Boscov’s Inc. is the largest family-owned department store with 47 locations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and Connecticut, as well as a future location in Rhode Island. As the company focused on ecommerce growth, its tax accounting department did not have the resources to keep up with all its new continental U.S filing requirements in the wake of Wayfair, requiring the company to outsource its semi-manual filing processes to a long-time trusted partner, Sovos.
The South Dakota v. Wayfair decision paved the way for states to determine retailers’ sales tax nexus obligations based on sales revenue and transaction volume instead of physical presence. A growing ecommerce business, along with this new regulatory requirement, outpaced Boscov’s internal resources to remain compliant with its new U.S. filing obligations. Meanwhile, an inefficient semi-manual process, using data flowing to Excel worksheets from its ERP, required the team to spend over 20 hours a month on tax compliance, leaving less time to focus their resources on other areas of the business they were responsible for, including their brick and mortar stores’ financial reporting.
“We knew we had to look at a new solution to satisfy our filing obligations in the wake of Wayfair,” recalls Mark Oulds, Director of Taxation. “We didn’t have the resources to go out and get the licensing done for each state that we’re selling into through our ecommerce site and manage all those new returns in-house. It didn’t take much effort on our side to implement and we spend next to no time now on ecommerce tax compliance. I would recommend Sovos to any company, as it just makes economical sense.”
Boscov’s has used Sovos tax determination for years. When the company began putting more effort and resources into its ecommerce business it only looked to Sovos for outsourced tax return filings. The level of effort to comply with new state sales tax economic nexus laws became too much of a burden for its tax accounting team who also have financial reporting and other responsibilities for other areas of the business.
“Without Sovos it would be a disaster for us to try and manage tax rates and rules, especially in states with multiple levels of jurisdictional rates. I’m confident in Sovos that all the rates are accurate and timely, and if we have a sales tax holiday then we know they’re going to be handled. Sovos helps us avoid auditing issues and responds quickly to any questions we may have. Implementation was a pleasant experience and we’ve always had good experiences with support services.”
Mark Oulds
Director of Taxation, Boscov’s
Since implementing Sovos Sales Tax Services (STS) Boscov’s tax accounting team saves over 20 hours per month satisfying U.S. state sales tax return filing obligations. This has freed up resources to handle financial reporting, banking issues, brick and mortar financial reporting and more. The Sovos tax determination engine eliminates tax rate accuracy risk and ensures a seamless online customer experience.