no sale taxes?

[tan12]

Hello. It is stated that "The most important thing to remember about US taxes is that you only need to collect them if you have a presence in the state that you are shipping an order to. If you don’t, you don’t collect taxes."

What does this statement really mean? Does this mean 1) the seller does not have sale tax responsibility if the buyer is in a foreign state (not a business state of the seller)? or 2) Square/Weebly do not yet have a proper method for the seller to charge the sale taxes? Any answer is much appreciated.

[Minion]

Hey @tan12 

So yes, generally speaking unless you have a physical presence in the state of where the buyer resides, then you will not collect sales tax.  If you are using Square/Weebly for your online selling, they will use your postal code/address of when to charge sales tax based on the customer location in relation to your own. 

Here is a little bit more reading on it.  I'm by no means an expert when it comes to taxes though. 

[tan12]

Thanks for reply. I guess that you think the Option 1) I provided is correct. If so, however, how to explain a sale platform ebay, for example, ALWAYS collects sale taxes. The sellers in ebay ship products to a state which is generally different from that where the sellers' business is located. With that being said, do the sellers in Square/Weebly still need to file sale taxes with state/locality even though no sale taxes are not charged/collected through Square/Weebly? The sellers still owe sale taxes to the state/locality?

[Minion]

No problem!  Do you currently sell on ebay?  Places like Ebay and Amazon will automatically configure, collect and remit sales tax on your (the seller') behalf.  So if you do happen to sell through one of those places using their portal/sites then you won't need to worry about collecting anything as it will automatically be done for you. 

Like with anything hat is tax related however, it is always best to consult or double check with your Accountant or CPA