#sales-tax
Sales Tax
Sales tax compliance, nexus rules, filing requirements, and tax automation for businesses
Customer Refunds and Returns: Why They Belong Against Revenue — Not Buried in Expenses
Learn how small businesses should book customer refunds as contra-revenue, not expenses — covering Schedule C line 2, sales-tax payable reversals, inventory COGS adjustments, payment processor reconciliation, and ASC 606 refund liabilities with a monthly workflow to keep net sales accurate.
Your $120 Used Phone Sale Just Got Cheaper — and Your $120 New One Just Got More Expensive: Making Sense of eBay's July 2026 Fee Reform
eBay's July 1, 2026 fee reform cuts final value fees to flat 5% for used and refurbished goods and raises new-goods fees to 7% for commercial sellers on selected marketplaces. Learn how the 5% vs 7% split changes reseller margins, why private sellers are unaffected, and how to reconcile gross 1099-K sales to net payouts without losing the fee deduction.
Florida's SB 606 Operations Charge Rule: What Restaurants Must Disclose on Menus, Bills, and Receipts Starting July 1, 2026
Florida SB 606 takes effect July 1, 2026 and redefines restaurant fee disclosure: every mandatory operations charge — service charges, auto-gratuities, delivery fees, and card surcharges — must be shown on menus, contracts, and ordering apps in compliant font, on the face of the bill, and as three separate receipt lines for tip, operations charge, and sales tax. Learn what counts as an operations charge, where to disclose, and how to book each line correctly.
Illinois Just Made Cocktails-to-Go Permanent: SB 618 Sealed-Container Rules and Bookkeeping for Bars and Restaurants
Illinois SB 618 makes cocktails-to-go permanent July 1, 2026, requiring tamper-evident sealed containers, four-element labeling, a seven-day fill clock, employee-only delivery, and age verification, with ABV-based gallonage tax and separate POS bookkeeping to keep the channel profitable and audit-ready.
Florida's Operations Charge Law (SB 606) Takes Effect July 1, 2026: How Restaurants Must Disclose Every Service Fee
Florida SB 606 amends Statute § 509.214 effective July 1, 2026, requiring restaurants to disclose every mandatory operations charge—its amount and purpose—on menus and receipts before the order, on its own line separate from tax and tips. Includes the payroll treatment (service charges are wages, not tips), sales-tax exposure, and a chart-of-accounts setup to book each fee cleanly.
Illinois' Swipe Fee Ban on Sales Tax and Tips: What the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act Means for Your Business Before July 2026
Illinois' Interchange Fee Prohibition Act bans swipe fees on the sales tax and gratuity portions of card transactions starting July 1, 2026 — the first US law of its kind. Learn how to prove tax and tips per transaction, choose between the real-time exemption and the 180-day rebate, and structure a chart of accounts that captures every dollar either way.
Mecklenburg County Now Charges 8.25%: The Charlotte-Area POS and Bookkeeping Checklist for the July 1 Sales Tax Increase
Mecklenburg County's combined sales tax rose to 8.25% on July 1, 2026 — the highest rate in North Carolina. This is the point-of-sale, invoicing, filing, and bookkeeping checklist Charlotte-area businesses need to collect and remit the new rate correctly.
Monument and Headstone Bookkeeping: Why a 50% Deposit Isn't Revenue (and How Cemetery Contracts Need Separate Books)
Monument shops collect deposits months before delivery and carry $25,000 to $90,000 in granite — so deposits must sit as deferred revenue until installation, granite must be costed by specific identification including freight, and retail walk-ins need a completely separate profit center from cemetery wholesale.
Pressure Washing Business Bookkeeping: Job Costing by the Square Foot, GPM-vs-PSI Depreciation, and the Two-Story Surcharge You're Skipping
A per-square-foot job costing system for pressure washing operators, with a two-story height factor (1.35x-1.50x), component-level equipment depreciation, and a chart of accounts that shows true gross margin per service line.
Maryland's New 3% Tech Tax on IT and Software Services: What Every SaaS Company and Freelance Developer Needs to Know
Maryland's new 3% sales tax on IT, data processing, software publishing, and computer systems design services (NAICS 518, 519, 5132, 5415) took effect July 1, 2025 with no revenue threshold, so SaaS founders, freelance developers, and IT consultants with even one Maryland customer may owe it — this guide covers what's taxable, how sourcing and MPU certificates work, and how to book the liability separately from your 6% sales tax.
Back-to-School Sales Tax Holidays in 17 States: Dates, Price Caps, and Why Your Online Store Isn't Exempt
Seventeen states run back-to-school sales tax holidays in summer 2026, from Florida's 32-day window to Iowa's Friday-Saturday weekend, each with its own price caps — $75 clothing in Ohio, $300 in Connecticut, $40 on Maryland backpacks. Participation is mandatory for most registered retailers, and destination sourcing means online sellers with nexus must honor the holiday of the delivery state.
California Just Taxed SaaS: A State-by-State Guide to Software Subscription Sales Tax in 2026 and 2027
California SB 122 makes SaaS and other digital products subject to sales tax from January 1, 2027, with Colorado's HB 26-1223 flipping the same day. This guide maps SaaS taxability across all 50 states as of August 2026, explains economic nexus thresholds like California's 500,000 dollars plus the 5-million-dollar purchaser self-assessment rule, and gives a pre-January compliance checklist for software sellers and buyers.