Tax preparers are consistently asked, “what kind of advice or strategy would you suggest to the average S-corporation,” or some similar question, by other service providers as well as business owners. The right answer is a resounding: “it depends.” Nexus is at least similar, and possibly even more specific. There are no, “top states,” to be concerned about or main/biggest thresholds to know. Within your specific practice, there are likely some states you'll see trend in a given year, or maybe even consistently one year to the next.

Hi! My name is Megan and I use she/they pronouns. 

I’m an Enrolled Agent (EA) with the IRS and an LTC (Licensed Tax Practitioner) in Portland, Oregon. In my 20+ year career in accounting and tax, I’ve worked almost exclusively with small businesses (grossing $5million or less per year) and HENRY individuals (High income Earning, Not Rich Yet). I’ve certainly worked with larger businesses, HNW, and even a few UHNW clients, and managed their taxes and filing needs. From the relatively simple, “whoops we hired an employee out of state and didn’t know what that would cause,” to the, “yeah, we have nexus across 27 different states on a regular basis,” nexus has been a special interest of mine through much of my career. From watching the landscape change as a result of Wayfair to keeping up with the rules that change every year from one jurisdiction to the next, it’s a lot. I can’t do it all. As a solo practitioner, I don’t have and don’t want to have all of the resources available to keep all of that information at my fingertips.

During my career, I’ve gotten really good at tossing together a spreadsheet in the moment to serve a need and saving that spreadsheet to revamp into a template later so it can serve the need again and be more useful. I’ve also gotten pretty good at being brave when I need to and relying on curiosity and research to support that bravery.

This guide is here to help share a little bit of that with you directly. It won’t replace a SALT team at a large firm. It also won’t replace the full all-states research tools the research software puts out there for us. It can’t. This isn’t a top ten list, but a guide to help you trailblaze your own way through your clients’ nexus concerns.