medical, LLC
• Unimed, INC
• They currently came with a requirement to work out the applicability of the Sales Tax with
state they are having sales transactions.
• We initially collected all the Nexus criteria applicable to the states.
16. What output was required;
1. Month wise sales from FY2019 to till Apr`2022.
2. Threshold crossing in which Financial year and which month.
3. To highlight in which Financial Year and month the Tax is applicable.
Inputs;
1. Nexus Criteria applicable to each state.
2. Sales report from FY2019 to Apr`22 from NetSuite.
3. Customer Master from NetSuite.
4. Bifurcation of taxable & non taxable sales.
20. Output;
• In the sales report we incorporated following details from customer master file.
• Customer wise billing location.
• Customer wise shipping location.
• Taxable & Non Taxable Sales.
Billing Address State Shipping Address StateBilling Address StateShipping Address State Final Location Taxable Non Taxable Final Tax Status Subsidiary
- - - - - - UnIdentified LHHCP
NH NH NH NH NewHampshire No Yes LHHCP
MO MO MO MO Missouri No Yes NonTaxable LHHCP
NY NY NY NY NewYork Yes No Taxable LHHCP
CA CA CA CA California No Yes NonTaxable LHHCP
TX TX TX TX Texas No No UnIdentified LHHCP
MI MI MI MI Michigan No No UnIdentified LHHCP
MA - MA MA Massachusetts No Yes NonTaxable LHHCP
LA - LA LA Louisiana No Yes NonTaxable LHHCP
22. Output;
State Economic Nexus: Threshold / Limit Evaluation Period Effective Date
Calculation Of Threshold For
Economic Nexus
When You Need To Register Once You
Exceed The Threshold
Applicability
- #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A
Alabama $250,000/year gross revenue the previous calendar year’s sales. Effective date: January 1, 2016 RETAIL SALES
January 1 following the year the threshold
is exceeded
Not Applicable
Alaska
$100,000 or more in sales to the state, or
200 or more sales transactions into the
state
the current or previous calendar year
Effective date: The local jurisdictions will
decide whether to adopt the code. And
once adopted, businesses have 30 days to
begin collecting sales tax from Alaska
buyers located in that jurisdiction.
NA
The first day of the month following 30
days from adoption by the city or borough
Not Applicable
Alberta, CA #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A Data not available.
Arizona
Sales/transactions threshold:
$200,000 (2019)
$150,000 (2020)
$100,000 (2021 forward)
the previous or current calendar year Effective date: October 1, 2019 GROSS SALES
The seller must obtain a TPT license once
the threshold is met and begin remitting the
tax on the first day of the month that starts
at least thirty days after the threshold is
met for the remaining of the current year
and the next calendar year.
Aug`20