Sales tax billing in effect for additional states

Sheena Trepanier
Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,362 Expensify Team
edited October 2023 in Product Updates

Expensify is charging sales tax for the following states. If you are in one of these states, your bill will include sales tax.

  • Alabama
  • Arizona
  • Connecticut
  • District of Columbia
  • Hawaii
  • Iowa
  • Kentucky
  • Massachusetts
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • Ohio
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tenessee
  • Texas
  • Utah.
  • Washington

For context, on June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court made a ruling in South Dakota V. Waifare, Inc. that makes SaaS companies subject to sales tax based on 'economic and virtual' presences, instead of physical presence only. In the past, states could only tax sales by businesses with a physical location in the state. Now economic activity in a state — also known as economic nexus — can trigger a sales tax collection obligation. "Economic nexus" refers to criteria other than physical presence in evaluating a sellers connection to that state. 

We want to be as transparent as possible and let you know that if you are in one of these states this will impact your Expensify bill.

Please reach out to concierge@expensify.com for any questions or concerns!

Comments

  • David_T
    David_T Approved! Accountant Posts: 6

    CT Customers are being overcharged sales tax by Expensify!!!

    Expensify is charging us all 6.35%, and not 1% as the law dictates for SaaS services like Expensify, and Quickbooks, for example. Intuit follows the law, but Expensify has not since they started charging sales tax, and refuses to review this and correct the error.

    I have been battling with Concierge for a couple of weeks now, trying to get this fixed, but the only solution offered is both unethical and extremely burdensome: Expensify wants me to sign a release claiming I am exempt, even though I am not, and then take over their requirement to file and submit myself.

    This is appalling and I am hopeful that other CT customers will read this and complain.

  • Rachael Hopkins
    Rachael Hopkins Expensify Success Coach - Admin, Expensify Team, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 904 Expensify Team

    Hi @David_T thanks for your feedback.

    Unfortunately, there are caveats to the 1% tax rate in Connecticut, due to the fact that it is a "to a business for use by the business" rate. We cannot determine this when charging sales tax, as our customers use the same Expensify product for personal, business and not-for-profit use. Sometimes all of the above, at the same time. Because of this, we cannot make any blanket updates to the tax rate we charge for Connecticut.

    The solution is for us to set the user's account as tax-exempt and have the user assume the tax liability. In order to do so, we need to collect a signed letter from the user clarifying their use of Expensify and their company's W9. We do not need you to falsely claim that you are tax-exempt, we just need you to assume your own tax liability.

    The reason we need to set your account as 'Tax Exempt' is because the tax calculation is automated based on the Zip code of your billing address. So this allows us to tell the system 'do not charge this person tax because they're going to do it themselves'.

    I hope that clarifies things!

  • David_T
    David_T Approved! Accountant Posts: 6

    Not really. You are choosing to overcharge me, or shift your burden onto me. EIther way, I lose money. My account, under my LLC, is clearly a business. Many other vendors have no issue making the distinction. It should be your responsibility to collect and file, not mine, and you should not be ignoring known information that clearly indicates you are charging sales tax incorrectly. This is nothing more complicated than adding an if/then logic and a business or personal use "button" to our profile.

    I remain frustrated with Expensify on this. It is hard enough without vendor/partners adding unnecessary cost to me. It seems I will have to reach out to the DOR and ask their opinion.

    Bottom line is you are causing your customers economic harm by your decision to ignore this clear distinction in the CT sales tax laws.

  • David_T
    David_T Approved! Accountant Posts: 6

    Circling back again on this, since I have heard nothing further.

    So, you are proposing that "the" solution is that I take on your responsibility to collect and remit the proper amount of sales tax.

    The problem is you are already overcharging me, and to resolve, I would need to spend even more time and money to assume full responsibility leaving you off the hook. Seems pretty customer hostile to either overcharge me or cause me to pay even more to stop the overcharge!

    I already pay you a lot of money (yes, your now borderline outrageous fees are being questioned by my clients), and I should not have to take on your tax burden just because you are not willing to adopt a setting in your platform to distinguish between business and individual users in CT.

    Expensify is the ONLY platform I use across all my clients that overcharges me this way. It is pretty unbelievable.

    Please advise a more thoughtful, customer focused solution.