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The Wayfair Ruling at Five: Why 72% of Businesses Still Struggle with Economic Nexus

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Economic nexus is a tax law concept that has become increasingly important in the United States, particularly concerning sales tax collection. Before the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the 2018 case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., states could only require businesses to collect sales tax if they had a physical presence, or “nexus”, in that state. However, the Wayfair decision changed this longstanding principle, introducing the concept of economic nexus. Under this new approach, a business can be required to collect sales tax based on its economic activity within a state, such as reaching a certain threshold of sales or transactions, even if it doesn’t have a physical presence there.

Sage 100 and Sales Tax

Sage 100 has basic sales tax collection capabilities though it requires maintaining an everchanging set of tax tables by state and jurisdiction. This can be a time-consuming task for almost any business. Fortunately, automated tools maintain, compute, and file sales tax returns on your behalf. One such tool is Avalara which integrates entirely with Sage 100 and can compute sales tax on every transaction.

Automating your Sales Tax Computations

The specific thresholds for establishing an economic nexus vary by state, but generally, they include gross sales or transaction volume. For example, many states have adopted South Dakota’s threshold, which requires out-of-state sellers to collect and remit sales tax if they have more than $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions in the state in a year. These laws aim to level the playing field between online and physical retailers and to ensure that states receive the sales tax revenue to which they’re entitled, even from online and out-of-state transactions.

However, implementing economic nexus laws across the U.S. has presented significant challenges for businesses, tiny businesses, and those that sell online. Businesses are now required to track their sales and transactions in every state and collect and remit sales tax in those states exceeding the economic nexus threshold. This can be complex and burdensome, particularly given the wide variation in state sales tax rates and rules. To assist with this, many businesses are turning to tax automation software and consulting services to help them navigate the complexities of economic nexus.

During July, one provider of sales tax automation is hosting a free webinar to review the current state of economic nexus five years after the Wayfair decision.

Learn more about economic nexus at Avalara’s free July 6, 2023 webinar – register here

AVALARA UPDATE: Sales Tax Holiday Changes in Florida

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Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes the start of the sales tax holiday season. We have an important announcement regarding changes to the sales tax holidays in Florida. On Friday, May 5, 2023, HB 7063 was passed unanimously in both chambers of the Florida legislature and subsequently signed into law on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

According to a recent Avalara communication, some companies doing business in Florida may need to take action. Please consult your tax advisor prior to making any changes.

We have included the full text of the customer notification regarding the sales tax holiday changes in Florida. We kindly request your assistance in ensuring that our joint customers are aware of this communication and the associated Avalara Knowledge Center article.

Customer Communication sent on Friday, May 26, 2023:

Hello,

We would like to inform you that on Thursday, May 25, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a bill approving legislation that introduces six sales tax holidays in the state.

However, due to the haste in drafting the bill, the Florida Legislature included items eligible for two sales tax holidays that have different tax treatments. For the overlapping AvaTax codes that are included in both holiday periods, Avalara will apply the tax treatment that is most beneficial for your customers. In cases where an item is subject to two different price thresholds, the highest threshold will be applied whenever possible.

The two sales tax holidays that have overlapping items are as follows:

  1. Disaster Preparedness: Saturday, May 27, to Friday, June 9, and Saturday, August 26, to Friday, September 8.
  2. Freedom Summer: Monday, May 29, to Monday, September 4.

No action is required from your end for the impacted AvaTax codes.

However, there are certain items included in the legislation that require new AvaTax codes to properly support these sales tax holidays. The following tax codes have been created:

  • PH101100 – Non Electric food storage cooler
  • PH101010 – Portable self-powered light source
  • PO200108 – Outdoor gear and supplies / Camping lanterns
  • PO200109 – Outdoor gear and supplies / Flashlight
  • PT118806 – LED flashlights
  • PH401018 – Sunscreen with less than SPF 8
  • PH401019 – Sun Blocks and Sun Screens
  • PH400986 – Lotions – non-medicated (with sunscreen)
  • PC010010 – Laundry detergent and supplies
  • PC010020 – Dish soap and detergents including dishwasher products
  • PC010030 – Cleaning and disinfecting sprays or wipes
  • PC010200 – Trash bags
  • PH400825 – Hand soap, bar soap, and body wash
  • PP051161 – Pet supplies – non-commercial – dry pet food – 50lbs or less
  • PC030425 – Clothing and related products / Business-to-Business / Children’s sports equipment
  • PC040425 – Clothing and related products / Business-to-Consumer / Children’s sports equipment
  • PT012300 – Children’s Toys

Customers may find it beneficial to map their products to these new codes prior to the start date of the sales tax holidays. For information on how to map tax codes, please refer to the Avalara Knowledge Center article on this topic.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Avalara Product Support.

Sage 100 & CRM – May 2023 Update

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Dan Cousins, owner of MY CRM Manager, recently shared this list of what’s new in the world of CRM integrations to Sage 100. Dan works primarily with Sage CRM though he also provides services for the GUMU integration from Greytrix, which synchronizes Salesforce to Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage Intacct, and Sage X3.

Here’s Dan’s update:

In advance of Summit, I have two items we are currently working on that I wanted to share with you:

  1. A new user interface for Sage CRM. This stems from Sage making drastic changes to the UI with their Sage CRM v2023 release. Here is a 2-minute overview video that covers:
    • The historical interface for Sage CRM.
    • The v2023 interface.
    • Our new ‘Newport’ theme for Sage CRM.
  2. Salesforce to Sage integrations: Because of our success in working with Greytrix on their GUMU™ Sage 100 CRM integration, our responsibilities to Greytrix have been expanded to include representing their Salesforce to Sage integrations. 
  1. The GUMU™ Salesforce to Sage 100 is already the top-selling Sage 100 integration on Salesforce’s App Exchange, with over 50 reviews and a 5-star rating. 
  2. The entire lineup of Salesforce to Sage integrations includes Sage 100, 300, Intacct, and Sage X3. To date, 100 and X3 have been the most successful.  
  3. Starting with the Sage 100 integration, we now have 5-minute explainer videos for both the user experience and how the integration is configured. You can watch these explainer videos from this link. 
  4. Just like for Sage CRM, we have a pricing calculator for these Salesforce to Sage integrations to make this easier. 

Still have questions? Reach out to Dan directly via email – dan.cousins@mycrmmanager.com.

One or more Avatax objects could not be created. The Avalara Avatax adapter.dll must be registered to continue

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If you are using Avalara integrated to Sage 100 then you may have run into this error message on one or more of your workstations.

One or more Avatax objects could not be created. The Avalara Avatax adapter.dll must be registered to continue

This error should only occur on Sage 100 Standard as both Advanced and Premium will use the components from the server.

Here’s how to fix the problem.

On the local workstation you must be an Administrator or the needed DLL files might not register.

First, copy the .\mas90\Avatax folder from the server to the local c:\ of the workstation you are receiving the error on.

  • Copy and paste these three files from c:\avatax into the local c:\windows\sysWOW64
  • I copy all three of these files
    • Avalara.AvaTax.Adapter.dll
    • Avalara.AvaTax.Adapter.dll.config
    • Avalara.AvaTax.Adapter.tlb

Edit the register_for_com.bat file in the c:\avatax folder and stick a PAUSE at the end so you can read the results or it will be difficult to know for sure if your DLL registers.

To manually register the file:

  1. Open the c:\AvaTax folder on each workstation, and then right-click and run as administrator register_for_com.bat
  2. MUST HAVE FULL ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS ON THE COMPUTER
  3. Link to manual: https://www.dsdinc.com/enh/downloads/LMAV700.pdf

Once you’ve done this your Sage 100 should no longer have an error message related to “One or more Avatax objects could not be created. The Avalara Avatax adapter.dll must be registered to continue”.

If the above did not work (a) be sure you’re a local administrator and (b) review the batch file progress which is possible by editing and adding a “PAUSE” command at the end of the bat.

If you are on a 64-bit OS – be sure you copied the three files mentioned above into c:\windows\sysWOW64

If you don’t have a c:\windows\sysWOW64 then use c:\windows\system32

Crystal Reports Schedulers for Sage 100cloud

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One of the questions that we’re often asked surrounds how to automatically extract data from Sage 100 / Sage 100cloud on a regular basis without needing to manually run a program or report.

While there are a few ways to do this ( Visual Integrator, ODBC ), the typical way many consultants approach this is with Crystal Reports.

Crystal Reports is a report writer included with Sage 100 and the starting point they use for creating a report which can export data.

However, standard Crystal Reports usually rely on someone manually starting the report and running it on a regular basis.

Thankfully, there are numerous scheduling tools that work to automatically run a Crystal Reports at a preset time on a regular schedule.

In some cases you also use Windows Task scheduler to create the automation. The degree with which you manually create this task schedule varies based on the product used.

The two products that I’ve used the most are Visual Cut and Logicity. Both are affordable ( under $500 ) and support most of the recent versions of Crystal Reports.

The website Crystal Reports Underground has a review of both desktop and server-based scheduler programs.

Desktop Crystal Report scheduling tools reviewed include:

  • Crystal Delivery by Groff Automation
  • Smart Report Organizer 2018 by DataZimmerman
  • Logicity Pro by Saber Logic
  • Report Commander by Arcana Development
  • cViewMANAGER by Chelsea Technologies
  • Softline Crystal Scheduler by Softline Solutions France
  • R-Tag Crystal Scheduler Light by R-Tag
  • Visual CUT by Millet Software

Server Crystal Report Scheduling tools reviewed include:

  • ReportServer by InfoFabrik GmbH
  • R-Tag Crystal Scheduler by R-Tag:
  • Navarre Report Scheduler by PCS Programming
  • cViewSERVER by Chelsea Technologies
  • CrystalKiwi Scheduler by CrystalKiwi Ltd
  • Softline Crystal Scheduler by Softline Solutions France
  • Liaison Messenger EDD by Liaison Software Corp
  • rePORTAL SCR by rePORTAL Software
  • Report Runner Batch Enterprise by Jeff-Net

The next time you are wondering if there is a better way to automatically run a Crystal Report at a preset time – consider using one of the report schedulers reviewed above. And remember that Crystal Reports can be set to print a report as well as export data which can be handy if paired up with an FTP service scheduled to automatically upload a file on a set schedule.

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