VoIP Telecom Taxes - Yikes!

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone that is reselling VoIP service from a SIP provider feeding your Asterisk/FreePBX/3CX system, or via a white label provider, has been able to crack the telecom taxes nut? For example, I can get a few SIP trunks and feed a PBX on a cloud instance, and it should work fine. I can charge healthy margins based on that cost. Taxes aren’t charged because you’re wholesaling that service. I understand there can be Local, State, E911, and possibly other taxes that are due. I also understand fines can be pretty big.

So if my provider isn’t charging me tax, and the client needs to pay taxes, what’s the best way to go about that? What are you folks doing today in your businesses? Some have suggested that ‘the only way’ is to have the SIP provider or VoIP provider bill your customer (with taxes) directly. Then you just bill them for the PBX. This shows them the cost on the SIP trunks however, and doesn’t allow you to totally control cost. It does remove risk it would seem. Some 3rd party billing platforms will handle it for you with an integration (Avalara) but that adds additional cost too. At scale this makes sense, but what about for several small business customers?

I just heard that one MSP buys from VoIP.ms specifically because: 1. They’re outside the US. 2. They don’t charge tax, so the cost is lower for my customer. That doesn’t sound great, so I’m hoping someone else has cracked the code on this.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

We are having a similar issue. I was using flowroute but like the customer billing that skyetel has better and the pricing seems similar. The tax thing is irritating as I have been told by veterans that if you are small, not to worry about it. Skyetel will collect the taxes but then you need to submit them which…is apparently a secret as firms that submit it on your behalf are $500- $600 per month.

https://support.skyetel.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053810693-Tenant-Billing-Tax-Remittance