Sales tax relief arrives, courtesy of the coronavirus

Your company may be entitled to some sales tax relief. Many states are cutting companies a break on this critical compliance front due to the coronavirus.

That’s in addition to the relief you’re getting on the federal tax compliance level from IRS in the form of both tax credits and pushed-back deadlines.

So far, 19 states and Washington D.C. are offering some degree of relief.

Here’s how you can make sure your company takes maximum advantage.

4 types of sales tax relief

You have four main types of relief at your fingertips. But not everyone will receive the same breaks.

Depending on where your company’s sales tax responsibilities lie, some states will grant you all four kinds of relief, while others only offer some:

• filing extensions

• payment extensions

• waived penalties, and

• waived interest.

Note: Some states, like Washington, are offering different relief based on the type of sales tax filer your company is ( i.e., monthly vs. quarterly).

States that have announced sales tax relief so far

This is likely just the beginning — additional states may follow suit. Keep checking your department of revenue websites. For now, check out all the states announcing sales tax relief as of early April:

• Alabama
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Louisiana
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• New York
• North Carolina
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington, and
• Wisconsin.

Jennifer Azara

Jennifer has covered business and finance for more than 24 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.