Tax question on mailing out physical goods.
 

Does anyone know the following?
I am planning on selling products online.
I have an office in NY (where the products will be shipped from), but I am incorporated in Delaware. Do I have to charge sales tax for business done in NY and/or Delaware?

anyone know of any good places to read up about the tax laws regarding this issue?
My accountant won't be in until Tuesday and I just wanted to read up about this.
thanks

Your business is registered in Deleware not New York, the origins of the shipment do not at all matter. all I know about this is some states are trying to pass interstate net based commerce laws so you have to keep on top of the info.

Think you are wrong on this one. We are publicly traded (OTCBB:OTEN) so we may be under tighter scrutiny, but I have a CPA in house and I am assured that any sale within NY needs to be taxed regardless of our Delaware incorporation. I am told what matters is the shipping address. One solution is setting up a warehouse (3rd party drop shipper) out of state to ship our NY orders so we don't have a problem. but that may have liability ramifications as well.

recommendation to AllAmerican2003 is to speak to a certified accountant to be sure...state tax audits are brutal, happen quite often and can destroy your business.

Vega thanks for the heads up, our cpa will be in on Tuesday, but i was writing some stuff up over the weekend and wanted to know. Anyone know of any good reads about this?

The obligation to collect tax is based on whether you have a "business presense" in the state.

The bar is extremely low for what qualifies.

And now that more business is moving to the internet, states are getting more aggessive in collecting sales taxes. California requires all packages being shipped into the state to bear the shippers California tax number. So in California, you don't even need a presense.

:2 cents: