#sales-tax
Sales Tax
Sales tax compliance, nexus rules, filing requirements, and tax automation for businesses
Restaurant Reservation Deposits and No-Show Fees: The Deferred Revenue Guide
Restaurant no-shows cost the U.S. industry roughly $16 billion a year, and the deposits that fight them create a bookkeeping trap — under ASC 606 a reservation deposit is a liability, not revenue, until the guest dines or forfeits. Here's how to record deposits as deferred revenue, book no-show forfeitures as breakage, and reconcile net payouts from OpenTable, Resy, and Tock.
No More Pennies: A Small-Business Guide to 2026's State Cash-Rounding Laws
The U.S. minted its last penny on November 12, 2025, and 19 states have enacted cash-rounding laws in 2026 with no federal standard yet in force. Most states let retailers round cash totals to the nearest nickel at their discretion, Arizona mandates Canadian-style rounding, and Indiana treats rounding gains and losses as income adjustments. Here is how the rules differ, why sales tax is always calculated on the pre-rounding price, and how to book rounding variances so they stay auditable.
New Zealand's GST Is Turning 40 — And Inland Revenue Just Proposed the Biggest Cleanup in Years
Inland Revenue's May 2026 "Current GST Issues" paper poses 56 questions across eight reform areas for New Zealand's 40-year-old GST Act — excluding zero-rated exports from the $60,000 registration threshold, reclassifying student accommodation as commercial dwellings, zero-rating residential solar exports, and a 5% materiality test for error correction. Here's what small businesses, freelancers, and landlords should track before draft legislation lands.
Bookkeeping for Professional Puppet Makers: Pricing Commissions, Deposits, and Design Rights
Custom puppets sell for $500–$1,500 yet take 20–100 hours to build, so untracked labor quietly destroys margins. How professional puppet makers should price commissions with the materials + labor + overhead + profit formula, book 50% deposits as deferred revenue instead of income, separate design-licensing from fabrication revenue, and handle post-Wayfair sales tax on interstate theater clients.
Washington, D.C. Sales Tax Rises to 7% on October 1, 2026: What It Means for Digital Goods and SaaS Sellers
Washington, D.C.'s general sales tax rate rises from 6% to 7% on October 1, 2026, and the District taxes digital goods and SaaS at the full rate with no B2B exemption. This guide covers the delayed Budget Support Act increase, D.C.'s $100,000/200-transaction economic nexus thresholds, and a five-step compliance checklist for invoices that straddle the rate change.
NCUA Preempts State Interchange-Fee Laws: What the Credit Union Rule Means for Your Business
On June 30, 2026, the NCUA issued an interim final rule declaring that federal law preempts state laws — like Illinois's Interchange Fee Prohibition Act — that bar interchange fees on the sales-tax and tip portions of card transactions for federal credit unions. Here is what the rule says, why the litigation is far from over, and how small businesses should track card-processing costs while the rules stay unsettled.
Renaissance Faire and Festival Operator Bookkeeping: Vendor Booth Fees, Weekend-Concentrated Revenue, and 1099 vs. W-2 Cast
How renaissance faire and festival operators should handle books when a year's revenue lands in eight weekends — booking vendor booth deposits as deferred revenue, forecasting twelve months of cash flow, classifying cast under the ABC test with the 2026 $2,000 1099-NEC threshold, and remitting event sales tax within compressed 10-30 day deadlines.
Storage Unit Auction Reselling: How to Book a Lot You've Never Seen Inside
How storage unit auction resellers allocate one lump-sum bid across an entire unit of unknown items — dividing by item count or by relative fair market value — plus the cash-method small-business inventory election, a lot-based chart of accounts, hobby-vs-business rules, and sales tax registration.
Storage Unit Auction Reselling Bookkeeping: How to Price a Lot You've Never Opened
How to keep books for storage-unit auction flips — allocate one winning bid across dozens of items with the relative fair value method, deduct COGS only when items sell, use the Section 471(c) small-business exception, and report income even below the $20,000/200-transaction 1099-K threshold.
Tailoring and Alterations Shop Bookkeeping: Separating Fabric COGS From Labor, Depreciating Equipment, and Knowing When You Need a Seller's Permit
Alteration labor on a new garment is often taxable while the same work on a used one is exempt — one of several rules that make tailoring shop bookkeeping tricky. How to split fabric COGS from labor revenue, depreciate sewing equipment via Section 179 or MACRS, and know when selling a single zipper triggers a seller's permit.
Vinted Just Came to America. Here's Why Your Bookkeeping Needs to Change, Not Just Your App.
Vinted's January 2026 US launch charges sellers zero fees — buyers pay a ~5% protection fee instead — but its Wallet holds funds 7–10 days before they reach your bank. Here's how to book Vinted sales with a dedicated wallet asset account, why the zero-fee model makes 1099-K reconciliation a one-step check, and what marketplace facilitator rules mean for sales tax.
WordPress Plugin & Theme Bookkeeping: License Renewals, Merchant-of-Record Tax, and Reconciling Envato, Freemius, and Stripe Payouts
Envato's July 1, 2026 move to a flat 50% author revenue share replaces tiered rates that ran as high as 87.5%, and it exposes a deeper bookkeeping gap for WordPress plugin and theme businesses selling across Envato, Freemius, and direct Stripe checkout — gross revenue, marketplace fees, and license-renewal deferred revenue all need separate tracking, not one blended bank-deposit number.