A Black Friday Guide, by Brands 🤑

It was a short week and we’re back to your favorite trash show!

First, big congrats to US Open Champions, Coco Gauff, a hometown favorite, and Novak Djokovic who continues his reign with #24, a salute to the late Kobe Bryant. RIP Mamba.

If you missed the news on Shopify x Amazon last week, you can find it here.

With Black Friday coming up, this one was a fun one, so let’s start digging:

• How to prep for Black Friday? 🎁

• States are crackin’ down 😵‍💫

• Vending machines are overcharging 💰

• Meme of the week 😆 

• Q from you - “Where can I see a list of state sales tax rules?” 🙋‍♀️

BFCM Guide: By Brands For Brands 🤑

I asked 63 brands (7-9 figure) about Black Friday prep.

Here are the 5 topics that came up repeatedly:

1️⃣ Promos

• How do we optimize promos and bundles?

• How do we communicate our value without sacrificing margins?

2️⃣ Competition

• What is the competition doing?

• How are we reacting to competitive initiatives?

3️⃣ Inventory & Shipping

• How can we project demand accurately?

• How will our 3PL handle the volume along with other brands they support?

4️⃣ Contingency, Adjustments & Planning

• What contingency plans do we have?

• Have we cross-trained departments?

• What does our agility + flexibility look like?

5️⃣ Infrastructure

• Do we have the ops and finance infrastructure in place?

• Have we load tested our systems and website?

Some teams are planning to have a war room - what's your plan?

States crackin’ down 😮‍💨

Are you an LLC? In New York, you may not be completely protected. An individual with control of the LLC was recently held liable for unpaid sales tax. Don’t listen to all the trash from the social media self-taught “gurus”.

There’s been a wave of class actions filed against big companies. This time it’s Texas Best Buy’s customers seeking $11 million in sales tax refunds for purchases that were later discounted via rebates. Expect this to get tossed.

You’re seeing this crack down on initiatives helping the less fortunate too.

In Washington, a wireless copmany receiving federal funding to provide free cellphone service to low-income households has to pay sales tax too. No questions asked.

That said, if you’re in Washington and were affected by the recent wildfires you may request a filing extension before or after the tax due date.

Insanity of vending machines 🍑

With the focus on healthier diets,

There has been a unprecedented rise in fruit-specific vending machines.

While most vending machines come with a bit of sales tax,

The ones with fresh fruit found in California charge a more than just a "bit".

Fruit found in one of these machines will be charged 33% sales tax!

Maybe California residents just stick to shopping in the supermarket.

Learn how your product is taxed in the US → 

Meme of the week 😆 

🌟 Partner Spotlight 🌟

Bookskeep is a small business partner that enables growing businesses to scale to the next level and move from startup to sustaining and thriving.

Bookskeep provides the complete package for planning, building and maintaining financial stability and growth.

Interested in chatting? Just reply to this email and I can make a direct intro.

🙋‍♀️ You ask, we answer 🙋‍♂️

Q (Edward): Where can I find a full list of what is or is not taxable in the state?

A: The simple and most up-to-date answer is the legislation. Within the laws of each state, the taxability of products and services is enumerated.

There are publications that summarize the states’ tax laws available through the various vendors that provide tax research materials but the freshness of their content can be questionable.

Don’t understand sales tax? 🧠 

We can run a sample audit & nexus analysis to help you understand your liability exposure. Free for Trash Talk subscribers.

You can also check out a Free Sales Tax Guide here.

Thank you for reading along. I’ll be back next Sunday with more sales tax shenanigans.

If you enjoyed this one, please share it with your network. 🤝

If you caught a laugh, reply back and let me know. I live for the people.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions, please let me know by responding to this email or DM me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Until next week’s 🗑 …

Rohit