Ask HN: Sales tax for single-person SaaS startup in California
I am a software professional based in California and have built a small SaaS product that I want to monetize. I have been reading on accepting payments and related taxes (income, sales, local etc). As I read online CA does not collect sales tax on SaaS products unless there is a tangible product transfer. However, some states do impose local state taxes that need to be collected. I found that products like TaxJar allow easy computation of sales tax based on billing address. I also see that products like QuickBooks allow integration of sales tax computation and helping with basic accounting. However, I could not find an answer to the following questions:
1. If I collect sales tax, how do I pay this tax in each state as I am located in CA. Will I need to obtain sales tax ID from each state? 2. If the above is trickier, is there a way I can shift sales tax (and/or local taxes) liability on the purchaser? 3. How are taxes handled for international purchases?
I am sure these are solved problems as there are/have been many 1-person startups at HN. Any guidance will help. Happy to connect offline to gain more information.
Thanks in advance.