Editorial Team

Sales Tax at Scale Team

Behind Sales Tax at Scale is a team of practitioners who have spent their careers in the trenches of sales tax compliance. The group includes registered sales tax managers, CPAs, former state revenue department advisors, Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board participants, and ecommerce accountants who have managed compliance across all 50 states and built the systems and workflows that support it. They contribute to Sales Tax at Scale to help growing ecommerce brands spend less time on compliance operations and more time focused on growing their business.

The Sales Tax at Scale Team writes with a focus on the operational side of sales tax — the processes, systems, and decisions that determine whether a compliance program holds up at scale.

Contributors are experts in multi-state nexus exposure, voluntary disclosure agreements (VDAs), marketplace facilitator obligations, and the filing and reconciliation workflows that mid-market brands rely on across all states.

Content published under this byline is reviewed for accuracy against state statutes, department of revenue guidance, and Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) program standards. The team draws on direct experience with WooCommerce, Shopify Plus, marketplaces, and wholesale channel compliance, as well as ERP integrations with NetSuite, Business Central, SAP, and QuickBooks.

Sales Tax at Scale Team

78 articles

How do you load-test sales tax infrastructure for Black Friday and Cyber Week?

How to make sales tax calculation requests idempotent at high order volume

What transaction data model does defensible multi-state sales tax filing require?

When does batch sales tax calculation make sense, and when does it have to be real-time?

How do you retry sales tax API calls safely without double-recording transactions?

How do you reconcile Shopify order data against tax provider calculation logs at high volume?

Economic nexus vs. physical nexus, explained for ecommerce operators

How to respond to a state nexus questionnaire

How should a mid-market ecommerce brand monitor nexus exposure across 50 states?

How do you verify an exemption certificate's registration number against the state?

When can you accept a uniform multi-state exemption certificate?

Where should exemption certificates live in your stack?

Which states refuse out-of-state resale certificates and what to do instead?

Can you cure an exemption certificate gap after a sales tax audit notice arrives?

What happens when an exemption certificate is missing or invalid during a sales tax audit?

How do exemption certificates work in a drop-ship transaction?

Blanket vs. single-purchase exemption certificates: what each covers and how to apply them per order

What a US DTC brand needs to know about Mexico IVA when selling into Mexico

What sales tax does Walmart Marketplace handle, and what does the brand still own?

How do you handle sales tax when a marketplace order is returned through your direct channel?

How does a US DTC brand register for Canadian GST/HST as a non-resident seller?

What does Non-Resident Importer (NRI) status mean for a US DTC brand selling into Canada?

What does Faire handle for sales tax on wholesale orders, and what does the brand still own?

How do you handle sales tax when you drop-ship for retailer partners while running your own DTC?

How does sales tax handling differ between DTC and B2B order flow at the same brand?

What's the difference between GST, HST, QST, and PST for a US DTC brand selling into Canada?

How do you handle sales tax across Faire, NuOrder, and Shopify Plus B2B at the same brand?

How to respond to a state sales tax audit assessment

How do you reconcile your sales tax engine output to your filed returns at high volume?

What actually triggers a state sales tax audit for a multi-state ecommerce brand?

What records do you need to defend a sales tax audit?

What sampling methods do state sales tax auditors use, and how can you challenge a bad result?

How long must sales tax records be retained by state?

How do state sales tax auditors examine sourcing decisions during an audit?

How do auditors handle product taxability disputes on an ecommerce sales tax audit?

How do states find unregistered remote sellers?

What's the difference between a resale certificate and an exemption certificate?

What are the requirements for a valid exemption certificate?

How should a mid-market DTC brand collect exemption certificates at checkout and in B2B order flow?

How do you build a defensible exemption certificate evidence chain?

What does "good-faith acceptance" of an exemption certificate mean at audit?

How long is an exemption certificate valid? State-by-state validity periods for ecommerce operators

Does Shopify Plus B2B handle exemption certificates, and what does it actually leave to the seller?

What does Shopify Tax actually handle for sales tax, and what does your brand still own?

What sales tax does TikTok Shop handle for US sellers, and what does the brand still own?

Who owns sales tax at a multi-channel ecommerce brand?

How do you build a single cross-channel sales tax reconciliation view across Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, TikTok Shop, and Faire?

How auditors test exemption certificates during a sales tax audit

What happens if you ignore a state sales tax notice

What does a state sales tax auditor’s first Information Document Request include?

How do you build sales tax audit-readiness into your monthly close?

What is the CAD $30,000 small supplier threshold for US DTC brands selling into Canada?

What does a defensible sales tax workpaper look like for a multi-state ecommerce brand?

How are marketplace-facilitated sales treated during a direct seller's sales tax audit?

How does a state sales tax audit work: the lifecycle from notice to assessment?

What sales tax does Amazon FBA actually handle, and what does the brand still own?

How do you respond to a sales tax audit notice from a state where you’re not registered?

How do you run the three-way reconciliation between Shopify, NetSuite, and a tax engine at month-end?

When does the native tax functionality in NetSuite, Business Central, Acumatica, or Sage Intacct stop being enough for a multi-state ecommerce brand?

What goes wrong in a NetSuite SuiteTax implementation for a Shopify Plus ecommerce brand?

How do you handle sales tax on refunds and partial returns at high order volume?

What latency budget should the tax-calculation step get inside a checkout flow?

What instrumentation should sit between your checkout and your tax provider?

When should sales tax calculation be synchronous, and when should it be asynchronous?

How to design a checkout fallback when the sales tax API times out or errors

How do you handle sales tax API rate limits and burst traffic in production?

How do you plan capacity for a product drop, restock, or viral moment at high TPS?

What TPS profile should a mid-market ecommerce brand design the sales tax stack for?

When should sales tax be calculated in the checkout flow: at cart, checkout, or order placement?

How do you detect and resolve missing or duplicate tax calculations in production?

What does it cost to get your sales tax returns filed?

What to look for in a sales tax platform at every stage of growth

Which states removed the 200-transaction nexus threshold?

What is the reference architecture for sales tax at 100 to 1,000+ TPS?

When does iPaaS middleware (Celigo, Workato, Boomi, MuleSoft) belong in a sales tax integration?

How do non-profit and government exemption certificates work?

How does sales tax penalty abatement work on an audit assessment?

How does a mid-market DTC brand orchestrate sales tax across Shopify, Amazon, Walmart Marketplace, and TikTok Shop?