How HOST Helped a Lean Marine E-Commerce Store Navigate Nexus
North Carolina-based Nautique Parts sells boats and boat parts, along with their associated accessories. About ten years ago, they started their e-commerce store and never looked back. Sales were great, the team was lean and mean, but then that thing called sales tax nexus began to rear its ugly head.
“What is this?” CFO David deAndrade recalls thinking. “It sounds like a car brand.”
But soon, due to booming sales, the company found itself with nexus in multiple states. As CFO, it was deAndrade’s job to keep the company sales tax compliant.
At first, they assigned an employee to learn about each state and get them registered for sales tax permits. But then the company’s nexus jumped from just two, to four, to six states. As Nautique Parts grew, sales tax began taking up all this employee’s time. And they were having to learn each state’s differing sales tax rules and laws. From scratch.
“Staying sales tax compliant in this many states is not sustainable for a small business of six to eight people,” lamented deAndrade.
Enter HOST.
Tossing a Sales Tax Life Raft
deAndrade and Nautique Parts first discovered HOST through HOST’s partnership with TaxJar. TaxJar (now owned by Stripe) works with a handful of select partners for sales tax activities–such as registering with the state or filing specialized sales tax returns–that the software isn’t designed to take care of.
First, HOST helped Nautique Parts file partial-month sales tax returns. They then helped Nautique Parts determine where they had economic sales tax nexus due to their sales. Later, as Nautique Parts grew and expanded, they were able to assist with ensuring that acquisitions were sales tax compliant. All vital, but highly specialized, assistance.
“We get a [sales tax] notice from a state, we send it straight to HOST and know it’s taken care of,” said deAndrade.
Nautique Parts now has sales tax nexus in 26 states! But HOST has their back when it comes to handling the unique requirements of every state.
“Sales tax is so confusing, so time consuming, so annoying,” concluded deAndrade. “HOST is a godsend for a small business.”
Learn more about Nautique Parts here.
As a small ecommerce business with only 8 employees but nexus in 27 states, we were overwhelmed trying to handle sales tax compliance on our own. One employee was spending countless hours across multiple states trying to register and file with no experience in sales tax codes. It was extremely time consuming, frustrating, and expensive. We searched for a solution and found HOST. They were an absolute godsend for getting our business into compliance. We’d be hard pressed to manage sales tax without them.