New sales tax collection law for Colorado..

I work in construction and I do projects all over the state. because I sell goods in the process of doing business I charge my clients sales tax on these goods.

The basis of sales tax collection is dependent on where the goods are delivered. For instance, my business is located in Boulder, I am required to collect Boulder sales tax under my Boulder Sales Tax license if the goods I sell are delivered within Boulder, State tax for everyone, county tax if the project is within Boulder County and RTD tax if the project is within the RTD district. if I sold a project to a client in Parker I would only charge State sales tax and RTD tax, I was not beholden to collect any county or city tax for Parker.

The new sales tax law that was implemented December 1st now requires me to collect any and all sales taxes for any municipality that is administered/collected by the state that I deliver goods to. For instance Castle Pines sales tax is collected by the state, if I have a project in Castle Pines I will now have to collect Castle Pines sales tax as well as Douglas County sales tax.

Also.. If I did business in a city such as Littleton that collects it's own tax in the past if it was a one off project they would usually not require me to collect the tax for them. Now it is likely that those self collecting jurisdictions are also going to want anyone delivering goods to their jurisdictions to maintain a sales tax license for their jurisdiction as well even if you make a one time sale.

This is going to be a huge drag on resources for small businesses that deliver goods to various jurisdictions throughout the state.


How this will affect most people is that lets say I order an AK parts kit from Arms Of America in Colorado Springs, they used to charge Colorado State sales tax, now they will also have to charge me Boulder County sales tax and Boulder City sales tax.

My question is how will the business owner know what to collect, since there different taxing entities across the state? Has the state and the various taxing entities devised a quick means (software program) to calculate these taxes?

Trying to figure this out would be a nightmare for small businesses.

Never ceases to amaze me how government at all levels continues to add complexity to every day living.

How will these taxing entities knows if your not collecting? How many people will have to be hired at all these taxing entities to monitor compliance?

More overhead. Means less for employees and business owner.

Consider all the upgrades to web sites to calculate and figure these taxes.


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Most of the software programs are not set up to do this. A sixty day delay was just announced to allow small business more time to adapt. The sales tax auditors just got a bunch of work.

I'm simply not going to sell anything to anyone in Colorado that is not picked up at my physical retail location. Yeah, I'm gonna lose a few customers on the western slope and down south that I have been shipping to for years, but the additional time and brain damage every month makes it prohibitive to calculate and collect the appropriate tax. According to one news item I saw, there is over 650 separate sales tax collecting entities in the state of Colorado. I am not aware of any resource that can tell a retailer the correct tax entities for any give street address. Add in the complication of the billing address not being the same as the delivery address (gifts, or having stuff delivered to your work). This is going to be even more of a nightmare for online retailers such as Amazon.

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand

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Originally Posted by foxtrot

Obviously, I would never advocate or condone lawbreaking on this site.

*clears throat*

Anyway, something to remember is that the way sales tax is remitted in most jurisdictions in Colorado is:

County+State ---> Remitted to State of Colo.

City --> Remitted to individual city.

Special Taxing jurisdiction -> Remitted to that.

What's also important to note, is the way auditing is also conducted in Colorado.

State has it's own tax auditors. They don't give a rip about city sales tax.
Each City has it's own tax auditors. They don't give a rip about state sales tax.

Unless you're running volume competitive to that of Walmart or Kroger, you'd have to REALLY piss someone off to warrant the ire of a differing city tax auditor.

Moreover, I'm not sure it's exactly clear to what extent/power an out-of-jurisdiction auditor has to investigate your records. E.g. if you tell them to fuck off, I don't think they have the power to assign taxes upon you absent definitive public proof you are transacting in their county. (Else the potential for interstate political abuse would be insane, and practically be the powder keg in this country...).

This new law, perhaps more than any other demonstrates the overreach in govt; and is something that previous generations would not have tolerated. Welcome to 2018.

Coming up next: California city's target gun dealers across the country with "audits" seeking their records. Gun dealers tell California to fuck itself. California gives itself a blow-job on live television.

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Taxes have driven revolutions before...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kidicarus13

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

Ayn Rand

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Innocent men who stand.

Was this a voter passed "law" or something the "representatives" did?