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Questions
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A large shareholder would like to meet with management, but we are concerned about the disclosure requirements related to such a meeting.
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Answers
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Sales tax requirements depend not only on the varying regulations from state to state but also on whether or not your organization has nexus in states where sales tax collection is required for your product or service. You first need to determine whether or not you have nexus in the state of New York that makes you subject to their taxing authority (determinations of nexus vary based on state regulations but common triggers of nexus include having real estate or employees in the state). If you determine that your organization has nexus in New York, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance issued a tax bulletin that suggests that most subscription software sales are considered taxable by the state.You may also want to conduct a review of your organization's nexus in all states (and countries) where your software is sold and become familiar with their sales tax requirements as New York is not the only jurisdiction to focus on updating their tax regulations to increase tax revenue from various types of online transactions that have not traditionally been taxed.
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The answer depends on each state where you are selling your books. There are states where a temporary presentation and sales event is considered nexus for sales tax purposes, obligating you to collect and remit sales tax in that state. You would need to review the nexus rules in each state you visit to determine if your event, likely quantity of sales, etc will result in a requirement to collect sales tax. If so, in most states you will be obligated to register with their department of revenue in order to collect and remit sales tax. Check out this article on Sales Tax Facts for Book Authors for more detail. Each state has different sales tax rates (a few have no sales tax) and many of these states also allow localities to charge additional sales tax up to certain limits, so the process of determining the appropriate sales tax rates for multiple sales locations can be tedious. Sales Tax Institute has a helpful list of sales tax rates by state along with the range of local tax rate additions, but you will still have to go to a particular state's department of revenue website to determine the appropriate local rates to charge for a particular sales location.
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A true royalty is a payment made to an owner of property (real or intangible) in exchange for rights to use that property to generate income - such as a licensing arrangement. Sometimes the term gets used loosely in contracts and elsewhere to signify what is really just a revenue sharing or other performance-based compensation arrangement. It does not sound like your company owns the product that the "royalty" paid to you is based on, so it is unlikely that the payments you are receiving are royalties as defined by the IRS. In addition, it sounds like there is some confusion about the tax treatment of royalty payments because royalties are taxable as ordinary income and not at a reduced rate. You may hear discussion about favorable royalty tax treatment for passive investors but this only applies in specific scenarios where a passive investor is receiving royalty payments that are not subject to self-employment tax (but they are still taxed at ordinary income rates).
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Calculating the benefit of R&D tax credits is actually fairly complicated. In an optimal situation, a company may be able to claim a credit near the full amount of their qualified R&D expenditures for the year. However, there are many scenarios where a company may only be able to claim a credit that amounts to a single digit percentage of their R&D expenditures for the year. Businesses must be able to demonstrate the the R&D expenditures are for a permitted purpose, eliminate uncertainty in the R&D process for the business component, follow a systematic process of experimentation, and that the process is based on fundamental science and engineering principles. Check out Wikipedia's summary of the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit for more details on this four part test. The primary disadvantage of claiming R&D tax credits is the effort and potentially expense of outside advisors required to track and assess the expenses that qualify for the credit. There is no effect on tax basis of assets as a result of claiming R&D tax credits.
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International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the accounting standard used in many countries around the world while U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is used primarily in the United States. Key differences between the two methods include: Extraordinary items on the income statement - IFRS does not segregate these items on the income statement while under GAAP they are reported below the net income line. Inventory accounting - IFRS does not allow the last in first out (LIFO) method of inventory accounting Capitalization of development costs - IFRS allows capitalization under certain conditions where GAAP requires similar activities to be expensed See the white paper from Grant Thornton at the source link below for a more comprehensive comparison. https://www.grantthornton.com/library/whitepapers/audit/2018/comparison-US-GAAP-IFRS.aspx
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