Do I charge sales tax to customer from a different state/country?

[Loyada]

Do I charge tax to customer from a different state/country? If not, do I just turn off the Tax setting for that sale or do I need to mark/note something somewhere??

[TheRealChipA]

@Loyada As far as the US goes, most states/localities require sellers to collect their sales taxes for items sent to their jurisdictions.  You are also required to get a sales tax account with them, file their tax returns and remit taxes collected on their schedule.  It can get very involved and impossibly complicated very quickly if you try to do it yourself.  Thankfully, Square’s app marketplace has apps that take care of everything for you — from charging your customers the appropriate sales taxes, to filing the forms and remitting the tax payments.  Go to the app marketplace from your Square dashboard and search for “sales tax.”  You will see apps like TaxJar and DAVO (and more) that you can integrate with your Square account and set up for your needs.

Definitely do not try to do this on your own.  You’ll regret it and will most likely get in trouble when you do something wrong.  Ugh.  Also, I’d be remiss if I did not strongly recommend that you consult with your accountant or tax advisor — they might have ideas about their preferred sales tax software, or at least have ideas about which ones they like better.

Good luck!

[Loyada]

Hi ChefChip, thanks so much for taking the time to reply to my inquiry! Would you know what the guidelines are as far as customers from outside of the US?

[TheRealChipA]

@Loyada All I can say is that some companies that specialize in US sales tax compliance also have the ability to calculate, etc, VATs and other non-US taxes.  A good example that integrates with Square is Quaderno.  However, you (or your tax advisor) will have to do some digging to find one that will handle every country to which you want to ship.  There might be one solution that handles the entire world, but if there is I’ve never heard of it. Quaderno bills themselves as a worldwide shipping solution but you would need to do your homework to verify that.  

The guidelines are simple, yet not simple.  You as the shipper have to collect all taxes and fees that the receiving country/state requires and you have to file and remit those in a timely manner.  That’s pretty much it.  The problem is that there is no one solution that they all agree upon.  That’s why it is good to get one of these solutions (like Quaderno) and talk to them directly first after reviewing their website information.

I wish I could help more, but this is a complex area.  You are going to have to pay a monthly or per-transaction fee, because companies like this spend a lot of time keeping up to date on the ever changing laws here.  You’ll definitely want to pay for a service like this.  It’s a “must have” cost of doing an international online business.

Hopefully another Square seller will have more real-world experience with this and can chime in.

[Loyada]

Wow. Thanks for all the advice, heads up's and suggested apps and software solutions!! This has definitely been very helpful!