I cant understand why they would want the headache of paying sales tax on claims. The variables from community to community have to be mind boggling; and the increased manpower required to provide the service doesnt make sense, unless they stand to benefit financially from the move. Are they somehow avoiding payment of sales taxes? Am I missing something? I can be pretty dense sometimes.

If they can defer payment they could collect some interest off those funds and discounts from the states if paid within terms.

There's much more to it than simply wanting to make sure tax dollars are allocated correctly. It's all about the zip codes and gathering information.

From my discussions with them their intent is to classify jobs whether you are on their network or not as a resale. Therefore they will not be remitting sales tax for some jobs. Paul Gross (pres of Harmon) refuses to indicate which jobs this will apply to.

I have contacted MN Dept of Rev who was very interested to hear about this scheme. They indicated that the shop is the responsible party for sales tax and if not remitted we will be responsible for tax, penalties, and interest if audited. They are investigating, but indicated that it get a higher priority if others complained. Therefore it is encouraged for everyone to call their state Dept of Revenue and alert them to this scam.

Safelite has the same tax exempt status for their fleet accounts and it is NOT the shops responsibility to submit taxes as long as you have the particular state exempt form from the TPA on file at your office. We were just audited for sales and use tax and our auditor checked every exempt form and matched it to customers accounts on sales reports and he did question why an insurance job would be exempt...then I showed him their particular exempt certificate which proved we followed the law and it was all good. This is not about taxes as much as collecting information.

I have been audited 3 out of last 5 years and was told something completely opposite. We are not a member of any network therefore the work was not a referral and can not be classified as a resale. Additionally, they were very clear that a resale would apply to parts not a referral of a customer. I was told any sales tax not remitted would be our responsibility. This is true for MN, maybe it is diferent in your state? Somehow the networks are benefiting from this, if they weren't they would not be going to all this trouble. I guess this would be a question for an accountant.

Safelite did the same about 6 years ago. My state tax man said they were investigating. Then it stopped. I told Hormon I will not work for them.

We have e-mailed our dept of revenue and we will see what thier attitude is on this by next week. I hope others will also contact thier state agencies as well. We DO NOT want to be doing something wrong, and be held liable for the tax after the fact. We all know we could never get the ins co's to pay up unless they where forced to. If something fishy is up we don't want the big one to get away!!!!