SALES TAX TUESDAY 2019: Where Oh Where is Murph?

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Well, you all probably thought you might have found me in Nevada, or California, perhaps Wyoming or Oregon, but I doubt any of you thought that I would be in Alaska, especially since Alaska is a state that has no statewide sales tax. And, since this is, after all, Sales Tax Tuesday, a joint venture between Insightful Accountant and Avalara, the Sales Tax People, then it seems only natural that I would be visiting states with 'sales tax.' 

But the reality is that while Alaska has no 'state-wide' sales tax, it does very much have sales tax. You see, individual municipalities within Alaska have wide authority to set their own taxation rates, and sales tax here can be as high as 7.5%, even without 'state sales tax.' So, while Anchorage and Fairbanks currently have no sales tax, Juneau and Sitka have 5% sales tax, and Kodiak (like the Bear) has 7% sales tax. 

Similarly, other local levied sales taxes in Alaska are just as complex, if not more so, then those in local tax jurisdictions within other states. You see, sales tax can be levied at the city, county, school, transportation and almost any other special purpose district (SPD) level that local voters choose to create and decide to tax themselves upon. 

Another factor that makes manual tracking of sales tax rates difficult inside Alaska is the sheer size and remoteness of the state itself... to put it simply, Alaska is a huge place with communities and political jurisdictions, hundreds if in some cases not thousands, of miles apart. We sometimes forget how truly vast Alaska is, the illustration to the right reminds of its tremendous size.

Maintaining sales tax accuracy for this state is demanding and time consuming. Unless you go out in a 'dog sled' and visit every township, rural clinic special district, city, transportation district, electric-water-sewer cooperative, special purpose district and county that can determine its own sales taxes based upon local demands and voter approvals, then you are hard pressed to keep track. And just about the time you get done with that assessment, it's time to start all over on your 'dog sled' venture, perhaps in a reverse direction since there are just as many jurisdictions that have likely updated taxes or enacted new ones.

It may very well be that Alaska is one of the most difficult states to monitor and maintain sales tax compliance tracking on a manual basis as any other state because it has so many levels of local and special purpose taxes; and it allows them all to create their own taxing laws and to collect their own local taxes separate from the state. Without any central taxing and collecting agency, it is doubly complex for retailers to know when and what tax is due and to whom and when it must be remitted.

But you know, Sales Tax Tuesday isn't strictly about 'Sales Tax,' I typically try to fit in a little bit about something interesting, and in this episode, I at least wanted to mention a couple of fine dining establishments in Anchorage. The first is the Haute Quarter Grill. Now, while they are a full service restaurant with some great looking steaks, duck, chicken dishes and even Jambalaya that was being served at the table alongside me, I indulged myself with one of their seafood specialties. I mean, after all this is Alaska and seafood is famous up here, right? So, I had some great Grilled Sea Scallops (one of my favorites) accompanied by Jumbo Prawns... can you say, 'double yummy!'

And for desert, I had their scrumptious Chocolate Molten Cake. In a lot of ways, it's a lot like Chocolate Souffle served with homemade vanilla ice cream swimming in raspberry sauce. They had numerous other deserts including a traditional strawberry shortcake but made the old-fashioned way with real 'shortbread shortcakes' (not sponge cakes) that were cut into layers, with thin layers of strawberry's and whip cream between each layer. You could probably indulge yourself by eating nothing but deserts, and then go out and that Kodiak Bear would indulge himself by eating YOU, having just filled yourself up with your deserts.

I had intended to go to another restaurant the next night but when I tried to get a reservation, I didn't get an answer on the phone. Later I found out that the restaurant had been 'closed,' and still later I found out that it really didn't deserve the reviews that I had read about. The net result was that I ended up partaking of a great Prime Rib of Beef back at Haute Quarter Grill again. I mean, 'why tempt providence,' right?

But, I am not even going to bore you with what I indulged myself with for desert. Now, let's remember, this is Anchorage so when my check comes at the end of the meal, I am paying for just 'my check,' I don't have any sales tax because Alaska has no state-wide Sales Tax and currently, Anchorage has no local sales tax either.

If you head off to 'somewhere else in Alaska,' then the same may not be true at all. That's why if you are doing business in Alaska, or maybe conducting business in a variety of different places in Alaska, you need the automated sales tax services that Avalara can provide. But, no matter how many cities, counties or sales tax jurisdictions you must collect and remit tax for, nor how many oddities exist like in Alaska, you can get automated, cloud-based solutions for transaction tax compliance, not only in the farthest reaches of the frozen tundra of Alaska but across the entire United States and throughout the world — no matter your business size or industry, Avalara has the solution for you. AvaTax calculates sales and use tax in real time and integrates with your existing business applications to make certain your sales and use tax is right every time.

So, as we leave Alaska and this installment of Sales Tax Tuesday, we look at the grandeur of Kenai Fjords National Park, established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act covering more than 669,984 acres on the Kenai Peninsula in south central Alaska, near the town of Seward. The park contains the Harding Icefield, which is one of the largest ice fields in the United States. Unfortunately, our Publishing website graphic capabilities cannot do justice to this majestic site by allowing us to capture a stereoscopic photo that truly reflects what thousands of visitors venture each year 'North to the future1' that is Alaska.

1'North to the future' is the state motto of Alaska adopted in 1967 during the Alaska Purchase Centennial. It is meant to represent Alaska as a land of promise.