Ohio has been granted full membership in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). Full membership takes effect on January 1, 2014.
The Buckeye State has been an associate member of SSTP since 2005. Associate members are required to comply with all Streamlined Sales Tax requirements, which Ohio has done. The transition to full membership should be smooth.
What is Streamlined Sales Tax?
The Streamlined Sales Tax Project, as described by the Ohio Department of Taxation, “is a multi-state effort to make sales tax laws, rules, and systems more uniform among states. The goal is to make it easier for those who make sales in multiple states to voluntarily collect and remit sales tax to each of those states.”
Streamlined Sales Tax describes itself this way: “The purpose of the Agreement is to simplify and modernize sales and use tax administration in order to substantially reduce the burden of tax compliance.”
The department states that its move to full membership “is part of Ohio’s continuing effort to modernize the state’s tax structure.” One of the principal goals is to encourage “remote sellers selling through the Internet and by mail order to voluntarily collect sales tax on sales to Ohio customers.”
It’s in the state’s best interest to make voluntarily sales tax collection appealing. Ohio loses approximately $350 million in sales tax revenue “on untaxed sales by out-of-state vendors.”
Come January, Tennessee will be the only associate member of the Streamline Sales Tax Project. Full members are: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Ohio will join the list in 2014.
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