#sales-tax
Sales tax compliance, nexus rules, filing requirements, and tax automation for businesses
Illinois eliminated its 200-transaction economic nexus threshold under HB 2755 effective January 1, 2026, leaving a single $100,000 revenue test and offering a limited amnesty window from August 1 to October 31, 2026 for unregistered remote sellers.
Petting zoo admission fees are Schedule C income, not Schedule F farm income — a split that affects self-employment tax, the farmer estimated-tax exception, and audit risk. This guide covers the USDA APHIS Class C exhibitor license ($30–$300/year), liability insurance from $545–$780/year, state admissions-tax traps for mobile trailers, and how to keep agritourism books separate from the farm ledger.
Print-on-demand sellers who are merchants of record (Shopify with Printful or Printify) owe sales tax themselves and can deduct real COGS, while royalty-based marketplace sellers (Redbubble, Amazon Merch, Etsy) owe no sales tax because the platform is a marketplace facilitator and have no deductible COGS at all.
State sales tax auditors use statistical sampling that extrapolates a small error rate across years of transactions, so running a self-audit on use tax accruals, exemption certificates, and nexus exposure before a notice arrives produces a materially better outcome than waiting.
About 30 U.S. states let businesses keep a percentage of the sales tax they collect — a vendor discount or collection allowance — for filing and paying on time, with Colorado eliminating its discount and South Dakota suspending its own heading into 2026.
One missing resale certificate can reprice years of sales as taxable — collect the right form at checkout, validate it on receipt, renew 60 days before expiry, and tie every certificate to its invoices.
A working framework for shed builders, dealer lots, and portable building manufacturers to classify rent-to-own contracts under ASC 842, set repossession reserves, apply Section 179 to mover equipment, and handle multi-state sales tax under Wayfair.
A state-by-state operational playbook for SaaS founders in 2026 covering economic nexus thresholds, taxability maps (NY, TX, PA, WA taxable; CA non-taxable), Stripe Tax vs Anrok vs Avalara vs TaxJar trade-offs, true object test for bundled invoices, and VDA strategy for cleaning up historical exposure.
Twenty-one US states run sales tax holidays in 2026, with seven converging on August 7–9. Here is how Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and Etsy sellers should configure product taxability, plan inventory, and avoid the per-item cap, bundled-sale, and excluded-venue mistakes that drive audit losses.
A practical bookkeeping playbook for boxing gyms, MMA academies, and martial arts dojos — covering ASC 606 recognition of memberships, belt tests, and fight camps; the 2024 DOL coach classification rule; Section 179 and cost segregation on build-outs; combat-sports liability; and the KPIs (LTV, churn, revenue per square foot) that decide whether a gym scales.
How custom frame shops should structure their books — ASC 606 revenue recognition at pickup rather than deposit, WIP inventory valuation under Section 471, Section 179 expensing for mat cutters and underpinners, state escheat reporting for unclaimed frames, and the per-square-foot KPIs (conservation glass attach rate, labor productivity, average ticket) that distinguish profitable shops.
How multi-brand ghost kitchens record gross revenue under ASC 606, segregate marketplace-facilitated sales tax from DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub payouts, allocate shared kitchen costs across virtual brands, and compute contribution margin per brand and platform.
