Due to potential legislation requiring online merchants to collect sales taxes from customer purchasing products on the web, many businesses may soon need to start figuring state and local sales taxes into their operations if the bill passes the House of Representatives. While this may seem overwhelming at first, point of sale solutions and retail management software can help ecommerce retailers ensure they are accurately collecting, processing and transmitting the right tax amounts if they are required to.

The Washington Times reported that Washington state is considering requiring online businesses to collect state and local taxes on Internet purchases. This is an idea that is supported by many states as they await the House vote. These taxes will give state governments more revenue and make the marketplace a bit more balanced, as brick-and-mortar retailers currently have to collect these taxes already. However, the source noted that many ecommerce companies are not so keen about potentially adding these taxes into their operations.

The main reason for this opposition is that collecting, processing and transferring these amounts to state and local governments can be confusing and overwhelming procedure, the news source explained. Fortunately, retailers can use point of sale software systems to help them manage the various local and state tax codes if the bill is eventually passed.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, July 11th, 2013 at 4:14 am .