Energy Star tax free weekend in Texas

 Helpful Guides, Sales Tax Exemptions  No Responses »
May 252012
 

The 2012 ENERGY STAR sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. (after midnight) on Saturday, May 26, and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day).

Energy Star Appliances are Tax Free in Texas This Weekend

Energy Star Appliances are Tax Free in Texas over Memorial Day Weekend

The products qualifying for the exemption are:
Air conditioners priced at $6,000 or less
Refrigerators priced at $2,000 or less
Ceiling fans
Incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs
Clothes washers*
Dishwashers
Dehumidifiers
Programmable thermostats**

* Because most dryers use similar amounts of energy, ENERGY STAR does not label clothes dryers.

** ENERGY STAR specification of programmable thermostats was suspended on December 31, 2009; however, any existing stock of ENERGY STAR labeled programmable thermostats offered for sale by retailers is still eligible for the exemption.

 

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Sales and/or use tax changes for June 2012

 Monthly Tax Rate Changes  No Responses »
May 242012
 
Angel Sauer

Angel Sauer, sales tax research team leader

Sales and/or use tax rates in the states of Alaska and Tennessee have changed in Zip2Tax products since May 2012.

In Alaska, the sales and use tax rate changed for the cities of Sitka, Skagway and Whittier.

In Tennessee, the sales and use tax rates changed for the county of Gibson.

There were 46 states with ZIP code changes effective after May 2012 including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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Amazon backs down in Texas sales tax fight

 Field Notes, Main Street Fairness Act  1 Response »
May 042012
 
Amazon.com to collect sales tax in Texas

Amazon.com settles lawsuit over collecting sales tax in Texas

Amazon.com has agreed to a settlement which, among other concessions, says they will begin collecting sales tax on all purchases made by Texas residents starting July 1, 2012.

Amazon has agreed to drop the threat to relocate their Texas-based warehouse and to create 2,500 new jobs in the state. They will also make $200 million in capital investment in Texas over a four-year period.

Texas has agreed to “forgive” the $269 million in unpaid taxes the state said Amazon owed.

Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of Global Public Policy said “We strongly support the creation of a simplified and equitable federal framework, because Congressional action will protect states’ rights, level the playing field for all sellers, and give states like Texas the ability to obtain all the sales tax revenue that is already due.”

Amazon’s new-found support for Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.)  Main Street Fairness Act, makes greater sense as more and more states continue to bring multi-million dollar lawsuits against the company.

Currently, Amazon only collects sales tax in Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota and Washington. Starting in July, Texas will be added to that list. Amazon also agreed to start collecting sales tax on online items in California starting next year, and in Arizona in 2014.

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What is your time worth?

 Helpful Guides, Tax Specialist  1 Response »
May 022012
 

By Lucinda Rowlands, Zip2Tax

I saw the results of a recent poll on LinkedIn that said 41% of respondents spend more than 5 hours a week manually formatting data.

WOW!

Think about that. You are paying someone (or yourself) more than 5 hours worth of salary every single week to gather data and manipulate it in spreadsheets. Do the calculation (manually, if you must). How much are you spending on this?

Don’t bother to ask if this employee enjoys spending their time hip deep in spreadsheets. You already know the answer. On top of that, what could this employee be doing with those hours that could bring money IN to your business if they weren’t burdened with this task?

Paying for a quality data service provider starts to make fiscal sense pretty quickly.

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