TAX2618. Sales Tax Minefield: How to Spot, Avoid, and Mitigate Hidden Client Risks
Sales and use tax obligations are evolving faster than many clients can keep up with and they are increasingly turning to their CPAs to flag risks long before an auditor does. Yet for many accounting and consulting professionals, sales tax remains one of the most challenging areas to assess because the rules vary widely between states, change frequently, and can be triggered by even small shifts in a client’s operations. The stakes are high: failing to identify nexus, misapplying exemptions, or overlooking a client’s exposure in a new market can lead to costly assessments, penalties, and unexpected liabilities that undermine both the client relationship and the CPA’s value as a trusted advisor.
This session takes a practical, actionable approach to navigating today’s multistate sales-tax landscape. We’ll break down the most common and costly pitfalls facing clients from unnoticed economic nexus thresholds, to misclassified services, to overlooked digital product taxability, to gaps in exemption certificate management. Even sophisticated clients may not recognize when their business model, product mix, or geographic footprint has triggered new obligations, leaving CPAs in the critical position of asking the right questions at the right time. This session will help you do exactly that.
You’ll learn a clear, CPA-friendly framework for identifying red flags and assessing sales tax risk quickly and confidently. We’ll walk through the core areas where exposure tends to hide: nexus creation through remote employees or inventory; taxability issues involving digital goods or services; multichannel selling complications; drop-shipment challenges; registration and filing inconsistencies; and the real-world audit triggers. The presentation also highlights how small operational changes like outsourcing fulfillment, shifting to subscription models, expanding into marketplaces, or completing mergers and acquisitions can dramatically alter a client’s tax obligations without anyone realizing it.
Beyond technical rules, the session focuses on how CPAs can embed simple but effective sales tax review steps into their existing client processes. You’ll gain practical language for asking the right discovery questions, strategies for minimizing surprises, and insights into when deeper analysis or specialist support may be needed. The goal is not to turn CPAs into sales tax experts, but to equip them with the tools and confidence to identify exposure early, reduce risk proactively, and elevate the value of their client advisory services.
Attendees will receive a sales tax risk checklist designed that can be incorporated into client onboarding, annual planning meetings, SALT reviews, advisory engagements, or internal quality control processes. It offers a structured way to evaluate sales tax risk giving firms a consistent, repeatable method for protecting clients from significant liabilities.
Whether you regularly advise clients on state and local tax or simply want to strengthen your risk identification approach across your broader client base, this session will provide the clarity and tools you need. You’ll leave with a stronger understanding of how sales tax exposure develops, how to spot risks early, and how to guide clients toward compliance with confidence before an auditor forces the issue.
