A bill making its way through Congress—the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013—would allow states to require out-of-state businesses to collect sales tax. On May 6, 2013, the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). If this legislation passes the House, it will require Internet-based businesses to collect state sales tax based on the shipping address for qualifying states. A state can qualify by simplifying its sales tax and providing software to the public to compute the tax. If this bill becomes law, states would gain authority to make remote businesses collect sales tax, some within 180 days of the bill’s passage. If you sell products that may be liable for out-of-state taxes according to changes in the tax law, you will need to address the difficult tax of complying with the wide variety of state, county and city and special sales taxes nationwide AND ALSO the tax-exemption status for your customers in each affected state. We can help you evaluate Avalara’s AvaTax sales tax calculation and tracking add-on for Sage 100 (Mas 90 & Mas 200) and Sage 300 (Accpac). Avalara finds the sales tax rates even beyond using simple zip-code searches which aren’t always accurate. Avalara also files the necessary Sales Tax Returns for your company in each affected state. The Avalara solution is the only Sales Tax service directly endorsed by Sage. It does require your company to be active on your Sage maintenance plan. If you are concerned about Sales Tax changes, let us know if you would like more information on this product.