Part of onboarding with Zamp includes determining when we'll first file for you. At the beginning of the first month we file sales tax on your behalf, you'll receive your first filing notice.
This article walks through what's in a filing notice and how to respond to it.
What filing notices are
Filing notices are our monthly way of letting you know:
Which states have filings due, and what the periods are
How much sales tax we estimate you owe for each period
1. Subject line, recipients, and sender
Subject line
The subject line will always read: Zamp - [MMMM] [YYYY] Sales Tax returns for [BUSINESS_NAME]. If you have multiple business entities, you'll receive a separate filing notice for each.
Recipients
During onboarding, your Onboarding Manager will ask who should receive filing notifications. We can include as many recipients as you'd like. A common setup is to use a shared inbox like accounting@[BUSINESS_NAME].com. To change recipients, reply to your filing notice or reach out at [email protected].
Sender
Filing notices come from [email protected]. Add this address to your address book to prevent spam filtering.
2. The month and year returns are due
The "Returns due in [MMMM]" banner indicates the month the returns are due.
3. Recipient instructions
This section contains key actions when you receive a filing notice:
The number of states we'll be filing for the month
A reminder to make sure you have enough funds in the account we'll draw state liability from
Notice that if we don't hear from you, we'll begin filing three business days after the notice was sent
When to expect filing notices
Timing
Filing notices can arrive any time on or after the 1st of each month. We aim to send them no later than the 5th of the month, depending on data readiness and holidays.
If you have a problem
You have three business days (excluding US federal holidays and weekends) from receipt of the notice to let us know if you need to pause. Any reply to a filing notice other than the all-clear will prevent our team from processing your filings.
4. The "Review & approve filings" button
We give you a button to visit a page for final verification of the filing estimates. On the page, you can let us know we're good to proceed.
Giving us the all-clear
You can either click the Review & approve filings button (preferred) and confirm on the page, or reply to your filing notice and let us know we're all clear.
5. States, periods, and estimated sales tax
States and periods
Each row of your filing notice lists a state and a description of the period. Periods can be indicated as:
[MMMM] - [YYYY]for monthly. Example: June 2024Q[1-4] [YYYY]for quarterly. Example: Q2 2024Q[1-4] [YYYY] [MMM] prepaymentfor quarterly with monthly prepaymentsH[1-2]for semi-annual[YYYY] annualfor annual
Estimated sales tax
Estimated sales tax is the sum of all sales tax we detect you've collected in the state for the specified period, based on your transaction data.
Marketplace facilitators and sales tax
Even though there might be sales tax shown on transaction records from Amazon, Walmart, eBay, or other marketplace facilitators, we will not include this in your estimated liability. Marketplace facilitators are legally required to retain and remit the sales tax collected on their platforms.
You are still required to record and report these sales to states, even though you're not remitting that tax.
6. Estimated sales tax this month
This is the sum of all tax estimated across all states and filing periods in the notice.
7. Letting us know if you have questions or issues
If you spot an issue with the tax estimates, have concerns about remittance, or have any other question, reply to your filing notice and ask us to pause filings.