As filing season approaches, online retailers face a familiar risk: scrambling through hundreds of state and local tax filings, scrambling to reconcile remote-seller activity, and discovering gaps just when deadlines are looming. With hundreds of jurisdictions, evolving rules and multiple platforms feeding sales data, you cannot afford to treat sales tax compliance as an afterthought.
Use this checklist to turn filing season into a managed, repeatable process rather than a compliance fire drill.
Start filing season ahead of the curve. Use this checklist to systematically confirm nexus, collect the right tax, reconcile filings, and maintain audit-ready documentation.
If you’re still relying on manual tax processes or spreadsheets, it’s time to upgrade your platform. Automation is no longer optional—it’s the only reliable way to keep growing without tax exposure.
Book a call with a CereTax specialist and build a tax operation that scales with your ecommerce business.
For companies that sell to tax-exempt customers, managing exemption certificates is often the least automated yet one of the highest-risk and consequential part of the compliance process.
When certificates are missing, outdated, or invalid, every exempt transaction becomes a potential audit liability—sometimes translating into tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes and penalties.
This guide explains how modern exemption certificate management software replaces brittle spreadsheet workflows with a single source of truth: real-time validation, automated renewals, ERP integration, and audit-ready reporting that scale with your business.
Modern exemption certificate software converts paper workflows into live compliance data — searchable, validated, and linked to transactions. It transforms what used to be a paper-heavy chore into a transparent, automated system of record, providing finance and tax teams with audit-ready visibility across every exempt customer.
Every exempt sale needs documentation that proves the buyer’s tax-exempt status. If that proof is missing or invalid, taxing authorities assume the sale was taxable, and the seller is responsible.
Auditors know this. That is why they frequently start with exemption validation during sales tax audits. If even one certificate fails, the risk is extrapolated across the sample population, amplifying penalties.
Automation eliminates those gaps by applying validated certificates at order time, tracking renewals, and producing audit-proof exports for every exempt sale. It keeps every document current, traceable, and linked to transactions in real time.
A digital system replaces filing cabinets and scattered spreadsheets with a single source of truth. Certificates are stored in the cloud, indexed by customer, jurisdiction, and expiration date. Retrieval becomes instantaneous during audits.
A resale certificate validation tool can confirm exemption status at the time of order entry. If a certificate is invalid or expired, the system flags it immediately, preventing untaxed transactions from posting.
With resale certificate renewal automation, expiration tracking becomes proactive. Customers automatically receive reminders and submission links well in advance of their certificates expiring, thereby closing the compliance gap that often leads to audit findings.
The best exemption certificate software connects directly with ERP and billing systems. Exemptions are applied automatically during invoicing, eliminating the need for manual overrides that can cause errors and slow down order processing.
Regulatory confidence depends on transparency. Robust exemption reporting capabilities enable tax teams to filter by jurisdiction, expiration date, or customer segment, allowing them to spot risks before they become audit issues.
Manual certificate management creates invisible costs long before audits arrive.
Teams spend hours searching for forms, re-validating expired documents, or responding to auditor requests one file at a time.
During audits, this lack of structure can lead to inflated tax assessments and extended review periods. A single missing document may seem insignificant, but when extrapolated across a multi-state customer base, it becomes a significant financial exposure.
That is why forward-thinking companies invest in tax audit document management that links every certificate directly to the transaction it supports.
Traditional systems treat certificates as static documents that are filed and forgotten. Automation converts them into live compliance data.
Each certificate becomes searchable, validated, and tied to order history—creating a complete audit trail and reducing manual intervention.
This live visibility helps teams:
Sales tax exemptions vary dramatically by state and industry. Tax exemption tracking software applies the right logic for each jurisdiction and verifies data automatically. It can also flag anomalies, such as mismatched registration numbers or invalid entity names.
That level of proactive validation helps organizations stay ahead of evolving rules and prevent penalties before they happen.
Customers don’t want to be chased repeatedly for forms. Automation ensures smooth onboarding and renewals through self-service submission portals and email reminders.
The result is fewer order delays, cleaner billing, and a friction-free purchasing experience for tax-exempt clients.
When audits occur, automation provides immediate access to valid certificates matched to each transaction. Everything is timestamped, jurisdiction-linked, and version-controlled.
Auditors get complete transparency, and your team avoids the scramble to collect proof after the fact.
Modern exemption certificate management software tracks its own performance.
Dashboards measure metrics such as:
These insights inform governance programs, enabling tax and finance leaders to quantify the impact of automation and enhance internal controls.
To create a sustainable, audit-ready exemption process, focus on six foundational steps:
These six steps create the framework for audit-ready operations that scale without adding manual workload.
Exemption management doesn’t have to be manual or reactive.
By digitizing, validating, and automating the process, you create a compliance framework that scales with your business and withstands scrutiny from any auditor.
CereTax Smart Exempt delivers centralized control, real-time validation, and robust reporting for every exempt transaction—so your business can grow without adding risk. Book a Strategy Call With a CereTax Specialist.
Telecom taxes aren’t uniform, they’re layered. Federal excise rules, state sales or communications taxes, E911 surcharges, and Universal Service Fund (USF) fees all stack differently across jurisdictions. For providers, that means one service can trigger multiple filings, agencies, and audit risks.
The quick reference guide below brings clarity. It summarizes key federal programs and provides a state-by-state view of major telecom tax rates, 911 fees, and USF surcharges.
Last updated: November 2025
Note: Always confirm current rates and filing obligations directly with the state’s DOR, PUC, or 911 authority before applying charges or remitting payments.
Telecom tax compliance is complex, but not unmanageable. Success depends on real-time automation, accurate jurisdiction mapping, and centralized reporting that eliminates guesswork.
With thousands of overlapping taxes and fees, precision isn’t just smart—it’s non-negotiable.
CereTax helps telecom providers automate rate updates, simplify filings, and keep billing data audit-ready—at scale.
Talk to a CereTax Telecom Expert. See how automation can keep your telecom tax calculations accurate, auditable, and billing-ready—no matter how many jurisdictions you operate in.
When Brent Reeves first set out to build a better telecom tax engine, he wasn’t chasing buzzwords or trends. He was chasing something simpler — speed, accuracy, and a little sanity.
“I just wanted something that worked,” he says. “When we built our last company, every billing cycle felt like a race against time. You had to throw servers at the problem just to get through millions of transactions. Reporting lagged, and costs were brutal. And every delay trickled down to billing, compliance, even commissions.”
Those pain points became the blueprint for CereTax, a modern sales tax automation platform designed to do what legacy systems couldn’t: process telecom transactions at scale, produce detailed reporting on demand, and make sales tax automation for telecom both fast and financially sane.
Now, as Brent steps back from the day-to-day and Michael Yokay takes the lead on CereTax’s communication and energy divisions, both agree that the future of telecom tax is about moving faster, getting smarter, and building tools that make complex compliance feel simple.
Ask Brent what inspired the telecom side of CereTax, and he’ll tell you it wasn’t a flash of genius. It was frustration.
“We saw customers struggling with systems that weren’t built for telecom,” he says. “You can’t process millions of call detail records and billing entries on a system designed for ecommerce. The data loads alone are massive. If your tax engine can’t keep up, you’re not just missing reports—you’re missing revenue.”
Telecom billing isn’t one invoice and a few line items. It’s usage data, bundled products, jurisdiction-based rates, surcharges, and compliance layers that shift constantly. That complexity is what CereTax was built to handle.
“The idea was simple,” Brent says. “Make performance scalable. Make reporting flexible. And make sure no one’s paying enterprise-level costs just to stay compliant.”
Michael joined CereTax just over a year ago after more than two decades in telecom tax, regulatory, and compliance work.
“I’ve spent more than twenty years in telecom tax and compliance,” he says. “When you live in that world long enough, you start to see patterns—the same problems, the same inefficiencies. CereTax had already solved so many of those. It felt like the right place to dig in.”
For Michael, the telecom tax landscape is constantly shifting. “Compliance is a full-time job,” he says. “New boundaries, new bundles, new fees—it never stops. Automation isn’t a nice-to-have anymore. It’s survival.”
That’s where CereTax stands apart—by making the connections that keep providers moving. “Every telecom provider needs three things: a billing system, a tax engine, and a compliance partner,” Michael explains. “CereTax already connects those dots. You don’t need to reinvent your workflow every time something shifts.”
Both Brent and Michael agree: technology alone doesn’t solve telecom’s tax headaches—experience does.
“Our telecom team has people who’ve worked inside carriers, billing companies, and consulting firms,” Michael says. “They know where the real problems hide. That’s the difference. You can’t fake telecom experience.”
Brent nods to that as the secret ingredient that kept CereTax competitive from day one. “It’s easy to underestimate how much domain knowledge matters,” he says. “We weren’t just coding tax logic—we were designing around the way telecom really operates.”
If the first chapter of CereTax was about speed, the next one is about precision.
CereTax’s GIS technology now maps tax boundaries using latitude and longitude instead of zip codes—achieving what Michael calls “rooftop accuracy.” That matters in telecom, where taxes can vary within a few hundred feet, especially for mobility and 911 surcharges.
“It’s not enough to be fast,” Michael says. “You have to be right. GIS accuracy means providers can trust that every single location is taxed correctly the first time.”
The next wave of CereTax innovation focuses on visibility. With the upcoming portal upgrade, telecom providers will be able to customize alerts, drill into rates, and understand exactly how a tax was calculated—all in real time.
“Telecom companies already have so much data,” Michael says. “The challenge is turning that into insight. We’re giving them the tools to do that—faster and cleaner.”
Brent’s advice for telecom companies still wrestling with tax and compliance is simple: just start.
“Don’t overthink it,” he says. “The biggest mistakes we see come from companies that freeze because it all feels confusing—or even a little scary. You hear words like ‘federal’ or ‘regulatory’ and it sounds so ominous, so people put it off.”
His recommendation? Get help early. “Find the right consulting team first and get a handle on it,” he says. “Don’t assume things won’t catch up to you. It’s really not that bad once you start working with the right people.”
Brent believes the right team makes all the difference. “Don’t be intimidated by the telecom tax acronyms or all the moving parts,” he says. “You don’t have to have every answer before you reach out for help. There are plenty of experts—inside and outside CereTax—who live and breathe this stuff and can guide you through it.”
The conversation between Brent and Michael feels less like a handoff and more like a relay. Brent built the foundation; Michael is building the next phase.
“CereTax was born from the frustration of what didn’t work,” Brent says. “Now it’s about showing the industry what’s possible when it does.”
Michael agrees. “Telecom providers deserve technology that’s fast, accurate, and built by people who actually understand the business. That’s the CereTax difference.”
From performance to precision, and from legacy to leadership, the next chapter of telecom tax is already underway—and it’s running on the CereTax telecom solution.
Ready to simplify telecom tax once and for all? Talk to our team about how CereTax can power accurate, automated sales tax for every transaction—no lag, no guesswork. Get in touch
The energy sector is changing fast, and deregulated markets introduce an extra layer of complexity. With supply and delivery split across suppliers and utilities, every kilowatt-hour or therm is often subjected to different tax rules depending on the meter location, customer type, and local surcharges.
That is where automation changes everything. Automating tax determination at meter level eliminates manual reconciliation, prevents costly post-billing credits, and creates an audit trail that stands up to regulator scrutiny.
Energy taxation is layered, dynamic, and highly localized. Traditional billing and tax systems struggle to handle:
Relying on spreadsheets, manual uploads, or generic sales tax software increases the risk of incorrect calculations, reconciliation errors, and audit exposure. Sales tax automation for deregulated energy removes those risks by integrating compliance directly into the billing workflow.
Deregulation enables customers to select their electricity or natural gas supplier while maintaining delivery through local utilities. This unbundling introduces multiple transaction points, each governed by distinct deregulated energy tax compliance obligations.
Automation ensures those boundaries are respected—so supply, transmission, and delivery are taxed independently, yet reconciled cohesively in reporting.
Every city, county, and special district can impose unique tax layers on energy services. Utility sales tax automation ensures that the correct jurisdictional boundaries are applied with rooftop-level precision, rather than relying on error-prone ZIP code logic.
Energy providers are also responsible for applying right-of-way, franchise, and infrastructure fees. Automation captures those non-tax surcharges in the same workflow, ensuring itemized accuracy on every bill.
Regulators increasingly expect near-real-time visibility into filings and audit trails. With energy industry tax reporting automation, providers can update, reconcile, and file instantly without disrupting billing cycles.
A best-in-class automation platform aligns with how energy businesses operate—not the other way around.
Each service address is mapped to its correct taxing authority to ensure accuracy at the meter level. This eliminates location errors that lead to under- or over-collection.
Sales tax software for energy providers integrates directly with billing systems, allowing taxes to be calculated automatically with every transaction. When rates, usage data, or exemptions change, the updates flow instantly across both systems.
Shadow billing tax calculation runs in parallel with production billing to simulate tax results before invoices are sent. It’s a proactive audit layer that catches discrepancies early and validates compliance with deregulated energy tax rules.
Automated energy provider tax reporting compiles jurisdiction-specific returns and filing data without manual input. Returns are generated and submitted electronically, reducing administrative hours and errors.
Every rate, rule, and jurisdiction reference is logged automatically, creating a fully traceable audit trail. That audit-ready transparency replaces reactive document gathering with instant proof of compliance.
Automation ensures each portion of the energy lifecycle—generation, transmission, and retail sale—is taxed correctly. It distinguishes between taxable supply charges and exempt delivery costs, while also managing renewable energy credits and incentive programs for electricity supplier tax filing.
For gas suppliers, automation accounts for therm consumption, pipeline access fees, and franchise surcharges. It also automatically applies usage-based state energy tax exemptions to manufacturing and agricultural customers, streamlining the entire process from delivery to reporting.
Across both sectors, automated systems create a single source of truth that connects billing, reporting, and filing in one ecosystem. The result is billing-ready accuracy that scales without adding administrative complexity.
Implementing sales tax automation for deregulated energy creates measurable advantages:
Automation doesn’t just improve compliance—it enhances business continuity, enabling energy providers to focus on customer growth rather than reconciliation errors.
Energy providers are modernizing fast. As customer bases grow and tax rules evolve, manual compliance will only create more friction.
Automating tax determination, reporting, and filing is no longer optional—it is the backbone of billing accuracy and financial control.
CereTax delivers end-to-end automation designed for the complexity of the energy industry. From electricity supplier tax filing to utility sales tax automation, we help providers move from manual oversight to real-time accuracy and audit-ready confidence.
Ready to simplify sales tax and scale with precision? Talk to a CereTax energy automation expert today.
Procurement and accounts payable no longer sit at the back of the finance function. They are now central to driving efficiency, accuracy, and visibility across the enterprise.
And automation is what makes that possible.
Globally, the global procure-to-pay (P2P) solution market is expected to reach $14.07 billion by 2033, reflecting how fast businesses are digitizing procurement and finance operations.
A modern procure to pay automation strategy goes beyond cost control. It connects purchasing, approvals, and payments into a seamless digital workflow, turning a traditionally manual process into a touchless, strategic system.
But automation alone doesn’t fix inefficiency; how you implement it matters. Here are 10 best practices that will help you design a smooth, scalable, and fully auditable P2P workflow.
The first step to optimizing your P2P process is seeing the entire picture.
Map every stage—from requisition and purchase order (PO) to invoice and payment—and identify where delays or duplicate work occur.
With P2P automation software, visibility becomes automatic. Dashboards display spending by department, supplier, or cost center in real time, giving finance leaders the control they need to manage budgets proactively.
Tip: Connect procurement data to your ERP and analytics platforms to eliminate manual reporting gaps.
Disconnected systems create the biggest drag on efficiency.
Integrating P2P automation with ERP systems ensures seamless data exchange between procurement, accounting, and finance teams.
Whether you use P2P integration in SAP or another ERP, integration enables:
Result: A single source of truth for spend data and reduced manual intervention in accounts payable.
Manual invoice matching is slow, error-prone, and expensive.
With AP automation for ERP, you can digitize the entire invoice-to-payment cycle.
Best-in-class P2P software solutions now handle:
The result is faster approvals, cleaner audits, and fewer late-payment penalties.
Fragmented data is a hidden cost in procurement. When information lives in emails, spreadsheets, and shared drives, visibility suffers.
A centralized P2P automation platform ensures every transaction—purchase requests, supplier invoices, and payment data—lives in one unified system.
Centralization improves transparency, reduces duplicate vendor creation, and supports continuous audit readiness.
Automation is most effective when suppliers are part of the ecosystem.
Supplier portals, e-invoicing tools, and automated notifications help vendors track POs, submit invoices, and view payment status without manual follow-ups.
Benefits include:
A connected supplier experience improves trust and efficiency on both sides of the transaction.
Unclear approvals are one of the top causes of P2P delays.
Define approval limits, escalation paths, and workflows that reflect your organizational hierarchy.
Modern P2P software solutions allow dynamic workflows based on spend category, amount, or location. This prevents bottlenecks, ensures compliance, and accelerates cycle time.
Pro Tip: Use workflow analytics to identify recurring approval delays and reassign responsibility where needed.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Establish P2P KPIs that track both operational and strategic performance.
Key metrics to monitor include:
Regularly reviewing these metrics will help finance leaders pinpoint bottlenecks and quantify automation ROI.
Artificial intelligence now powers many advanced P2P automation software platforms.
AI can predict invoice exceptions, flag duplicate payments, and analyze supplier risk in real time.
It also enables dynamic discounting and cash-flow forecasting by learning payment behavior patterns.
When AI is embedded into your P2P process, automation becomes not just faster but smarter.
Procurement automation should align with inventory data to prevent over-ordering or shortages.
By integrating P2P with inventory systems, businesses can:
This integration ensures cash is used efficiently and procurement remains agile.
Automation doesn’t eliminate oversight; it enhances it.
Establish continuous monitoring for compliance, duplicate invoices, and payment anomalies.
Use analytics to identify trends and validate internal controls.
A mature P2P automation setup turns audit reviews from stressful events into simple report runs.
Continuous improvement keeps the system agile, scalable, and aligned with business goals.
A fully automated P2P cycle connects procurement, finance, and suppliers in one continuous digital flow.
Manual work disappears, approvals speed up, and every transaction leaves a transparent trail.
Businesses that invest in P2P automation software see measurable benefits:
Procurement stops being reactive and becomes a strategic driver of efficiency and cash control.
Automation isn’t just the future of P2P. It’s the foundation of a finance function built to scale.
Ready to Modernize Your Procure-to-Pay Workflow? Outdated procurement systems create friction and risk. Automation eliminates it.
CereTax’s P2P solution helps finance teams move from reactive purchasing to proactive control — integrating seamlessly with your ERP, streamlining AP, and delivering real-time visibility across every transaction.
If you think telecom taxation is complex, you’re right — but it’s not random. The complexity exists because telecom is constantly evolving, and regulation is trying to catch up.
Voice became VoIP. Cables became cloud. Local service became borderless data. Each shift redefines what’s being taxed, who collects it, and which jurisdiction gets paid.
From USF surcharge calculation to E911 compliance solutions, telecom businesses now navigate one of the most intricate tax ecosystems in the U.S. economy. The difference between getting it right or wrong isn’t just compliance — it’s margin, audit exposure, and customer trust.
In this article, Michael Yokey, Telecom expert at CereTax breaks down why sales and communications taxes have become so challenging, what pitfalls to avoid, and how automation is transforming compliance from a headache into a strategic advantage.
“Telecom taxes don’t behave like sales tax,” Michael explains. “They’re multi-layered, often overlapping, and administered by completely different authorities.”
Telecom invoices typically include federal regulatory fees, state and local taxes, and special district surcharges. Each follows a different rule set.
Some of the biggest complexity drivers include:
“Every new technology changes how we define a ‘communication,’” Michael says. “That means the tax model changes, too.”
Over the past decade, the communications market has exploded beyond voice lines. VoIP, streaming, and cloud-based services dominate modern infrastructure — but they don’t fit neatly into existing tax categories.
“Without physical wires, it’s not always obvious where a call starts and ends,” Michael notes. “For VoIP and streaming, sourcing becomes a real challenge. That’s where automation, GIS, and strong rule logic make the difference.”
Michael’s advice: “Document every bundle clearly and ensure your billing system reflects the logic used to tax it. Unbundling after the fact is one of the fastest ways to trigger an audit.”
Many people including finance teams still use “sales tax” and “communications tax” interchangeably. That’s a problem.
“In many states, sales taxes apply to communications services,” Michael explains. “But states and localities often layer other communications-specific taxes and fees on top — or use them instead of sales tax altogether.”
He adds that federal regulatory fees also apply to communications services, though there is no federal sales tax. These regulatory charges, such as USF or E911, are not technically taxes but are often billed to end users alongside the taxes.
“Sales taxes are generally required to be collected,” Michael says. “Many regulatory fees are optional to pass through to the customer, and that creates a gray area that providers need to handle carefully.”
The key takeaway: Communications taxation isn’t one system but a mix of sales taxes, telecom excise taxes, and regulatory fees — each applied and administered differently. Missteps in how these layers interact can easily result in duplicate charges or filing errors.
Special tax districts are another challenge unique to telecom. They often overlap with existing city and county boundaries, creating a tangled web of micro-jurisdictions.
“These districts can impose their own taxes, and their borders don’t always line up with ZIP codes,” Michael explains. “One side of the street could be in a district with an extra surcharge. The other side could be exempt.”
Modern regulatory fee automation powered by GIS ensures every address is mapped to the correct district, right down to the rooftop. Without it, even the best billing teams end up with sourcing errors and reconciliation headaches.
When it comes to compliance, legacy tax systems do more harm than good.
“Telecom companies that rely on antiquated systems spend too much time fixing data instead of preventing errors,” says Michael. “They’re slow, they crash under volume, and they can’t adapt to new products or rules.”
The hidden costs aren’t just operational — they’re also regulatory. Manual or outdated systems are behind the most frequent compliance mistakes and audit triggers in the field:
“The common thread,” Michael explains, “is that none of these errors are intentional. They’re the byproduct of manual intervention, fragmented data, and legacy tools that can’t see the whole picture.”
Automation eliminates those blind spots by integrating telecom tax compliance software directly into billing and reporting systems. Real-time validation replaces guesswork, ensuring taxes and fees calculate instantly and correctly — every time.
CereTax was designed by telecom tax experts for telecom providers.
The platform delivers:
“What truly sets CereTax apart from older tax automation platforms,” Michael says, “is that it was built for how telecom operates now. Telecom has always been complex, and in many ways used to be even more complex. It’s just shifting and evolving to adapt to modern technology. The difference is that CereTax was built with modern telecom in mind.”
“Our goal was to make tax as accurate and reliable as your network,” Michael adds. “When the tax engine runs at telecom speed, everything downstream — billing, filing, audit defense — gets easier.”
Asked what telecom companies should focus on now, Michael doesn’t hesitate.
“Streaming taxes will continue to expand. The USF rate will keep rising until the contribution base is broadened. The best thing providers can do now is modernize their compliance stack.”
His recommended first steps:
“Automation isn’t just a cost reduction exercise,” Michael adds. “It’s risk reduction. It’s audit defense. It’s customer trust.”
Telecom taxation isn’t getting simpler. As technology expands, so do the rules. But companies that approach compliance strategically — with clean data, automated systems, and proactive oversight — can turn tax complexity into operational clarity.
CereTax helps leading telecom providers do exactly that. With automation built for speed, scale, and precision, it’s the foundation for modern compliance in a borderless communications world.
Talk to a CereTax Telecom Specialist to learn how automation can simplify your compliance, strengthen your audit posture, and keep your business ahead of regulatory change.
As the year draws to a close, so does another audit cycle. State and local tax authorities are reviewing filings, cross-matching data, and identifying gaps, and companies that aren’t ready often learn it the hard way.
The truth is simple: a sales tax audit isn’t a matter of if; it’s when.
That’s why year-end is the best time to prepare, not panic.
Whether you’re managing a handful of states or a nationwide footprint, now’s the moment to make sure your sales and use tax compliance processes are clean, current, and defensible. Treat an audit not as a crisis, but as a disciplined exercise - reconcile, document, remediate, and improve.
This guide provides a practical, no-fluff checklist you can run now to ensure your sales and use tax posture is defensible and up to date going into 2026, so you can enter the new year audit-ready and confident.
Start where every auditor starts: your numbers.
Pull your sales tax by state report and reconcile it against your general ledger and filed returns. Look for:
Then confirm that every jurisdiction where you’ve met economic nexus thresholds is registered and filing. Even one overlooked state can trigger penalties that roll across multiple periods.
Pro tip: Use your sales tax automation tool or ERP’s reporting engine to identify new states where your sales volume or transaction count now exceeds thresholds.
Tax rates change constantly, sometimes mid-quarter, sometimes mid-month. If your ERP still relies on manual tables or spreadsheets, you’re already behind.
Run a quick accuracy test:
If you’re using sales and use tax automation, check when your rate tables last updated. The best systems refresh daily or in real time.
Missing or expired exemption certificates are one of the top audit findings and one of the easiest to prevent.
At year-end:
Automation platforms can automatically track expirations and apply certificates at checkout, eliminating manual mistakes that create audit exposure.
If sales tax audits are predictable, use tax audits are inevitable.
Use tax applies when you purchase goods or services without paying sales tax but use them in a taxable way.
Common pitfalls include:
Next, confirm that your filing obligations are complete and aligned with state requirements.
Your checklist:
If you are using a sales tax software, configure it to generate automatic filing confirmations and store them in an accessible archive.
Think like an auditor before one shows up.
Choose a sample period (for example, Q2 2024) and:
Document your findings, fix what’s necessary, and note improvements.
Reverse audits are an internal form of insurance, proactive proof that you’re already managing compliance effectively.
If an auditor asks, “How was this tax calculated?” you should be able to answer instantly.
If pulling this data requires multiple exports or manual merges, it’s time to modernize.
Automation systems log this detail automatically, one of the biggest time-savers when audits begin.
Auditors don’t want explanations. They expect organized, retrievable evidence; scattered files slow response and increase risk.
Before year-end, assemble an “audit binder” (digital or physical) with:
Store everything in one secure location, accessible to your finance, tax, and audit teams. The easier it is to retrieve, the faster you can respond to auditor requests.
Even the best software can’t save a disconnected team.
Make sure finance, tax, and IT are aligned on who owns each part of compliance.
This clarity prevents audit gaps that happen when responsibilities blur, a common issue in scaling companies.
The final checkpoint is the one that simplifies them all.
Manual workarounds, static spreadsheets, and rate imports were fine a decade ago. They aren’t sustainable now.
Modern sales and use tax automation systems, like CereTax, are built for complexity at scale.
Automation doesn’t just make compliance faster; it makes it provable.
When your audit trail is automated, your defense is already built.
Audit readiness isn’t about avoiding scrutiny, it’s about controlling it.
Companies that invest in documentation, consistency, and automation don’t just survive audits; they use them as opportunities to validate their processes, uncover inefficiencies, and strengthen trust with regulators.
Year-end isn’t just a closing period; it’s your best chance to build a tax operation that’s faster, cleaner, and confidently compliant. CereTax helps businesses move from audit anxiety to audit assurance with automation that makes accuracy effortless.
Download the Quick Year-End Audit Checklist to streamline reconciliation, validation, and filings before the 2026 audit cycle.
Book an Audit-Readiness Review with CereTax and close the year with clarity, confidence, and compliance.
This month we tackle the Ohio PUC update (https://knowledgebase.ceretax.com/content-release-notes/2025-10) from our 10-2025 content update that could mean less to pay for some carriers.
The OCC advocates for Ohio’s residential utility consumers through representation and education in a variety of forums.
It is funded through an assessment of utilities and other regulated entities in Ohio. Each entity contributes a share of the OCC’s budget based on its intrastate gross revenues. OCC assessed about 800 entities in Ohio from a NARUC update.
Advocate for residential consumers served by investor-owned utilities including:
– Electric
– Natural gas
– Telephone
– Water
Pursuant to Ohio HB96, Ohio Rev. Code § 4911.18 now excludes wireless service providers from the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) Assessment (https://search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/solarapi/v1/general_assembly_132/bills/hb657/IN/00?format=html).
October 1, 2025
Commercial Radio Service (Wireless) Providers
Previously, wireless carriers were included in the OCC assessment and could choose to either absorb or pass this fee through to customers as part of their invoice line items.
The overall result may be a slight decrease in end-user charges or improved margin retention for carriers, depending on how the fee was previously handled.
For guidance on how this update may affect your tax calculations or billing, contact Michael Yokay, Direct: 301-514-4119, michael.yokay@ceretax.com
In manufacturing, there’s no margin for “close enough.”
Your materials, your machinery, your labor all run on precision.
Your tax technology should too.
Sales and use tax for manufacturers is a maze of exemptions, usage rules, and shifting definitions. Get one classification wrong, and you’re either overpaying thousands or creating a trail of audit exposure that takes months to unwind.
That’s why CereTax built exemption logic specifically for manufacturers. Automation that speaks the language of GL codes, vendor data, and real production processes, not just generic retail rules.
Manufacturers face the most fragmented and state-specific tax rules in the country. What qualifies as “exempt” in one state might be taxable in the next.
Here’s why manual tracking fails:
The result: tax teams are forced to interpret hundreds of line items across dozens of vendors — all while production runs nonstop. One missed definition or outdated certificate can swing an audit by millions.
CereTax automates the logic behind manufacturing exemptions, allowing your team to stop firefighting and start managing strategically. Here’s how it works.
CereTax doesn’t guess. It uses GL accounts, vendor data, and usage types to decide how a transaction should be taxed.
If an invoice hits a “capital equipment” GL account, the system applies machinery exemption logic automatically. If it hits a “maintenance supply” or “consumable” code, it treats it differently.
That means your tax decisions match your operations not a one-size-fits-all rulebook.
The CereTax engine evaluates every purchase and applies the correct treatment instantly:
Every rule is automated and traceable. When auditors ask why something was exempt, you don’t scramble. You show the logic, the GL mapping, and the certificate on file.
Certificates are the backbone of sales and use tax automation for manufacturers, and the bane of every audit.
CereTax removes the chaos by:
When a renewal is due, CereTax alerts your team. When an auditor requests proof, it’s two clicks away. No more dusty binders or disconnected spreadsheets.
Tax precision isn’t about bureaucracy, it’s about money.
By automating exemption logic, manufacturers:
It’s the difference between chasing errors at year-end and controlling outcomes in real time.
CereTax plugs directly into SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, and other major ERPs — no rework, no swivel-chair integrations.
Entity-level logic, multiple jurisdictions, and vendor-specific rules are all handled automatically.
So, your AP and procurement teams can see compliance happening in real-time, not after the fact.
Every manufacturer knows: audits don’t just cost money, they cost momentum.
When you’re reconciling vendor invoices, retroactively applying exemptions, or re-filing returns, that’s time not spent optimizing production or reducing overhead.
Manual or legacy systems can’t keep up with:
CereTax’s sales tax automation engine eliminates that drag by making exemption management part of your everyday workflow not an afterthought.
CereTax helps you move from reactive to proactive tax compliance without slowing your floor.
Ready to Bring Precision to Your Exemption Logic?
Manufacturing moves fast. Your tax engine should too.
With CereTax, you get exemption automation that’s built for real production environments — accurate, integrated, and audit-ready from day one.
👉 Book a Strategy Call to see how CereTax automates exemption logic, reduces overpayment, and keeps your compliance running at production speed.
Telecom has always evolved fast but never this fast.
What started as phone lines and call minutes has exploded into an ecosystem of broadband, 5G networks, VoIP, streaming, and cloud communications. Every new service model, from prepaid data bundles to software-defined networks, creates a new tax question that regulators haven’t fully answered yet.
And that’s the real problem.
While technology redefines what “communication” means, most tax frameworks still operate as if we’re billing long-distance minutes. The gap between innovation and regulation keeps widening, and compliance teams are caught in the middle.
In 2025, telecom providers are operating in one of the most fragmented and fast-moving tax environments in the U.S. economy. Federal surcharges, gross receipts taxes, and state-by-state rules overlap with thousands of local fees and Public Utility assessments. Keeping up isn’t just a challenge; it’s an ongoing risk.
Telecom tax is no longer about static rate tables or service codes. It’s about motion, new revenue models, new jurisdictions, and new technologies all moving faster than regulators can update definitions.
Here’s what’s driving the new wave of complexity:
After South Dakota v. Wayfair, economic nexus started applying to services too—but in telecom, that’s almost beside the point. Most providers trigger attributional nexus long before they ever hit an economic threshold.
All it takes is a single customer, a new data center, or a tower lease in another state to create tax obligations there. In other words, nexus doesn’t build up over time—it’s instant. Every new connection can quietly expand your compliance footprint without you even realizing it.
For multi-state carriers, that means compliance exposure grows automatically with every new connection.
The expansion of 5G and fiber networks adds new taxable touchpoints. States and municipalities are introducing construction-related fees, rights-of-way charges, and infrastructure improvement assessments that behave like telecom taxes.
These aren’t always labeled as such, but for accounting and reporting purposes, they carry the same compliance weight.
The modern UCaaS and communications platforms don’t fit neatly into old tax boxes. They bundle voice, video, chat, conferencing, and software tools into a single subscription—part telecom, part SaaS, part something new entirely.
That’s where things get messy. One state may see the whole bundle as a telecom service, another splits it into taxable and exempt components, and a third classifies it as information or digital services.
The result? The same UCaaS plan can trigger three different tax treatments depending on where your customer is located. And because definitions keep shifting, providers have to constantly reassess how their products are categorized—often mid-contract.
Agencies update definitions and surcharges faster than legacy systems can absorb them. Across the country, there are hundreds of rate changes every month, with some months much more dramatic than others.
Teams that rely on manual updates or quarterly imports can’t react fast enough, which means billing errors, inconsistent filings, and audit exposure.
More than 13,000 distinct telecom taxing authorities now exist across the U.S., many defined by Public Utility Commission maps rather than ZIP codes.
These local rules often overlap, meaning a single address can fall into multiple special districts, each demanding separate remittance.
Without GIS-level precision, providers routinely overpay in one district while underpaying in another, an expensive problem auditors are now quick to flag.
When technology lags, people fill the gaps, and that’s where the liability begins.
Each manual fix adds friction and fragility. Updating rate tables by hand, reconciling exceptions in spreadsheets, or re-keying transactions between billing and tax systems might keep operations running day-to-day, but it comes with hidden costs.
Manual intervention may feel like control, but in practice, it compounds risk and masks audit exposure.
Most tax engines can handle retail. A few can handle telecom. But only a handful can handle telecom at today’s speed and scale.
Generic systems weren’t designed for usage-based billing, multi-jurisdiction routing, or the thousands of overlapping fees that define the communications landscape. And older telecom engines—while specialized—still rely on rigid structures that make it hard to adapt.
CereTax changes that equation. Our platform combines:
It’s the difference between compliance that reacts and compliance that keeps pace.
Forward-looking telecom providers are rethinking tax as infrastructure, not an afterthought. The goal: accuracy that scales with the network.
Modern telecom tax compliance software integrates directly with billing and provisioning systems, applying rates at the moment of transaction.
That’s essential when billing thousands of usage-based events every second.
Centralized tax rule libraries eliminate the patchwork of manual updates. When a jurisdiction changes its telecom definition or rate, updates propagate instantly without scripting or data imports.
GIS-based mapping replaces ZIP-code shortcuts with rooftop-level accuracy. For industries defined by service location, like telecom, that’s the difference between precision and penalty.
Automation systems now log every calculation with a rule reference, rate source, and timestamp. When regulators come knocking, providers can trace each fee or exemption instantly.
CereTax was built for industries where tax isn’t static. It’s dynamic, transactional, and high-stakes. Telecom sits at that intersection.
CereTax turns complexity into control so tax compliance runs as smoothly as the networks it supports.
The complexity isn’t slowing down.
5G rollouts, hybrid service models, and digital crossovers (like streaming bundles and connected devices) will only expand the tax base.
Providers that treat tax as a static function will keep falling behind. Those that modernize their tax stack—automating rates, managing exemptions, and integrating reporting—will not only stay compliant but also reclaim time, data accuracy, and confidence.
Because in telecom, compliance isn’t just protection—it’s performance.
Ready to modernize your telecom tax strategy? Telecom taxation has outgrown legacy tools. The speed, scale, and scope of today’s networks demand a tax engine that’s built for constant change. CereTax delivers that foundation turning tax from an obstacle into an operational advantage. Talk to a CereTax expert
Speed isn’t just about page loads anymore, it’s about tax tech. In an ecommerce world where checkout delays cost conversions by the second, outdated or sluggish tax systems impose their own “latency tax.” When your ecommerce sales tax automation struggles under load, your customers abandon carts, your margin shrinks, and your growth stalls.
Whether you process micro-transactions or global sales, your tax engine must deliver the same speed, accuracy, and resilience you expect of your checkout. Because while you budget for promotions and ad creative, you rarely budget for slow API calls or tax calculation bottlenecks. Mistakes here compound into real revenue loss.
Consider the key principles of high-performance ecommerce: every click matters, every millisecond adds up. A 100 ms delay? Big deal. In fact, one study found that every 100 ms of latency cost Amazon approximately 1 % of sales.
Now flip that to tax. Each time a buyer enters a zip code, selects a shipping address, or chooses a payment method, your system must calculate:
If any one of those takes too long, your checkout slows or worse, you skip tax to keep speed. That isn’t just an “ops issue,” it’s a strategic cost. Slow or inaccurate tax compliance undermines your promise to the customer and your profit to your company.
All of these contribute to hidden costs: lost conversions, higher CAC, degraded customer experience, and audit exposure.
Checkout expectations are faster: Customers expect instant responses. Sluggish tax lookups kill momentum.
Global and multistate selling is standard: If your tax engine can’t instantly handle multiple jurisdictions, you’re creating risk and friction.
Audit risk and regulatory pressure are rising: Mistakes in calculation or filing aren’t just costly—they’re embarrassing.
Integration is complex: Modern stacks plug in many services (payments, fraud, recommendations) and your tax system must keep pace.
In short: if your checkout is fast but your tax layer is slow, you’ve created a bottleneck nobody sees except in your revenue line.
From Home → Product Page → Cart → Checkout → Payment → Confirmation. Identify where tax calculation sits and whether that step adds latency under load.
Does your tax engine handle high-volume bursts? Do you have fallback logic when rate services drop? Ask your vendor for response times under load.
Choose systems that benchmark API latency, error rate, and throughput so you can monitor “tax tech latency” just like you monitor page performance.
Track how tax lookup delays correlate with cart abandonment or conversion drop-off. A 0.5s delay might mean 3 % fewer conversions (per some studies).
When you choose best sales tax software, you’re looking for:
In other words: treat your tax engine like any other business-critical service, not a back-office afterthought.
Slow tax tech isn’t “just” an IT issue—it’s a silent revenue leak. In a sprint-to-checkout world, any hesitation costs. Whether you’re running a national ecommerce site or multichannel ecosystem, the tax layer must behave at the same velocity as your front end.
By embedding performance into your online store tax compliance strategy, you eliminate the latency tax and unlock faster growth.
Ready to Break Free of Tax Latency? Don’t let delays in tax calculation rob your checkout. With CereTax’s built-for-speed tax engine, you get precision, scale and automation—all without drag on performance.
👉 Book a Strategy Call with CereTax and see how your tax layer can keep pace with your business.
When Q4 rolls around, many ecommerce and multistate sellers buckle under the strain of sales and use tax. The truth: it’s never just about collecting sales tax. It's about staying ahead of constant change, multi-jurisdiction rules, product classification, exemption certificates, nexus, filings and audits. Too many companies assume “all’s well” until they discover otherwise.
Suppose you’re relying on manual spreadsheets, outdated logic, or point solutions for one slice of compliance. In that case, you’re handing risk to your tax departments, operations teams, and ultimately your P&L. A modern tax engine software and sales and use tax automation strategy eliminates hidden gaps and makes compliance scalable.
Here are the seven sales tax errors we find in Q4, and how to fix each using the right tech and process.
Many businesses think “I collected sales tax, I’m done.” But consumer use tax—tax owed when taxable tangible personal property (TPP) is used or consumed in a state without proper sales tax collection—is a silent risk. In fact, it’s one of the most common causes of mis‐calculated or unpaid tax found in audits.
Exemption and resale certificates are deceptively simple until they expire, are invalid in a jurisdiction, or the business fails to maintain them. The result: you may be liable for uncollected tax.
With over 11,000 tax jurisdictions in the U.S., missing rate, boundary or rule changes is not just an error—it’s a compliance weapon for auditors.
Even if you’re calculating the right rate, putting the wrong taxability bucket on a product, or service is deadly. Many organizations fail to track changes in what states define as “taxable.”
Late filings, wrong forms, or missing e-filing/prepayment obligations are red flags. States set up systemic triggers for audits in these cases.
Since South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (2018), nexus has changed dramatically. Remote sellers must monitor economic and affiliate nexus thresholds. Many companies lag behind.
Once an audit is closed, many businesses pay without challenge. That’s a missed opportunity and often leads to repeat mistakes.
From inventory to checkout to finance, managing tax manually in Q4 is a growth-limiting move. Leveraging sales tax automation, tax engine software, and best-in-class sales tax compliance services gives you operational agility, audit readiness, and scalable accuracy.
The alternative? Assumptions, spreadsheets, ad hoc processes; and potentially large liabilities.
Ready to streamline sales tax compliance? With CereTax, you can automate every step: from classification and nexus tracking to calculation, filing, and audit defense.
Don't let tax complexity slow your growth. Let your checkout, your ERP and your shipping engine work together seamlessly—with confidence.
Selling online opens exciting growth opportunities. But it also opens a major compliance trap: sales tax.
The mechanics of ecommerce mean you can sell to anyone, anywhere, but every extra state you ship into could mean an additional tax obligation. With remote sales triggering what’s known as economic nexus, you may be required to collect ecommerce sales tax in states where you’ve never physically operated.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through when you need to charge tax, how to calculate it, and how to build scalable compliance built on ecommerce sales tax automation and the right tax technology. Whether you’re selling mugs, electronics, or subscription services, this is your roadmap to stay compliant and avoid costly mistakes.
Before anything else: you must know where you have to collect tax. This starts with nexus—the link between your business and a state that forces you to collect and remit sales tax.
For example:
Once nexus is triggered in a state, you must legally register for a sales tax permit in that state. Without a permit, you cannot lawfully collect tax, and worse, your sales may be treated as untaxed or you may owe use tax instead.
Tax rules vary widely by state, and even by county or city. Some items are taxable, others are exempt, and some have reduced rates. To calculate correctly, you must categorize the inventory you sell.
Example scenarios:
In the U.S., you must often charge tax based on the destination address of the buyer. With 13,000+ tax jurisdictions, manual lookup is high-risk.
When you’ve determined the rate and product category, you must charge the tax. But the way you invoice matters.
A well-set-up checkout system with online store tax compliance built in ensures every checkout captures the correct rate, taxable base, and ties back to registration data.
Once you’ve collected tax, you must file returns and remit—monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the state and your volume.
Tax rules change constantly. Product taxability, nexus thresholds, rate changes, and marketplace facilitator laws—all evolve. This is where manual systems fail.
✅ Do you know which states you’ve triggered nexus in?
✅ Are you registered in those states and set up to collect ecommerce sales tax?
✅ Is your inventory and product categorization up to date for every jurisdiction?
✅ Does your checkout automation apply the correct rate and tax base?
✅ Are you invoicing and collecting tax correctly, including shipping if required?
✅ Are you filing and remitting on time?
✅ Is your tax engine staying ahead of rule changes and marketplace facilitator updates?
Calculating sales tax across thousands of jurisdictions doesn’t have to slow your business down. With CereTax, you get a modern tax engine built for ecommerce — precise, automated, and always up to date with state rule changes.
👉 Book Your 30-Minute Strategy Session to see how CereTax handles nexus, exemptions, and multi-state filings — so you can focus on growth, not compliance.
The deregulated energy market was built to create choice. But for finance and billing teams, it mostly creates complexity.
In a world where utilities, brokers, and suppliers all touch the same customer invoice, sales tax compliance isn’t straightforward. It’s layered, dynamic, and unforgiving.
Every state defines energy products differently. Every jurisdiction applies exemptions in its own way. And when you’re billing customers across overlapping utility territories and municipalities, even a small misstep can mean thousands in penalties—or worse, being flagged for audit.
Let’s unpack why energy tax compliance is so deceptively hard, and how automation can bring order to the chaos.
In regulated markets, the utility handled everything: generation, distribution, billing, and tax.
But deregulation split those functions across multiple players: retail energy suppliers (RES), transmission and distribution utilities (TDU), and brokers.
That’s where the compliance challenge begins.
Each entity may:
If your system can’t distinguish who’s responsible for what portion of tax and at what rate—you’re exposed. The difference between a valid exemption and a taxable delivery charge could come down to how your system classifies one line item.
Automation insight: A dual billing tax software should not only split invoices correctly but also calculate and remit taxes per entity, per jurisdiction, with no manual rekeying.
Electricity isn’t just electricity in the eyes of state tax agencies. It’s:
Some of these are taxable. Some aren’t. And the rules vary across every jurisdiction—sometimes within the same state.
That means a rate change in Ohio or a local district exemption in Texas can ripple through thousands of transactions overnight. Without an energy industry tax reporting automation system that updates in real time, you’re relying on guesswork and guesswork is what gets audited.
Automation insight: The best sales tax software for energy doesn’t just “apply rates.” It tracks the flow of energy, separates taxable vs. exempt components, and documents why each was treated that way.
State energy tax exemptions exist for manufacturers, farmers, data centers, and nonprofits but applying them correctly requires precision.
Here’s the trap:
Automation insight: A modern utility sales tax automation system validates exemption certificates, links them to specific usage data, and flags expired or invalid forms before invoices go out.
Most energy providers still rely on static rate tables, file-based imports, or outdated tax plugins built for traditional retail—not for energy deregulation.
That’s a problem when:
When those systems fall short, teams compensate with manual workarounds. And manual workarounds create liability. They demand more man-hours, slow down processes, and open the door to costly mistakes.
Every manual adjustment, whether it’s rekeying data, updating rate tables, or reconciling exceptions, introduces room for human error and inconsistency. Over time, these quick fixes become permanent workarounds, accumulating technical debt that’s difficult to trace and even harder to rectify. The result is a compliance environment that’s reactive, resource-intensive, and prone to audit exposure.
Automation insight: A cloud-native tax engine built for energy handles complex jurisdictional mapping, auto-updates rates, and syncs seamlessly with your billing system for electricity supplier tax filing accuracy.
Ask any energy CFO what keeps them up at night, and “tax audit” will be near the top of the list.
Audits in this space often uncover:
When an auditor finds one inconsistency, they assume there are more. Without audit-ready data trails, you’ll spend months defending invoices you sent two years ago.
Automation insight: The right energy provider tax reporting software doesn’t just calculate tax—it records every rule, rate, and decision with full traceability. So when an audit hits, you’re ready.
CereTax was engineered for industries like energy, where compliance complexity is the norm—not the exception.
With CereTax, you get:
Whether you’re expanding into new territories or optimizing existing billing processes, CereTax helps you stay compliant without slowing down your operations.
Energy deregulation may have simplified markets for consumers. But it made tax compliance exponentially harder for providers.
Between overlapping jurisdictions, dual billing structures, and evolving exemptions, there’s too much risk to manage manually.
With CereTax, you can replace static spreadsheets and outdated rate tables with automation that delivers accuracy, audit readiness, and scalability—without added complexity.
Want to see how automation simplifies compliance for energy providers?
Talk to a CereTax expert or explore CereTax for Energy.
Telecom taxation is one of the most boundary-driven systems in American regulation — literally.
Every jurisdiction, emergency district, and service area line carries tax consequences. A single address on the wrong side of a city or district boundary can flip E911, USF, and gross receipts obligations.
The margin of error? A few feet.
The consequence? Fines, audits, even class-action lawsuits.
In this new era of telecom tax automation, precision isn’t just a compliance advantage, it’s the only way to stay credible, compliant, and audit-proof.
Telecom boundaries evolve constantly. Annexations, de-annexations, and jurisdictional carve-outs happen daily as cities grow.
Providers using static ZIP-code logic risk billing the wrong authority or sourcing fees incorrectly, a problem amplified for those with nationwide telecom sales tax nexus.
That’s where GIS-based regulatory fee automation changes the game.
When a customer dials 911, E911 (Enhanced 911) transmits the caller’s phone number and precise location to emergency dispatchers.
It’s what allows Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) to pinpoint a caller within seconds — from a landline, mobile, or VoIP system.
For carriers, that precision drives E911 compliance. The right district must collect the right surcharge, funding the right emergency response network.
When addresses are assigned to the wrong district, dispatch misroutes calls, and regulators notice.
E911 errors are among the most expensive telecom compliance mistakes.
Providers that under-collect or misapply fees face:
A single missed jurisdiction update can expose thousands of accounts to back-billing and audit exposure.
That’s why precision situsing — knowing exactly where service occurs — is the new compliance currency.
The U.S. is transitioning from E911 to Next Generation 911 (NG911), a nationwide initiative that utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for pinpoint-level caller location.
But as NG911 rolls out, telecom companies face new data challenges:
This is where CereTax GIS leads. Our engine continuously ingests and normalizes government boundary data, even during transitions to NG911, ensuring every address routes to the correct taxing and emergency jurisdiction automatically.
Rooftop-level precision means you can prove why a fee was charged, not just where it was guessed.
The Universal Service Fund (USF) ensures every American has access to communications — regardless of income or geography.
Telecom providers contribute a portion of their end-user interstate and international revenues each quarter. That percentage, known as the contribution factor, fluctuates with total program demand.
USAC (the Universal Service Administrative Company) manages the collection and disbursement through four programs: Lifeline, E-Rate, High-Cost, and Rural Health Care.
For compliance teams, the challenge isn’t paying USF — it’s paying it accurately.
Every transaction must be sourced correctly between:
That’s where USF surcharge calculation powered by GIS delivers transparency and proof.
GIS isn’t just about maps, it’s about defensibility.
When you can trace every boundary, coordinate, and jurisdiction to its original data source, you can prove why you charged a certain rate or applied a fee.
CereTax GIS helps telecom companies:
For providers managing VoIP tax obligations or multi-state wireless footprints, this level of documentation is what separates exposure from confidence.
Telecom boundaries aren’t static — your tax engine shouldn’t be either.
Regulatory fee automation with CereTax ensures:
Manual updates can’t keep pace with the rapid evolution of telecom. GIS-driven automation can.
Telecom compliance starts with geography. But geography doesn’t stand still.
Whether you’re managing E911 fees, USF contributions, or VoIP surcharges, the only path to sustainable accuracy is precision mapping paired with automation.
With CereTax, you get a GIS engine built specifically for telecom: boundary-aware, regulation-ready, and built to evolve as fast as your network.
Ready to Modernize Telecom Tax Compliance? Boundary precision isn’t optional anymore, it’s your competitive edge.
CereTax delivers rooftop-level accuracy, automated boundary refreshes, and complete audit defensibility for telecom providers nationwide.
👉 Book Your Strategy Call to see how CereTax makes E911 and USF compliance effortless, automated, and future-proof.
Sales and use taxes rarely top a manufacturing CFO’s agenda — until something goes wrong. One overlooked exemption, one misclassified raw material, and an audit bill can erase a quarter’s margin. The risk isn’t hidden; the rules are just fragmented, technical, and constantly shifting.
Manufacturers face a perfect storm of complexity: multi-state operations, sprawling supply chains, and capital-intensive equipment that straddles taxable and exempt use. A single gap in use tax compliance or a missed production machinery exemption can quietly drain cash flow and invite scrutiny from regulators.
This is the new tax reality for manufacturing finance leaders — one where precision matters as much as productivity. In this article, we’ll unpack the fundamentals every CFO should know: how sales tax on raw materials really works, why sales tax automation is becoming mission-critical, and how to build a tax strategy that can scale as fast as your production line.
For a manufacturing company, use tax becomes especially critical when raw materials, parts, machinery, or supplies are procured from out-of-state vendors not required to collect tax in your state. If those goods are “used, stored, consumed” in your operations, you may owe compensating use tax.
Multi-state footprints, intercompany transfers, and imported components create complex sourcing and use-tax obligations, and neglecting use tax is a classic stealth exposure. Many manufacturing CFOs discover it only when the state hits them with back assessments. A single misclassification of a component or misapplied machinery exemption can trigger large back assessments and penalties.
Many states offer exemptions or “resale / ingredient” rules for raw materials, under the logic that tax should apply only to the final sale to the end customer. But that exemption is not automatic — you must satisfy the state’s rules (resale certificates, documented use, etc.).
For example, in Texas, “tangible personal property that becomes an ingredient or component of an item manufactured for sale” is exempt from sales tax if the property is directly used in manufacturing.
However, not every component or supply qualifies. States differ in their definitions, and items such as hand tools, consumables, or supplies may or may not qualify depending on the context.
Hence, your supply chain strategy (which vendor, state, classification) links directly to your tax burden.
One of the largest potential tax savings areas is the machinery and equipment used in production. Many states offer exemptions or partial reductions if machinery is essential, directly used, or part of an integrated process.
Which theory your state follows matters a lot. Some states explicitly limit exemptions to facilities using the direct use standard; while others allow a broader integrated plant exemption.
Also, many states exempt maintenance, repair, and replacement parts for qualifying machinery.
From a CFO perspective: capital budgeting, asset classification, depreciation strategy, and documentation policies must align with your exemption strategy. Otherwise, you risk losing valuable deductions or triggering audits.
A screwdriver used on production lines might not qualify for a machinery exemption if the state deems it a "hand tool" rather than a direct-use component. You might think “everything in the factory is for production” — but your tax authority may disagree.
If one division or plant sells or transfers goods to another, or later uses items internally, sales and use tax liabilities may arise. Proper documentation, including transfer pricing and intercompany invoices, is essential. CFOs must enforce policies to eliminate any ambiguity regarding internal "resales."
Many manufacturers source globally or from vendors in other states. If the vendor doesn’t collect your state’s sales tax, you’re liable for use tax — unless you have a valid exemption/permit. States are stepping up use tax audits aggressively.
Exemption rules (which raw materials qualify and what constitutes as machinery) are not static. States frequently amend definitions, reinterpret exemptions, or audit aggressively. CFOs must watch for legislative changes or audit trends.
Items considered “consumables,” like lubricants, cleaning solvents, safety gear, etc., often carry sales tax unless you can clearly document their direct relation to manufacturing and the state allows their exemption. This is a frequent blind spot.
As CFO, your team likely lacks the bandwidth or specialist tax staff to manage every jurisdiction’s quirks manually. Automation gives you scale, visibility, and defensibility.
In short, sales tax automation is powerful — but only as reliable as the inputs and governance you put around it.
Create a ‘tax operations center of excellence’ (in finance or shared services) that enforces classification, exemption management, and supplier intake policies. Disperse local autonomy only with guardrails.
Ensure procurement tracks the state of vendor, tax collection status, and exemption certificates at the time of ordering—not afterward. That reduces downstream corrections.
Include use tax accruals in your forecast model. Use historical patterns, projections, and internal transfers to estimate latent liabilities.
From day one, maintain robust documentation including purchase invoices, exemption certificates, usage evidence, internal memos. If audited years later, sparse recordkeeping kills defense.
As you evaluate sales tax automation or sales and use tax automation solutions, pilot t your highest-risk jurisdiction or plant. Validate that the logic matches your exempt/nonexempt decisions, and test edge cases (parts, repairs, transfers).
Subscribe to state tax bulletins, monitor audit rulings in your industry, and reassess your classification logic annually. Sometimes the subtle differences in state definitions change your eligibility.
For manufacturing CFOs, mastering sales and use tax is not an optional exercise in compliance; it’s a strategic lever. Sales tax on raw materials, use tax compliance in manufacturing, and production machinery tax exemption all directly affect your cost structure, cash flow, and audit risk.
As your operations scale (more plants, international sourcing, intercompany transfers), manual processes crumble. Sales tax automation and sales and use tax automation move from “nice to have” to mission-critical, offering precision, scalability, and audit defensibility. The global automation market is surging (USD 5 billion+ base, and a double-digit CAGR) as complexity continues to explode.
But automation isn’t magic: it demands good data, taxonomy discipline, legal alignment, and robust controls. As CFO, your leadership is critical in structuring tax operations, fostering collaboration across procurement, operations, and legal, and ensuring that the machinery of compliance hums reliably behind your growth engine.
Ready to Simplify Manufacturing Tax? Legacy systems can’t keep up with today’s manufacturing complexity — but CereTax can. Get real-time accuracy, automated compliance, and audit-ready transparency built for how manufacturers actually operate. Talk to a Sales Tax Expert
Shipping is where ecommerce sales tax gets messy.
Every online order has three moving parts: (1) what you sell, (2) how you ship it, and (3) how you show it on the invoice. Change any one of those, and the tax result can flip from exempt to taxable in seconds.
Separately stated USPS shipping? Often exempt.
Bundle it into the product price? Probably taxable.
Deliver in your own van? Even more likely taxable.
And if your cart mixes taxable and exempt goods, you’re now in allocation territory.
If you sell across states, keeping up with shipping tax rules manually isn’t sustainable. You need automated sales tax calculation that can handle delivery methods, mixed carts, and destination sourcing automatically—without slowing checkout or inviting audit risk. That’s where ecommerce sales tax automation earns its keep.
U.S. ecommerce sales are projected to reach $1.6 trillion by 2028. That’s a lot of orders on the move—and a lot of tax determinations riding on a single shipping line.
Because every state (and sometimes every city or special district) defines “delivery charges” differently, even experienced retailers can trip over:
Sales tax follows the product, but shipping follows the rules, and those rules vary everywhere.
Below is a fast reference covering major ecommerce states and their general approach to shipping and handling taxability.
Note: Use this table as an operational guide, not legal advice. Always confirm your interpretation with each state’s Department of Revenue before filing or invoicing.
Quick tip: When in doubt, separately state shipping and keep documentation showing actual delivery cost. Avoid combining shipping with handling unless required; it often turns an exempt charge into a taxable one.
If you ship goods to another state, the taxability of shipping usually follows destination sourcing—where the customer receives the product.
Rule of thumb: Sales tax on shipping stops where your nexus stops—but compliance doesn’t.
Tracking shipping tax manually means tracking 50+ state codes, hundreds of city and special districts, and constant rule changes. That’s not sustainable.
Even small mistakes can cascade:
The answer isn’t more spreadsheets. It’s ecommerce sales tax automation—powered by a modern, real-time tax engine that updates automatically when states change their rules.
With the best sales tax software, you can:
Sales tax on shipping is one of the most misunderstood parts of ecommerce compliance. The rules are inconsistent, detailed, and constantly changing.
The fix isn’t memorizing exemptions; it’s automation.
The right ecommerce sales tax software does the heavy lifting: calculating, allocating, sourcing, and documenting every transaction so you can ship confidently and scale without surprise liabilities.
Ready to automate sales tax on shipping? Sales tax doesn’t have to slow your ecommerce growth. With CereTax, you can calculate, allocate, and file with precision—so every delivery stays compliant and audit-ready.
Let’s simplify shipping tax, together.
👉 Talk to CereTax
