As we continue our discussion with Brad Scott, Director of Finance at Halstead Bead, Inc., an eCommerce wholesaler supplying jewelry businesses worldwide, Brad shares the challenges faced by small businesses in complying with state and local tax (SALT) regulations. He highlights the high costs of compliance and the potential consequences of non-compliance. Brad emphasizes the need for amnesty and a simplified and streamlined approach to help small businesses become compliant. He also calls for a centralized database of SALT rules and regulations to make compliance easier for businesses.

Talking Tax Reform: https://taxfoundation.org/event/post-wayfair-remote-sales-tax-reforms/

Guest Bio:

Brad Scott is the Director of Finance at Halstead Bead, Inc., an eCommerce wholesaler supplying jewelry businesses worldwide. Halstead is a second-generation, family-owned, small business. Scott has been with Halstead for 21 years. He handles multi-state sales and income tax registrations, filings, reconciliations, and all other accounting for the business. Scott also leads Halstead’s legislative advocacy efforts to achieve multi-state sales tax policy uniformity & simplification and is the Chairman of the Committee on Tax Policy at the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA). Halstead Bead, Inc. was the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the State of Louisiana, represented by Joe Bishop-Henchman and Tyler Martinez of the National Taxpayers Union (NTUF). Scott graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Finance.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Compliance with SALT regulations is costly and time-consuming for small businesses.
• Non-compliance can lead to significant financial penalties and even the closure of businesses.
• Amnesty should be considered as a solution for businesses that are not currently compliant.
• A centralized database of SALT rules and regulations would greatly simplify compliance for businesses.

Quotables

• “I think the solution is going to be unpalatable from a policy position, but from a humane position. Amnesty is something that has to be considered and it's going to have to come out of the state houses of regulation and legislation because coming from Washington is going to be seen as a preemptive attempt.” -Brad Scott [06:20]

• “You've got practitioners, you've got businesses, and you've got policymakers. All of them need to recognize the role they play in this. A lot of business owners are afraid of putting their hands up for fear of being audited. But the reality is, until the people that make the decisions understand the vastness of this problem, they're not going to address it. ” -Brad Scott [21:55]

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