Does the national debate on Internet sales tax reform leave you feeling anxious? Is your company prepared to manage and remit sales tax for all states where you do business? Audit penalties average $23,000, so you can’t afford to be wrong when it comes to sales tax. Cimbura.com can help integrate accurate sales tax calculations into your FileMaker solution. Arnold Palmer once said golf was “deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”  The same can be said for state and local taxes.

There are many ways to calculate sales tax in FileMaker. This article will review the options that range from the least expensive, simplest method to the most expensive, most automated method for complex tax calculations.

There are over 600 individual tax laws across the US in different states, which makes keeping up with sales tax rules very difficult. This includes:

• City, district, transit, county, state, country, and other taxes based on location.
• Categories of products that are affected differently. For example, in MN food (groceries) and clothing are not taxed, but restaurant-prepared food is taxed.
• Sometimes services are taxable and other times they are not.
• There can be maximums and limitations to how much of a particular item is taxed. For example, only the first $1,000 of an item may be taxed.
• Sometimes shipping is taxable, other times it is not.

Not calculating the tax correctly can also leave your business in a situation with a potentially great tax liability. So it is important to collect accurate taxes from your customers and pay those collected taxes promptly to the proper government organizations.

More…Calculating Sales Tax and FileMaker.