[patio11]

And it’s not just Massachusetts developers that have to deal with this. It’s anyone who has clients who have “software” that is being “used” in Massachusetts.

Talk to your lawyer if you doubt me on this one, but Quill vs. North Dakota means that it is the well-settled law [+] of the United States that you cannot be liable for sales or use taxes enacted by a state which you don't have a "nexus" in. What exactly constitutes a "nexus" can be hazy, but the punchline for the overwhelming majority of HNers is that if you do not have an employee who performs work for you within Massachusetts you almost certainly do not have a nexus there.

Theoretically HN users who are also Massachusetts residents will have to start remitting use tax to the state to cover purchases of covered which they made from out-of-state merchants. It is an open secret that compliance in the US with use taxes is nearly zero.

+ Well, until they pass that threatened Internet tax legislation.

[mjn]

> the punchline for the overwhelming majority of HNers is that if you do not have an employee who performs work for you within Massachusetts you almost certainly do not have a nexus there

If you're a consultant who does work on-site for an MA client, that may also establish a nexus. In some cases it can do so even if you don't physically travel to MA, since the services can be deemed to have been rendered in the client's location. But others are deemed to have been rendered in the consultant's remote location. It's a little conceptually (and legally) unclear where remote services "happen", and seems to depend on the state and the service and the precise consulting relationship.

[will_work4tears]

Conventions that are work related and you work at a both promoting your work or products counts as well it seems. I had a client that went to Vegas several times a year for a convention and just running a booth made Vegas a nexus for him.

[Spooky23]

Poorly enforced tax regimes are the worst. You have no idea when the tax man will come by and put you out of business.

Here's an unrelated example in a notoriously insane tax state (New York). When is a pretzel a baked good, and when is it prepared food? The tax people often can't figure it out either.

http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/print-edition/2013/07/05/a...

[loumf]

It is an open secret that compliance in the US with use taxes is nearly zero.

Yes, but at least in MA, they pay when they get audited. Small companies may not be complying without audits, but anyone big enough to use invoice processing software is probably complying -- or at least, is actively ignoring prompts from their software to comply -- which controller/accountants/CPAs don't usually like to do.

[mikemac]

Paying a use tax is often overlooked, especially when a significant amount of hardware purchases are made through Amazon which does not charge sales tax in MA (yet). If you are a controller, it is relatively easy to keep track of these purchases throughout the quarter and pay 4 times per year.

You should generally file some amount each quarter (even zero), if only to keep the MA DOR off your back.

[grumps]

I just scanned the FAQs from the MA DOR. Seems one should avoid having any physical presence in the state of MA. Avoiding the Physical presence would require the client to handle the burden of the tax.