How can I sell to just ONE city?

[JenniferinAZ]

Yesterday I learned of a possible NIGHTMARE in my state of Arizona. Per a two-year-old article, many cities charge a one-time fee of $50 to REGISTER to pay sales tax. This means that if a $10 one-time soap order comes in for a new city, I could have to pay a registration fee of $50 before I can pay the sales tax for that $10 order. This website describes the problem: https://blog.taxjar.com/arizona-city-tax-registration/.

THEREFORE, the only solution if the tax code has not changed since the article was written seems to be to take orders from ONLY ONE city (my own) after I've paid the $50 one-time sales tax registration fee and the yearly $50 fee to register my business with the city. 

It looks like I will need to direct the Weebly shopping cart to reject ALL OTHER orders (outside of my one city), and I will have to spend lots of money and time giving samples in my own city to draw customers to my website. 

[Bernadette3]

HI there. We don't have a way of only allowing sales from one specific city. I've never heard of this before, though, and we have tons of sellers in Arizona.. Have you consulted a tax professional about this? The article is a couple of years old at this point. 

[JenniferinAZ]

Perhaps the law has changed! A recent comment (from 2 months ago) below the article said this: "We registered as a Remote Seller Out-of-State and our TPT license was issued as such. We do not have any city registrations required. We have no physical presence in Arizona and do not have any activity there except for AZ customers shopping on our website. We use common carriers to deliver our goods into AZ. Hope this helps some of you."

[JenniferinAZ]

*Some* kind of change went into effect January 2017 per this city's website. https://www.tempe.gov/government/internal-services/finance/sales-tax-regulatory-licenses. "The transition to statewide centralized licensing, reporting and payment of Transaction Privilege (Sales) tax to the Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) took place in January 2017 for all cities and towns in Arizona."

But just because the license is issued by the state does not mean businesses are not being charged city registration fees for every order that comes from a new city. I'm hoping I can find the updated information for free. 

[JenniferinAZ]

This also seems important. https://events.retailglobal.com/usa/tax-implications-webinar

[JenniferinAZ]

More on nexus here: https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/ecommerce-sales-tax/#undefined.

[JenniferinAZ]

If the taxjar blog's info. from two years ago was outdated, it should be updated in their system now as it's their business to provide accurate tax calculating and reporting for businesses. Their platform integrates with Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, Paypal, Squarespace, Shopify and more at $17+ per month. https://www.taxjar.com/sales-tax-integrations/

[JenniferinAZ]

I have contacted an organization in my state that deals with this strange law, and they confirmed that it is still in place, but out of state sellers don't have to pay Arizona sales tax until they've sold $200k within/to Arizona. Conversely and unfortunately, any sale size makes it so Arizona residents have to pay each city where the sale occurred a one-time fee (up to $50, and many of the big cities charge that much) at the time they pay sales tax.

The worst news is the yearly city business registration fees (most charge $50 and some a $15 application fee on top of that) that are supposed to be paid in January, but I'll have to check with each one (94 in Arizona!) on whether the same is true for ecommerce and small sales. I'm hoping that after a sale has come from their city is acceptable, and even better (but doubtful!) would be a threshold similar to what applies to out of state sellers. 

I have also e-mailed the organization to explain why these laws are supremely burdensome to small businesses, preventing them from evening going into business (and I think I might add by e-mail that for large corporations, such fees are a drop in an ocean). I've shown them that these laws encourage big businesses to dominate the market and prevent small ones from even being born. 

[Adam7]

Those are some really complicated business laws, @JenniferinAZ. Hopefully they'll be able to shed a little more light on how this applies for online sales.