with The Sales Tax People

Software is a tool. We're a team.

If you are operating across 20+ states with significant revenue, automation can handle rate calculation and even filing, but it can't think. It can't catch a taxability issue specific to your product mix, flag that you're registered in the wrong entity type, notice that your exemption certificate program has gaps that would hurt you in an audit, or negotiate with a state on your behalf when something goes wrong.

We work alongside software, we can help you optimize whatever platform you're using, but we pair that with real accountants and consultants who know your business and are accountable for your outcomes.

Remember, the cost of a compliance gap can far exceed the cost of having the right team behind you.

In most states, the standard lookback window is 3 to 4 years — but that assumes you were registered and filing.

If you were never registered in a state where you had nexus, many states can go back indefinitely, because the statute of limitations doesn't start running until you file. For a business operating across 20+ states, even a standard 3-year audit across a handful of jurisdictions can represent significant exposure. The businesses most at risk are those that grew fast, registered in some states but not all, and assumed their software was keeping them covered.

A proactive audit readiness review (before a state comes knocking) is one of the highest-ROI things your business can do.

A VDA is a formal agreement with a state that lets you come forward voluntarily to resolve past sales tax liability — typically in exchange for a capped lookback period (usually 3 to 4 years) and a full waiver of penalties.

For a business with meaningful revenue across multiple states, this can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalty relief. The catch is that VDAs require careful handling. You need to approach the right states, in the right order, with the right documentation. Because a misstep can eliminate the protections the VDA is supposed to provide, or inadvertently open up exposure in states you weren't planning to address yet.

This is not a process you want to DIY. We've negotiated VDAs across dozens of states and know how to structure them to maximize your protection and minimize your total liability.

Sales to businesses that are reselling your product are generally exempt, but only when you have a valid, state-specific exemption certificate on file for that customer. Without it, you're liable for the tax if audited, regardless of the buyer's intent. At scale, this becomes a serious operational challenge. You may have thousands of wholesale customers across dozens of states, each requiring a different certificate format, with expiration dates that need to be tracked and renewals that need to be collected. Most businesses handling exemption or resale certificates have gaps they don't know about — and auditors know exactly where to look.

We help companies build the systems and processes to get this right, so your exempt sales are actually protected when it counts.

Yes — and this is one of the most serious compliance failures a business can have.

Collecting sales tax from customers and not remitting it to the state is treated as misappropriation of public funds in most jurisdictions. Penalties are significant, and in many states, liability can pierce the corporate veil and be assessed personally against owners, officers, or anyone with signing authority over financial accounts. For a business doing high revenue across multiple states, the dollar amounts involved can be substantial and the personal exposure is real.

If there are any states where you've been collecting but not remitting (even temporarily, even due to a system error) the priority is to get current immediately and do it in a way that minimizes penalty exposure.

This is exactly the kind of situation where having experienced representation makes a material difference in the outcome.