A sales tax tracker for every client and state, not a memorized due day

If a florist sells in the home state and ships into three others, that is four rows, not one client card. Marketplace sales may sit on a fifth row if a marketplace is the filer and you still need to know. Do not merge permits.

The Federation of Tax Administrators publishes a member list of state tax agencies. Use it to open the current state site when you need a due rule. Do not treat a blog table as the due date. (Federation of Tax Administrators)

States assign filing frequency from the permit and from volume. A client who "only had two taxable sales" can still be monthly. A client who stopped selling can still owe a final or annual return. Read the permit and the last notice. Put the due rule in the row. If you cannot point at the state page, you do not have a due date. You have a guess.

Streamlined Sales Tax member states exist to simplify registration and reporting for sellers among those members. Membership is not a license to skip a nonmember state. The Streamlined site is a map of members and a reminder that after South Dakota v. Wayfair, states may require remote sellers to collect. It is not your filing calendar. (Streamlined Sales Tax)

• Confirm frequency at onboarding and again in December for annual filers.
• When a state changes a client from monthly to quarterly, change the row the week the notice lands.
• Never copy another client's due day onto this row because they share a state.

A period with no taxable sales is often still a filing. Skipping it because the payable is $0.00 is how you get a notice in March. Mark Zero return = yes, file (or remind the client to file) on the same due rule, and store the confirmation. If the state lets you skip a period, put that sentence from the state site in Notes. Silence is not permission.

Sales tax payable is a balance sheet account. The return is a filing. They should tell the same story for that period. If they do not, the return is not ready.

Do this on the close board for that period, then copy the numbers onto the sales tax row. Do not file from the sales tax center in the accounting software because it looked busy. File from the return the state will process, after the tie out.

After Wayfair, every state that has a sales tax has economic nexus rules for remote sellers. Thresholds, measurement periods, and what counts as a sale differ. They change. Do not quote a dollar figure from memory. Look up the current rule on that state's site. A third party chart is a starting map, not the filing position. (Sales Tax Institute economic nexus state chart, Streamlined Sales Tax on Wayfair)

• Each quarter, ask what new states they shipped into or sold into.
• If a new state appears, flag Nexus check needed. A person who does sales tax work decides whether they have a permit obligation.
• Marketplace facilitator collection can change who files. Read the state rule. Do not assume Amazon already covered a given SKU.
• Bookkeepers can keep the tracker and the payable. Nexus conclusions belong to the practitioner who owns that advice.

Put this on the same week as month end, not on the due morning.

If the firm files, the engagement letter should say so. If the client files, you still run the tracker and send a reminder with the payable figure and the state link. A reminder is not a signed return.

Download the sales tax filing tracker. One row per client per state. Fill Due rule from the state site. Leave it blank until you have the link.

The tax season operator can draft the reminder that a confirmation is still missing. Your staff approve what goes out. Your CPA reviews and signs every return.