Because Oregon has no sales tax, many businesses that we work with don't have to concern themselves with compliance in that particular area. But as you might have learned about from reading our recent free whitepaper on sales tax changes arriving in 2018, cross-state sales tax compliance is a growing issue for growing companies. You want to be as certain as you can that your day to day activities aren't provoking unseen tax obligations. Here's an on-demand webinar to further your awareness of taxes.

State and federal tax law changes are causing employees everywhere to stop and reconsider what they are seeing on their paychecks. Even if workers don't see any adjustments at all, it might be a good time to evaluate the amounts being deducted for accuracy. After all, nobody likes surprises during tax season, and next year's might be a doozy for those who don't align their withholdings to the correct expectations.

Sage 100 has a new field this year on the ACA Employee Maintenance screen: 'Plan Start Month'. In the process of helping customers complete their filings, we've noticed that not a single one of them have had a correct value in this field. How can such a seemingly straightforward field be incorrectly filled so frequently? We suspect the problem is that Sage has set the default value to “00”, and those people filling out the field simply move through it assuming that the value is valid. So what should people do instead?

Sage changed their software’s pricing structure in 2017 with the introduction of Sage 100c – a Subscription-based version of Sage 100. Now, in 2018, Sage has created a strategy that attempts to motivate Perpetually-licensed Sage 100 customers to move to the new Subscription-based 100c. This applies to customers who own, rather than rent, the software and who have a current Sage Business Care Plan. It’s important that Sage customers educate themselves about what all of this means and how it will affect their Sage 100 solution over the next two years. This post is an effort to help with that education.

If you're responsible for keeping your company compliant with its sales tax obligations, then you’re probably already exhausted as the new year starts. In 2017, we saw tens of thousands of sales tax changes (36,254, changes to be precise) occur across all the states in the nation. But that may just have been a precursor for what’s coming in 2018. Depending on what you sell and where you sell it, your organization may continue to see - and have to respond to - more big sales tax changes this year.

Did you know that wholesalers and distributors are in the top five most-audited industries?
State and local sales and use tax regulations can be complicated, and the rules are constantly shifting. Historically, this unintuitive taxability has caused certain industries to struggle with compliance and, hence, to fall into the sites of government auditors far more frequently than others. In the free whitepaper published by Peisner Johnson & Company together with Avalara, you’ll learn which industries are most as risk and where the majority of errors stem from.

Continuing our streak, Bennett/Porter and Associates has again been selected as a member of Bob Scott’s VAR Stars. As in previous years, we have been included for 2017 with a group of 99 other organizations honored for their accomplishments and excellence in the field of mid-market financial software.

You can see the full list of 2018 enhancements here:

• What’s New in Sage 100 2018
• What’s New in Sage 100 Payroll

When researching our favorite beverage for National and International Coffee Days (Sept. 29 and Oct. 1), we discovered that coffee hyped up goats in ninth century Ethiopia and was dubbed a “bitter invention of Satan” by 17th century Christian Italians. Unexpected. Still, the history of coffee surprises us quite a bit less than the taxability of coffee drinks in several states.

It sometimes seems that there are as many ways to tax coffee as there are varieties of coffee drinks — and anyone who’s been to a Starbucks will recognize just how much that is. Taxability can be affected by the temperature of the coffee and whether it’s consumed on premises or sold to go. It can depend on the percentage of taxable food sales made by the seller and if the coffee is sold separately or as part of a combination. In fact, even the sweetness of coffee can affect taxability.

Curious? Grab a cup of the tasty brew and read on.