Attorney-led VDA + multistate registration + ongoing returns filing. One team, one fixed price, zero surprises.
You've been selling in multiple states. Maybe you registered in some but not all. Maybe you collected tax but never filed returns. Maybe you didn't even know you had nexus. Now you're worried about audits, penalties, and back taxes that could cripple your business.
We've seen this exact situation hundreds of times. And we've developed a proven three-step process to get you from "what have I done?" to "fully compliant and protected", without the astronomical penalties you're fearing.
Click here to explore our tiers and membership.
The Sales Tax Nightmare Keeping You Up at Night
The past is haunting you. You've been selling in states where you weren't registered. You didn’t collect tax and never filed returns. Or worse - you collected tax and did not properly remit it to the states. The lookback period could go back years, and the penalties are adding up in your head. Every time your phone rings, you wonder if it's a state revenue department calling with an audit notice.
The present is chaos. You're registered in some states but not others, not sure which states you actually have nexus, and your filing deadlines are scattered and unmanageable. On top of running the business, your team spends hours every month just trying to stay on top of it, and even still, you're still not confident you're
What if you reach out to a state and accidentally trigger an audit? What if the penalties are so high they force you to close your business?
The Real Cost of Inaction
The average sales tax audit assessment runs between $15,000 and $75,000. Penalty rates range from 5% to 25% of unpaid tax. Interest accrues at 3% to 12% annually depending on the state. If you wait for an audit, legal fees alone can cost $10,000 to $50,000 or more. And that doesn't account for the countless hours you'll spend managing the crisis, the time you can't get back, time you should be spending growing your business instead of fighting with state revenue departments.
The Complete Compliance Solution: Clean Up, Get Right, Stay Protected
Step 1: Clean Up the Past (Strategic Voluntary Disclosure)
This is where we're fundamentally different from software platforms and generic tax preparers. We don't just fill out VDA forms and submit them. We develop a customized legal strategy designed to minimize your liability, reduce or eliminate penalties, and position your case for the best possible outcome. This is attorney work, from a team of seasoned sales tax professionals, not data entry.
Here's what strategic VDA work actually means. We start by analyzing your entire business operation to identify every possible angle that could reduce your exposure. Did you have inventory in a state but never make sales there? Were you selling services that some states don't tax? Did you have sales that were clearly exmept but maybe not have 100% of the documentation to support it? We'll argue for and try to help your business by maximizing your exemptions, not avoid giving you answers.
Software platforms can't do this. They ask you questions, you input data, and they generate a form. There's no analysis of whether you actually owe what the form says you owe. There's no evaluation of legal arguments that could reduce your liability. As the software platforms are often manned by software people, not sales tax professionals or lawyers, there's no strategic positioning of your case to achieve the best outcome. It's mechanical, not strategic.
We work with you to understand your business model, your transaction types, your sales channels, and your operational footprint. Then we identify every legitimate legal argument that could save you money. As every seasoned sales tax attorney knows, the nuances matter enormously, and they require legal expertise to navigate.
During the preparation and filing of the VDA’s, we are positioning your business in a way that maximizes penalty abatement and minimizes lookback periods. After filing, we negotiate with the states for tax penalty and interest reduction along with payment plans if necessary. The states know when they're dealing with attorneys who understand the law versus businesses or preparers who are just filling out forms. That difference translates directly into better outcomes.
From a timeline perspective, the timeline for strategic VDA negotiations typically runs 30 to 90 days depending on the states involved and the complexity of your situation. Instead of a traditional law firm hourly pricing, we meet you where youre at by offering DIY tools and guides, guided solutions for those that want to do the lifting but need some help and fully managed services. Depending on the volume of states, the type of industry and the states involved, our typical managed VDA pricing is about $3,000 per state.
The results speak for themselves, just check out some of our reviews. Once your VDA is accepted, you're required to register and begin filing returns immediately. That's where step two comes in.
Step 2: Get Properly Registered (Strategic Multistate Registration)
Once we've cleaned up the past, we register you in every state where you have current nexus, and only those states. This is more strategic than it sounds as many businesses either over-register out of fear, creating unnecessary filing obligations and costs, or under-register out of confusion, leaving gaps in their compliance that will eventually trigger audits. We do neither. Our 50-state nexus analysis identifies exactly where you have nexus based on current law, recent court cases, and each state's enforcement patterns.
The registration process involves more than just filling out forms. Timing matters as filing prior to entering into a VDA can prohibit the ability to enter into a VDA. Discussing and formulating an overall strategy, rather than just putting out the immediate fire is critical for businesses.
Registration timelines vary by state. Some states issue permits within a few days. Others take four weeks or more. We handle multiple states simultaneously, so you're not waiting for one state to finish before we start the next. Most clients are fully registered within four to six weeks of completing their VDA process.
Our registration pricing is approximately $275-$300 per state. This can be done in tandem with our nexus study, VDA, and return services to ensure the business is on track for sales tax compliance. Once you're registered, you have filing obligations. Miss a deadline, file incorrectly, or make calculation errors, and you're creating new exposure even though you just cleaned up the past. That's where step three becomes essential.
Step 3: Stay Compliant Forever (Strategic Returns Filing)
This is the second place where our strategic approach saves you significant money compared to software platforms. Software calculates tax based on algorithms and databases. We calculate tax based on your specific business, your specific transactions, and our knowledge of how to minimize your tax burden while staying fully compliant.
Partnering with us means you get the best of both worlds. The software advantage of utilizing a sales tax software platform to file and manage your returns. However, you don’t have a software company trying to do sales tax, we are real life seasoned sales tax professionals that utilize software to assist with our filings.
On the flip side, we are not a traditional law firm that is stuck in the dark ages, does not use software and has pay by the hour inflexible pricing.
We bridge the gap and meet you where youre at by offering competitive filing services. However, if you have questions or issues arise along the way, we can help with that as well. We also offer DIY services for small business and start ups, guided solutions for growing business that wants to handle some of the work in house, and fully managed options if you just want it out of your hair.
Our team includes CPAs and former state auditors who review every return before it goes out. They know exactly what triggers audits because they used to conduct audits. They know what states look for in returns because they used to review thousands of returns looking for red flags. They position your returns to minimize audit risk while maximizing legitimate tax savings. This is professional judgment that software cannot replicate.
We handle complex scenarios that break software systems. Multi-state transactions where the sourcing rules are ambiguous. Sales to government entities that might be exempt. Digital products where taxability varies by state and changes frequently. Services bundled with products where the tax treatment depends on how you structure the transaction. Manufacturing exemptions that require specific documentation. Resale certificates that need validation. These situations require human expertise and strategic thinking.
You get direct access to your dedicated sales tax team. When you have questions about whether a transaction is taxable, whether you qualify for an exemption, or how to structure a deal to minimize tax exposure, you're not calling a 1-800 number and talking to whoever answers.
The ongoing returns service is priced at $80 per state per month. If you're filing in three states, that's $240 per month. The pricing is transparent and predictable. No surprise bills.
Why Businesses Trust Us With Their Complete Compliance
Every VDA in our firm is handled by licensed attorneys with over a decade of sales tax experience. This isn't a paralegal filling out forms or software generating documents. It's an attorney who analyzes your situation, develops a legal strategy, identifies arguments that could save you money, and negotiates aggressively on your behalf. You get strategic legal representation, not mechanical form preparation.
Our team includes former state sales tax auditors who spent years on the other side of the table. They know exactly what arguments work with state revenue departments because they used to evaluate those arguments. They know which positions are aggressive but defensible and which positions cross the line. They know how to position your case for maximum penalty abatement and minimum lookback periods. This insider knowledge is invaluable and impossible to replicate with software.
We have CPAs on our team who ensure your returns are accurate, your exemptions are properly documented, and your books align with your filings. But more importantly, they look for strategic opportunities to reduce your tax burden. They identify exemptions you qualify for. They find deductions you're entitled to. They structure your reporting to minimize audit risk while maximizing legitimate tax savings.
Unlike traditional law firms that charge $500 to $1000 per hour with unpredictable final bills, you know exactly what you'll pay upfront. There are no billing surprises. No scope creep. No shock when you receive the final invoice. We quote a fixed fee, we do the work, and that's what you pay.
Strategy vs. Software: What You're Actually Paying For
When you use software platforms for VDAs or returns filing, you're paying for automation. The software asks questions, you provide answers, and it generates forms based on algorithms. There's no analysis of whether you actually owe what the form says. There's no evaluation of legal arguments that could reduce your liability. There's no strategic thinking about how to position your case or structure your transactions.
When you work with us, you're paying for strategic expertise. We analyze your situation looking for every legitimate angle to save you money. We take aggressive positions when the law supports them. We make legal arguments that software can't make because software doesn't understand the law - it only understands data entry.
Real Examples of Strategic Value
- Software Subscription Client: A client was selling software subscriptions and the platform calculated tax on 100% of sales in every state. We analyzed the transactions and determined that a portion of the subscription fee was for cloud storage, which several states don't tax. We restructured how they invoiced customers and reduced their tax liability by 15-20% going forward. That's $15,000 per year in tax savings that software would have missed because software doesn't strategize about transaction structure.
- Drop-Shipping Client: Another client had nexus in eight states and owed back taxes of approximately $45,000 based on a mechanical calculation. We analyzed their business model and discovered they they did not have nexus in as many states as they thought and utilizing the applicable lookback periods to their advantage we significantly reduced the exposure and the number of VDAs required. We filed VDAs in six states instead of eight and negotiated total liability down to $28,000. That's $17,000 in savings that came from legal strategy, not data entry.
- Government Sales Client: A third client was using software to file returns and paying tax on sales to government entities. We reviewed their transactions and identified that many of those sales qualified for government exemptions. We helped them implement a process to collect exemption certificates from government customers and reduced their monthly tax liability by $3,200. Over a year, that's $38,400 in tax savings that software was missing because it wasn't looking for strategic opportunities.
This is what you're paying for when you work with us. Not just compliance, but strategic compliance that minimizes your tax burden while keeping you fully protected. Software gives you mechanical accuracy. We give you strategic advantage.
From Fear to Freedom: Your Compliance Transformation Starts Now
You’ve already done the hard part — building and running a successful business. Now it’s time to protect it. Whether you’re worried about years of unfiled sales tax, registration gaps, or mounting exposure across multiple states, this doesn’t have to end in penalties, audits, or sleepless nights. We’ve helped hundreds of businesses just like yours turn sales tax chaos into calm.
Our attorney-led, fixed-fee approach gets you from fear to freedom in as little as 90 days. One team. One strategy. One predictable price. No more guessing what the states will do next — we’ve already seen it all and built a process that works.
If you’re ready to stop looking over your shoulder and start moving forward with confidence, we’re ready to help you every step of the way — from voluntary disclosure to full registration and ongoing compliance.
👉 Explore your membership options to see how quickly you can go from crisis to complete compliance.