Lodging & sales tax
Sales Tax Helper
Sales Tax Helper is a sales tax compliance and controversy firm staffed by sales tax specialists, CPAs, and former state auditors. It challenges state tax agencies on behalf of businesses, including the New York Department of Taxation and Finance, the California CDTFA, the Illinois Department of Revenue, and the Texas Comptroller.
The work is organized as find it, fix it, defend it. A nexus study maps where a business has physical or economic nexus and whether what it sells is taxable there. A voluntary disclosure agreement resolves unreported liability before a state makes contact, typically limiting the lookback and reducing or waiving penalties. Audit defense and appeals handle matters once a state has started, from the informal conference through formal administrative levels and tax court.
The firm sells through a platform: a free nexus and liability checker to start, then paid tiers from self-serve up to full representation, priced flat rather than hourly. Registrations and filings are also offered. Sales Tax Helper LLC is not a law firm; matters needing formal legal representation go to Sales Tax Legal, an affiliated law firm handling audits, appeals, and tax court.
A business holding a notice should note the firm's own advice to talk before responding to the state. Fees are shown per service on the pricing pages rather than as a single published rate, so the scope of each tier is worth confirming before purchase.
Best for
Businesses with multistate sales tax exposure - an audit notice, an assessment worth appealing, or unregistered back liability - that want flat-fee specialist representation rather than hourly generalist counsel.
What they do
- Sales tax nexus studies
- Voluntary disclosure agreements
- Sales tax audit defense
- Sales tax appeals and protests
- State registrations and return filing
- Free nexus and liability check
- Taxability determinations
- Partner program for CPAs and advisors
Details
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| How they charge | Tiered plans, from a free nexus and liability check up to full audit defense; the firm states it charges flat fees rather than by the hour. |
What stands out
- Staffed by sales tax specialists, CPAs, and former state auditors, and states it does no other kind of work.
- Offers a free nexus and liability checker plus a 30-minute consultation with no commitment.
- Prices services flat rather than hourly, from self-serve tiers up to full audit defense.
- Not a law firm: matters needing legal representation are handled by affiliated firm Sales Tax Legal.
Common questions
- What is a voluntary disclosure agreement?
- A voluntary disclosure agreement lets a business come forward and resolve unreported sales tax before a state finds it. In exchange, the state limits how far back it can look, typically three to four years rather than the full statute of limitations, and reduces or waives penalties. Once executed the agreement is binding, and the state cannot reopen the covered period for those taxes.
- What creates sales tax nexus in a state?
- Nexus comes in two forms. Physical nexus follows from an office, a warehouse, inventory stored in the state, a remote employee, or a sales rep visiting customers. Economic nexus follows from sales volume: since South Dakota v. Wayfair in 2018, every state with a sales tax has economic nexus rules, in most states set at $100,000 in annual sales or 200 transactions. Having nexus does not by itself mean tax is owed, because taxability depends on what is sold.
- Is a sales tax assessment worth appealing?
- The firm says nearly every assessment is worth appealing. Audits are adversarial and auditors assess in the absence of perfect documentation, so assessments frequently overstate the real liability. Even where the underlying tax is hard to dispute, an appeal creates room for penalty abatement, a payment arrangement, and settlement discussion that the audit itself does not allow.