By Anthony N. Verrecchia, Cargas Systems

In the not-so-distant past, it was relatively easy to determine if a company needed to collect sales tax from its customers.  Usually, a physical office location in a single state meant that companies needed to collect tax in their home state only.  Times have changed and so have tax laws.  With the stratospheric rise in Internet sales, the laws that govern sales tax have left many small and medium-sized businesses scrambling to both understand and comply with the law.  Vertex, Inc., the leading provider of tax solutions for large corporations, has expanded their business to include Vertex SMB, a division dedicated to small and medium-sized business

Nexus laws

A large corporation can rely on its in-house team of accountants and finance managers to wade through the myriad tax laws to determine the company’s obligations. The first decision a company must make is whether to collect tax in a specific state at all.  This decision means understanding Nexus laws.  Nexus is a term used to measure a company’s business activity in a particular state.  If nexus is determined, the company must collect sales tax from its customers.

Nexus laws vary wildly from one state to another.  To further complicate matters, there are quite a few legislative actions passing through state governments that will further change the tax landscape.  Companies must comply with the laws of their state and ignorance of the law is certainly not an excuse for the lack of reporting and compliance.

Microsoft Dynamics Sales Tax Collection Connector

Users of Dynamics products now have a powerful tool to help them with both accurate sales tax collection and reporting.  Through a partnership with Cargas Systems, Vertex SMB is introducing products for Dynamics GP and CRM customers that will ensure accurate tax calculation for every transaction, based on up-to-the-minute tax rules that are continuously maintained by Vertex’s database.  The power of Vertex’s vast repository of tax rules, currently used by some of the world’s largest corporations, is now available to smaller companies at the touch of a button.

The products developed by Cargas Systems for both Dynamics GP and CRM are designed to be practically invisible to the end user. After installation, users of Dynamics GP and CRM simply process transactions as they normally would, and each transaction is communicated to Vertex to obtain – and report – the correct sales tax.

In addition to precise calculation, Vertex SMB offers a full range of Tax Reporting services for small and medium-sized businesses.  Services include the automation of tax report preparation and filing.  Setting up a state jurisdiction in Tax Central, Vertex SMB’s customer portal, takes only minutes, compared to the hours of expensive consulting time that some companies resort to in order to make sense of complicated tax law.

Cargas Systems is proud to partner with Vertex SMB to bring products for Dynamics GP and CRM to the marketplace.  Vertex SMB for Dynamics GP is now available, and the product for Dynamics CRM will be available before the end of the year.  Cargas Systems and Vertex will continue to expand offerings to include additional products in the future and they will continue to expand their current products with additional features as the needs of small and medium-sized businesses grow.