ASI’s ESP Includes Real Time Sales Tax Computations

ASI responds to Supreme Court ruling on complex online sales tax changes

TREVOSE, PA – June 26, 2018 – The Advertising Specialty Institute^® (ASI) today assured distributors in the promotional products industry rocked by the recent Supreme Court ruling forcing internet retailers to collect sales taxes on internet sales that ASI offers real-time automatic sales tax computations across the ESP^® platform, including ESP Websites™.

ASI’s ESP Websites automatically calculate and add tax rates, in real time, at no additional fee, for any order in the user’s customer shopping cart.

In addition, distributors can either use the integrated sales tax service or set up their own tax rates on any orders created on the ESP platform, including end-client-facing websites and in ESP^® CRM and Orders, such as quotes and invoices. ASI’s ESP offers ZIP code-level taxes, a real time tax service that automatically applies state and local rates for specific shipping locations, at no additional cost.  

ASI continues to be the only data provider in the industry to also apply tax code types. This feature accurately and seamlessly provides county and ZIP code-level real-time tax information to distributors.  

Click here for a step-by-step explanation of ASI’s easy sales tax calculation feature.

“Distributors need to know that once again, ASI has you covered,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president and chief executive officer of ASI. “In anticipation of the ruling, ASI had already begun actively working with best-in-class tax services that specialize in solutions for both domestic and international taxes. We’re ahead of the curve on internet retail tax complications, making sure users of the ESP business platform can put their mind at ease when it comes to complicated and ever-changing tax questions.”

Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that states can now force internet retailers to collect sales taxes in states where they have no physical presence. However, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the decision left open the possibility that some transactions were so small that no taxes should be collected. The court also did not decide whether states may seek sales taxes retroactively.

Stan Hansen, director of tax for the ASI Family of Companies, said the ruling is a mixed bag for the promotional products industry. While local retailers will have a level playing field when dealing with online competitors, it poses a major administrative challenge for business leaders.

“The downside of the Supreme Court ruling is that a business will now have to potentially know the sales tax laws of every state, file sales tax forms for every state and be registered to do business in every state,” Hansen said. “The sales tax filing requirements put a tremendous burden on a company that sells in every state, such that the company will have to hire outside services or hire additional staff just to comply with the various sales tax laws.”

ASI’s integrated sales tax calculation solves the potential burden that distributors could have faced from the Supreme Court ruling, Andrews said.

The e-commerce-enabled ESP platform is integrated with ASI’s SmartBooks®, ProfitMaker® and Intuit QuickBooks. Users of ASI Smartbooks can create their own sales tax table while ProfitMaker offers an integrated subscription-based tax service. Plus, ASI’s ESP platform includes an open architecture that will allow easy integration into any other order management or financial packages.

For more information about ESP, please contact Matt Goldfarb, ASI’s executive director of technical product support, at [email protected].

About ASI
The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI^®) serves a network of 23,500 suppliers, distributors and decorators in the $23.6 billion promotional products industry. ASI’s flagship product, the technology platform ESP^®, manages the industry’s entire supply and marketing chain. ASI also produces award-winning digital and print content, live events and educational programs that enable companies in 55 countries to be more efficient, productive and profitable. ASI’s Counselor^® magazine provides the most authoritative business content in the industry, and the ASI Certification Program features 500+ live and online education courses for over 40,000 professionals. The company, family owned and operated since 1962, is proud to have been consistently ranked among the “Best Places to Work” in Philadelphia and Bucks County, PA. For more info: www.uat-asicentral.com.