Things are getting salty...🧂

Welcome back, trash talkers.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2024… what better way to ring in the new year than with some fresh sales tax facts? 😉

Today’s trash includes (1) the latest sales tax news, (2) a salty update🧂, and (3) a question from you.

NEW SALES TAX UPDATES

1️⃣ Florida may double the maximum discount for timely remitted sales & use taxes and renewing various sales tax holidays.

2️⃣ New Jersey bill seeks to halve sales tax rates for small businesses.

This would allow small businesses to charge tax on retail sales of tangible personal property at half the statewide rate.

3️⃣ Virginia’s state tax commissioner ruled that a company that sells and installs security systems must remit tax on its sales. Why? Because it sells to homebuilders.

4️⃣ Friendly reminder that Florida’s sales tax holiday is held from January 1-14, 2024.

5️⃣ New York taxpayer was held personally liable for a corporation’s unpaid sales and use taxes.

He was the incorporator, sole shareholder, and listed as the responsible person for the collection of tax on the corporation.

6️⃣ Texas sales tax revenue in November came in higher than the previous year at $4.1 billion.

Meanwhile, overall tax collections in the state continued to underperform compared to the previous year's figures.

7️⃣ North Carolina cellphone retailer claimed that their prepaid cards should not be subject to sales tax.

Their reasoning? The cards are gift cards that can be used for nontaxable services and sales.

8️⃣ States collected ~$3 billion in recreational marijuana tax last year with over 40% of states taxing it today.

Nationwide legalization could generate ~$8.5 billion annually.

9️⃣ Alcohol is one of the most highly taxed products across the US. Per ounce of alcohol, spirits are taxed at more than 3x the rate of wine and 2x that of beer.

Tax experts are recommending an ABV tax to make alcohol taxes simpler, more transparent, and more neutral.

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A SALTY YEAR AHEAD🧂

Congress is getting closer to reevaluating the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions.

Major revenue consequences are at stake—eliminating the SALT deduction would raise about $2 trillion over 10 years.

If the $10,000 cap is made permanent, it could raise roughly $1.2 trillion from 2026 to 2033.

As some policymakers continue to advocate for an increase or repeal of the cap before it expires in 2026, the fate of SALT remains unclear…

Regardless of the outcome, tax experts agree that SALT policy should be made stable and predictable with a permanent solution.

Learn about sales tax audits → 

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT

Bean Ninjas offers best-in-class bookkeeping, accounting, virtual CFO, and tax services for 7 and 8-figure eCommerce businesses looking to scale. They’re specialists in Shopify, Woo Commerce, Amazon and Omni-Channel businesses.

Interested? Just reply to this email and I can make an intro.

YOUR QUESTIONS, ANSWERED!

Q (Gavin): Is there a difference between sales tax and use tax?

A: Yes. Sales tax is a tax on the sale, transfer, or exchange of a taxable item or service at the point of sale. Sales tax is added to the price of the item and charged to the consumer.

There is also “sellers use tax”, which is another term for sales tax, and applies to remote (out-of-state) sellers.

Use Tax is a tax on the storage, use, or consumption of a taxable item or service on which no sales tax has been paid. Use tax is mutually exclusive with sales tax. They often share the same rate, but not always.

More info on this here.

Thank you for reading along. Hope your year has been off to a solid start 💪

I’ll be back next month with more sales tax shenanigans.

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

If you found it helpful, 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 time’s 🗑 …

Rohit & the Zamp team