by admin | Mar 26, 2013 | Random Postings
by Gerald Bauer, owner & founder
At JB Systems, we’ve been building custom eCommerce and checkout solutions for quite some time. We’re no stranger to taxation codes regarding online sales either. Determining whether a company has state “nexus” has always been an interesting endeavor, as its definition and reporting requirements changed from state-to-state.
As it stands, companies that have “nexus” in states are required to collect that particular states’ worth of sales tax (sometimes city, county, and metro taxes as well) on any online purchases of items subject to tax. This involves subscribing to tax tables and making sure an eCommerce system automatically updates its tax algorithms on a monthly basis, so that monthly, quarterly, and year-end sales tax reports are as accurate as possible. Cities, counties and states change their tax policies quite regularly, so this can be a daunting task.
Over the past decade, our legislators have caught on to the lost tax revenues due to the explosive growth of online sales. The Marketplace Fairness Act, introduced to the senate floor by Mike Enzi (Republican) of Wyoming in February, 2013, may require ALL online retailers to collect sales tax. Although states have to participate in a process to simplify their state tax codes before adopting this new revenue source, our guess at JB Systems is that states can no longer afford the estimated $24 billion in lost revenues a year. That estimate is projected to continually increase over the next decade.
Without further, more in-depth research, we’re led to think state legislators will want online stores to collect taxes on all purchases, using the tax codes from the state of which the “billing information” is associated with. This will ensure that all states will collect their “fair share” of taxes on all purchases originating from within their borders, regardless of where the purchasers are from.
What does this mean for your website?
Well, if you sell a good or provide a taxable service (see your accountant, or Bauman & Associates) – your website will need to have the necessary “logic” added to the taxation algorithm to properly determine state taxes, regardless of your nexus status or where the purchaser originates from. Lucky for JB Systems’ customers, we’ve seen this on the horizon and have several easy-to-implement, cost effective solutions to handle this in our custom eCommerce platform.
If you have any questions, or are interested in taking your eCommerce store to a more tax-compliant platform, contact us today and setup a free consultation. Thanks for reading!
by admin | Mar 8, 2013 | Random Postings, The JB Labs
We’ve had a lot of clients in lately who come to us with an existing website, and we come to find out that its actually a WordPress site.
What is that, you ask? A WordPress site is merely a website built using a blogging platform (think of building a car using a kit that comes in a box). If you’re familiar with blogging, you know that it consists of really only a few basic elements (engine, doors, frame, wheels, tires, steering wheel)…not nearly what a website could consist of. (In fact, we use WordPress for this very blog!) Which is why businesses often find WordPress sites lacking after a while. They aren’t easily customized, and its like you’re working within a box.
So why are we seeing so many more of these types of sites lately?
Website developers who are just starting out, or want to become developers, are finding that they can simply use the WordPress platform, skin it (add a design), add some plugins (extra tools that allow for added functionality), and sell it as a custom website. For some businesses, this is ok. It’s usually a very cost-effective way to start out with a presence on the web. For many though, it’s becoming more of a nuisance than a success.
The reality is, many WordPress developers don’t have to know much PHP, a well known, widely used programming language. So, when they encounter a problem or their client wants them to do something different with the site (using the car analogy, you want the power windows to have special buttons, and you want the heated seats to only stay on for 20 minutes after you sit down), they are at a loss, or have to seek out other developers for help, and BOOM! They’ve overcommitted.
True website developers and programmers know how to build a website from the ground up. That means taking a blank text document and being able to write instructions for website browsers or computer operating systems to make your screen display what’s needed. Sure, we have bits and pieces that can be reused….like a contact form…processing that is pretty standard, so there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel. But what if a client requests an event calendar that can take reservations, but the events are recurring monthly, and the website can only accept 25 people at each event, and automatic email notifications need to go out, and you should be able to register multiple people at once and pay for them all in one checkout process…
…I think you get the idea. How do you find a plug in for WordPress that’s going to do all of that exactly the way the client expects? Truth is, you don’t. That is a custom created events calendar.
JB Systems’ website programmers are not just building pretty websites (although they do look pretty darn great)…they’re organizing data that you want to provide to your audiences, and presenting it in an easy-to-understand format for use on the web. If there is a problem you want to solve through the website, we’ll help get you there. That’s the beauty of truly custom programming. And it’s becoming harder and harder to find. Thankfully, you don’t have to look too far. Give us a call if you want our team to help solve your online challenges.
