Multi-State Sales Tax Expertise - Coast to Coast
Companies find us at all kinds of moments: expanding into new states and unsure where they owe, opening an audit notice, cleaning up years of back taxes, sorting out whether their SaaS is taxable, or getting ready to sell. We’ve worked through all of it, more times than we can count. For more than 20 years, Miles Consulting Group has helped companies understand where they stand on sales tax, fix what’s behind them, and stay ahead of what’s next. Let’s figure out where you actually stand.
Talk it through with a member of our team.
Why Miles Consulting?
- Helping companies with multi-state sales tax since 2002
- Our team has years of technical and practical experience as former Big Four and “Top 20” accounting firm advisors
- State sales tax audit experience across the US
- Hundreds of SaaS and technology clients
- Clients from startups to the Fortune 500
- Millions of dollars in taxes/penalties saved
Multi-State Sales Tax, From the People Who Do It All Day
A short introduction to Miles Consulting Group from Monika and Bill: what we focus on, and how we help companies fix the past, file correctly now, and plan for what comes next.
“Sales tax isn’t an area of competency for most CPAs. In talking with Monika and the Miles team, you can see their breadth of knowledge and experience. They’re quick to respond, helpful, organized, and great at taking cumbersome compliance work off our plate.”
— Corporate Controller, Technology Company
One Question Rarely Represents the Whole Story
Here’s what surprises people most: you can owe sales tax in a state where you have no office and no employees, just customers. It’s called economic nexus, and ever since the Supreme Court’s 2018 Wayfair decision, once your sales into a state cross a certain threshold, the obligation follows.
So clients often come to us with a single, specific question: “Can you help us start filing in these states?” Sometimes that’s exactly the right question. Often it’s the first thread of a bigger one. Growth changes your sales tax picture quietly: a new state here, a remote hire there, a product taxed differently than you assumed. By the time it surfaces (in an audit), a financing round, or a buyer’s due diligence (it usually) involves more than filing a few returns. Our job is to see the whole picture, not just the thread you happened to pull. And the first thing we do is the part most people are anxious about: figure out how big the issue actually is, so you’re working from facts instead of emotion.
Where Would You Like to Start?
People reach us at different moments. Find the one that sounds like you, and we’ll point you to the right place, whether that’s a longer conversation or a relatively straightforward answer.
Most of our clients already have good people around them: A finance team, a CPA firm, the right software. But at most middle market companies, sales tax isn’t really just any one person’s job. And the constantly changing rules make the sales tax function a challenging one for most finance departments. That’s usually where an experienced second set of eyes earns its keep.
Is SaaS Taxable Where you Sell? See for Yourself.
SaaS and digital products are taxed differently from one state to the next; fully taxable in some, exempt in others, with plenty of exceptions in between. Over 20 states tax SaaS today, and more join every year.
Our interactive SaaS Sales Tax by State Map gives you a clear, current view of where things stand, right down to the states where local rules differ from the state’s. Unlike the automated tools built into software, it comes with something those can’t offer: real tax professionals you can actually talk to about your situation.
People + Software > Software Alone
We like sales tax software. We partner with the major platforms and help clients choose one and set it up. We’re also clear about what it can and can’t do.
Software is very good at the math, calculating rates, applying them, filing returns. But even the best platforms (Avalara, Anrok, and the rest) don’t always accurately tell you where you’ve created nexus, whether a given product is taxable in a given state, or what to do about liabilities from before the system was switched on. Put simply, your software is only as good as the information you give it. “Set it and forget it” sounds reassuring, but it’s where some of the most expensive problems we see get started.
Success Stories
A Couple of Situations We’ve Worked Through
"We can point to it when investors ask."
Jeff, former controller at GlossGenius, came to us with a non-tax accounting background and a sales tax problem spanning multiple states. We handled the voluntary disclosures, the registrations, and the back and current filings, and dealt with the state authorities directly on his behalf. What he values most is being able to stop worrying about it: when investors or banks ask about their sales tax process, he can point to one that works.
"It felt like they were part of the team."
Arash Shiva and Marius Ciocirlan, co-founders of ShareGrid, ran an online marketplace and needed someone who understood both marketplace sales tax and California specifically. We mapped out the milestones, ran the forecasts and analysis, and walked them through a process they’d never been through before. What stood out to them, in their words, was that we cared about the outcome as much as they did.
Selling, Raising, or Advising on a Deal?
Sales tax exposure has a way of surfacing in due diligence, and a buyer may use it to chip away at the price or hold money back. We help sellers and their advisors size the issue quickly, resolve it, and keep the deal on track.
And if you’re an M&A advisor or a transaction attorney: we work inside your timeline, we keep it practical, and we work as an extension of your team. Bring us in, and we work hard to make you look good.
Why Do Clients Stay With Us?
Miles Consulting Group was founded in 2002, in the heart of Silicon Valley, born from Monika Miles’s belief that a smaller firm could serve clients better and more personally. She left a Big Four career to build something more focused. More than two decades later, that’s still the idea. Bill Loew, our EVP, spent time on the state’s side of the table, and our team is fortunate to have many years’ experience working with state auditors, so we know how the other side thinks, which helps when we’re the ones sitting between you and a Department of Revenue.
We start with honesty and clear communication, and we measure the work by whether it leaves you with a little peace of mind. A lot of our clients have been with us for years. They hire us at one company, move to another, and bring us along. We’re especially proud of that.
Questions Companies Commonly Ask
Not always. Most have a general sense that growth, a software rollout, remote hires, or an acquisition might have created new obligations, but not how much, or where. Sorting that out is often the first thing we do together.
Yes, all the time: with internal finance teams, CPA firms, attorneys, software providers, and M&A advisors. Sales tax is simply the piece we go deep on, and many of our clients come to us through those advisors.
Often, it’s a nexus and taxability review: where you have nexus, what’s taxable in each state, and what you might owe for prior years. It becomes the roadmap for everything that follows.
Not usually. We start with a scoped review to size the issue, and most fixes are more contained than people fear. You’ll know what we’re actually dealing with before you commit to anything bigger.
Absolutely. Buyers find this exposure during due diligence and use it to negotiate the price down or hold money back. Dealing with it before you go to market keeps you in control of that conversation.
A wide range. Our clients include SaaS and technology, retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, construction, and financial services companies, among others. The sales tax questions are similar across most industries, so if yours isn’t on the list, we’ve very likely seen it.
Not Sure Where You Stand? Let’s Find Out.
Most companies reach out before they fully know the scope of what they’re dealing with. That’s normal, and it’s the right time to talk. A short conversation can usually tell us how big the issue might be, what may have caused it, and what your options are. Most companies leave that first conversation with a much clearer picture, and a lot more peace of mind.
If any of this sounds familiar, reach out. Sales tax can feel daunting. We’d like to take some of that off your plate.
