Assess whether unfiled prior-period obligations should be quantified before registration, filing, or contacting a state.
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational multistate tax screening only; state and local rules vary and must be verified for the applicable year and jurisdiction.
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Since Wayfair, most states assert economic nexus for sales tax once remote sales cross a threshold commonly set around $100,000 or 200 transactions a year, and payroll, an in-state contractor, or stored inventory can create income, franchise, or gross-receipts nexus even with no physical office - confirm each state's current rules.
Register prospectively where thresholds are close and monitor the rest; with no past-period activity there is no historical exposure to disclose, so ongoing compliance under South Dakota v. Wayfair, 585 U.S. 162 (2018) is the priority.
Official guidance: MTC National Nexus Program
A short unregistered window usually keeps back tax, interest, and penalties small, and registering and filing from the true nexus date can cost less than negotiating a formal agreement - a CPA would weigh the numbers before choosing a path.
Register prospectively and file the short back-period directly; a brief unregistered window usually keeps back tax, interest, and penalties low enough that a formal voluntary disclosure agreement is not cost-justified.
Official guidance: MTC National Nexus Program
A remediation path turns on the size of the exposure, and you cannot compare a voluntary disclosure agreement, an amnesty window, or prospective registration without a reasonable estimate of back tax, interest, and any sales tax you charged customers but never remitted - a trust-fund amount states pursue aggressively.
Quantify exposure by state and tax type before choosing a remediation path; a voluntary disclosure agreement, amnesty, and prospective registration cannot be compared under Multistate Tax Commission program standards without a reasonable exposure estimate.
Official guidance: MTC National Nexus Program
Voluntary disclosure and most amnesty programs require you to come forward before the state identifies you, so a nexus questionnaire or audit letter for that tax type usually closes the door and points instead to managed audit or standard filing - confirm each program's current eligibility rules.
Quantify exposure and respond through the audit or standard-filing channel; a prior state contact for a tax type generally forecloses voluntary disclosure for that tax type under the Multistate Voluntary Disclosure Program eligibility rules.
Official guidance: MTC National Nexus Program
A limited-time amnesty commonly waives penalties and sometimes interest and can reach back further than a standard voluntary disclosure agreement, so when a window is open it is often the cheapest route for that state - but the offer expires, so timing controls whether it beats a VDA.
File under the open amnesty window before it closes, then compare to a voluntary disclosure agreement; amnesty commonly waives penalties and sometimes interest but expires on a fixed statutory date. Negotiate a voluntary disclosure agreement to cap the look-back and abate penalties; the Multistate Tax Commission Multistate Voluntary Disclosure Program lets an eligible taxpayer come forward anonymously through a representative.
Official guidance: MTC National Nexus Program
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