This helpful tip could save you from over paying sales taxes

THE PROBLEM:
With the rise of online platforms such as Etsy, paypal, and Amazon, it’s easier now more than ever to sell your product to a wide audience!  You supply the product, and Etsy markets, sells, collects payment, takes a small fee, and deposits the net into your bank account.  Sounds pretty easy, right?  Well, are they also collecting and filing sales taxes with the sales tax authority in CA?  That would be the Ca Department of Fee and Tax Administration(CDTFA). Do you know what your login is for the CDTFA?

If you don’t know the answer to that question, you might already be late in filing and subject to paying sales taxes with added late fees, penalties, and interest!

THE SOLUTION:
To solve this particular problem I would suggest starting with the CDTFA and making sure you have a login setup with them for your resellers permit account.  If you don’t have an account visit their website here:

https://onlineservices.cdtfa.ca.gov/

The other piece of the pie is to make sure the online platform you’re using is sending the collected sales taxes to the right account number.  Get on tech support, ask them to confirm the CDTFA account they’re sending payments to, if they are even sending payments at all.  If they are not sending payments, then you will need to make sure to send those payments in on time.  At this point, you’ll need to act fast to make sure you don’t get hit with late fees and penalties for not filing and paying on time.  If you don’t have any experience with sales taxes this will be a daunting task!  I would suggest you call your CPA or any outsourced accounting firm(Such as ours:) to assist you in getting your numbers together and filing the sales tax return.  Generally, but not always, the sales taxes are due the last business day of the following month the sales quarter is over.  Eg. Q1: Jan – March will be due April 30th, unless April 30th lands on a weekend or holiday then it will be due the following business day.  

Is your blood boiling yet? 
This is just a very generalized scenario and there could be much more to filing your sales taxes so if you don’t have your head fully wrapped around how this works then please contact us today for a free consultation.