Imaging Science and Services, Inc.

With the financial crisis looming large in corporate America, what is the general thought on sales and use tax exemption compliance? According to a new survey, the majority of corporate managers are expecting to experience some additional sales tax and use tax audit scrutiny because of state and local revenue shortfalls. Strengthening exemption certificate compliance efforts can provide a strong foundational layer upon which corporations can take proactive positions to mitigate audit exposure and risk. Remember, having the correct rates and tax calculations is wonderful, but knowing when and when not to charge sales tax–and being able to prove it when the auditor comes, is something that ought to be on the mind of every CFO, VP of Tax, Audit Director or accounting management responsible for sales and use tax compliance. This is especially true now when state and local tax authorities are going to be prowling for additional revenues to fill tax coffers.

We dig cool, new software as much as the next company. Google’s new browser Chrome, currently released in beta, certainly offers some interesting takes on browser functionality in a minimalist sort of way. We did a first look in our development lab and are happy to say that TEAMS Express on Demand works well in the Chrome world even in its early beta stage.

When Chrome is ready for prime time, you can be assured that Imaging Science and Services, Inc. is leading the way for all of its TEAMS Express customers using our solutions for sales and use tax exemption certificate collection, validation and management.

Depending upon where you are located, you might be smiling or you might need a better exemption certificate management solution.

Smilers first.

Georgia Manufacturers should be happy since the state legislature expanded the sales and use tax exemption for machinery and put a cap on sales and use tax for energy consumed during manufacturing.

…and now to the frowns.

California businesses in the 94608 (Emeryville), 95826 (Sacramento), 95110 (San Jose), 91406 (Van Nuys), 90505 (Torrance), 92701 (Santa Ana), and 92570 (Perris) areas will be subject to a new Statewide Compliance and Outreach Program where the state of California is going after uncollected sales and use tax. They plan to ratchet up scrutiny on businesses in these areas hoping to find the $2 billion dollar unreported sales and use tax gap.

Nonprofit groups in New York State will now need to collect sales tax on certain sales, products or services including some online sales. Failure to do so will result in the same sort of penalties that for profit businesses face. Many nonprofits aren’t even aware of this change.

If there ever was a need for a trusted partner for managing sales and use tax exemption certificates, it is now.

Massachusetts is promoting a new informative video explaining their energy sales tax exemption for qualifying small businesses with 5 or less employees and revenue under a cool million, dollars that is.

More states are now seeing the benefit between energy conservation, going green and sales tax exemption incentives.

Dennis Richardson is pushing the “Tax for a Tax” concept according to the Oregon Magazine. He aims to exempt most Oregon citizens from paying real property taxes by instituting a state sales tax. He figures that current tax technology would help the state implement a system that is fair and is easy to work.

It sounds neat, but implementation will need to be carefully thought out. The law of unintended consequences could have a profound impact on the citizenry and businesses. Electronic cards might come into play to validate certain low income citizens sales tax exempt status.

Can Oregon do it? Let’s wait and see.

Senator Bill Baroni introduced legislation that will make the sale of Energy Star appliances tax exempt in the state of New Jersey. “Buy Green, Save Green” eliminates sales tax on compliant devices for all uses. This action could make New Jersey the first state to enact a permanent sales tax exemption on green purchases.

Collecting sales tax exemption certificates and verifying exempt status can be a drudge for just about any department or business. This is certainly true for those businesses engaged in retail sales. Fewer staff, more products and increasing numbers of demanding customers can mean a nightmare at the point of sale. Verifying exempt status in-store must be a quick and painless endeavor with the highest levels of accuracy. Furthermore, if store personnel cannot verify that a certificate is on file, they must have the means to collect, update and/or renew a customer’s exemption certificate without slowing down the flow of retail traffic AND without annoying the customer.

It would be nice if the tax department was right there, in-store, but that department is too overworked. Online verification, online collection and submission are essential to the continued success of any in-store exemption certificate solution.

But how can you guarantee its success without overburdening your store personnel?

A system, built to exist independently of any hardware or software already in place at the store and at the point of purchase is essential. Most retailers can’t afford to replace existing systems just because you need validate exempt status on the fly, in real time. Furthermore, shouldn’t the system integrate transparently with all of the existing POS, back-office and corporate systems without great expense?

How much effort can you expect your store personnel, or worse, your customers to expend on filling out and submitting a new or updated certificate? If they could find the correct form automatically, prepopulated with their customer information already on file in your ERP or CRM system, what would that mean? No tedious date entry by the customer or the store personnel. A signature captured electronically through any commercial capture device and the process is complete.

Only one system is designed for all of this and more.

TEAMS Express is designed just for that purpose. TEAMS Express is built for transparent integration for real time access in any store environment using Web 2.0 technologies including Web Services and SOAP. This architecture ensures that your existing systems need not be replaced. In addition, ISSI has over 14 years servicing the retail industry with exemption certificate collection, management and audit support services that drive sales tax compliance while keeping customers smiling. So check it out.

Businesses today find that the borders for tax compliance don’t end at the territorial limits of the United States. TEAMS Express and TEAMS Express Use Tax have provided complete exemption form coverage for all of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico from day 1.

Customers rely on ISSI for Sales and Use Tax Exemption Compliance for all North American Operations and so can you.

As the world of transactional taxation changes, we believe it import to keep our customers informed about interesting developments regarding sales and use tax exemption issues, regulatory change and just plain insight into the dynamics and challenges facing today’s companies.

Please join us in our quest for excellence in exemption compliance excellence.