Method for collecting sales and/or use taxes on sales that are made via the internet and/or catalog
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorsFrederick W. Ryan, Jr., Michael W. Wilson, Ronald P. Sansone, Theresa Biasi, Vadim Stelman, Kathleen A. Bishop
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method that allows taxing jurisdictions to collect sales and/or use taxes from sales that are made via the internet and catalogs. The method also makes it easier for sellers to comply with the taxing jurisdiction's mandated seller administrative functions. The foregoing is accomplished by using an agent to perform the sales tax administration functions of a seller, relieving the seller of as much of the burden of compliance as possible.
Claims14
A method for collecting sales and/or use taxes on remote sales made via a network from a seller to buyers, said method comprising:
- collecting, by a processing device associated with the seller that is coupled to the network, information regarding remote sales made to buyers by the seller via the network;
- using by the processing device the collected information to calculate a taxing jurisdictions sales and/or use tax to be paid by the buyers for the remote sales and transmitting the calculated taxing jurisdictions sales and/or use tax and collected information to a computer system;
- segmenting, by the computer system, the transmitted sales and/or use taxes and collected information for respective taxing jurisdictions into different databases for each taxing jurisdiction, wherein the identity of the seller is not revealed to the taxing jurisdiction and each taxing jurisdiction may only view its own database if there is a suspicion of fraud based upon audit data;
- and
- aggregating, by the computer system, tax payments due to each taxing jurisdiction and transferring funds, on behalf of the seller, for the tax payments received by the seller from the buyers to each taxing jurisdiction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.