April 2020: Alaska sales tax report update

What's changing in Alaska?

Alaska passed new legislation which allows some local areas to levy a sales tax even though Alaska does not have a statewide sales tax. At this time, AutoFile does not yet support filing local sales tax in Alaska. 

Remote sellers who never before had to worry about collecting and filing sales tax in Alaska may be required to collect Alaska sales tax.

FAQ

Does TaxJar support Alaska's local sales tax? 

Yes! Alaska local sales tax reporting is available in your TaxJar account and our TaxJar API supports calculations for applicable local jurisdictions within Alaska. 

  • To add Alaska, please go to your State nexus settings, complete your state nexus details and enable calculations if your account supports an API-powered integration. 
  • Alaska may be added on your dashboard for these reasons and you can click to view the Alaska Report: 

If you're on our upgraded plans, you will now receive an Economic Nexus Insights Notification when your business is approaching Alaska’s economic nexus threshold tax.

Our Sales and Transactions Checker can now be run to check for sales to Alaska that meet and exceed the economic nexus requirements for local jurisdictions.

  • Please note, the Checker does not send notifications and requires to be manually run.
  • If your business is experiencing high growth, please contact us to learn more about our Economic Nexus Insights for more robust monitoring of your economic nexus thresholds and enhanced export options.

How does this impact me as an in-state seller with a physical presence in Alaska?

If your business already has a physical presence in Alaska that creates nexus, please note that a seller still can be considered a "remote seller" according to the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission.
  • If you have a physical presence in Alaska that creates nexus and your nexus is in a local jurisdiction that's adopted the code, you will need to collect and remit sales tax. 
  • If you have a physical presence in Alaska that creates nexus and your physical nexus is not in a local jurisdiction that's adopted the code, you do not need to collect and remit sales tax. 
    • However, if you have a physical presence in Alaska which is not in a local jurisdiction that's adopted the code, you can be considered a "remote seller" if you sell into those local jurisdictions that have adopted the code. 
    • A remote seller is defined as "without having a physical presence in a taxing jurisdiction."
    • Our Alaska reports do not support displaying any jurisdiction for sales that are in cities not yet part of the Alaska Remote Seller Commission. This means that some of your transactions are included in your gross sales amount but you will not find them in the local jurisdiction section of our Report breakdown. 
  • Therefore, as a remote seller, you may have economic nexus if you meet the thresholds in a jurisdiction that has adopted the uniform Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Code and therefore would need to collect and remit sales tax via the 

Can TaxJar file my sales tax returns in Alaska?

At this time, AutoFile for Alaska is not available yet.