Changes to Monthly Report of State Sales and Use Tax Gross Collections and Gross Retail Sales (July 2005)

The information reported on the monthly sales and use tax report has changed as of the July 2005 report. Previously, we had reported gross collections and gross retail sales. The monthly reports now will show gross collections and taxable sales.

North Carolina is a full member in the Streamlined Sales Tax agreement. As part of that agreement, North Carolina now must offer retailers the option of submitting their sales tax returns in a simplified electronic format. The agreement specifies the data elements that may be collected on the simplified electronic return, and retail sales is not one of these items. As such, retail sales figures will not be available on a monthly basis from retailers choosing to use the simplified electronic format.

In order to provide sales information that is consistent across all months of the 2005-06 fiscal year for all taxpayers, the monthly reports will now show taxable sales in place of retail sales. This data element is included for both the simplified electronic and paper return formats. The taxable sales figures will be comparable across business classes and jurisdictions, but will not be comparable to the retail sales figures for prior years. As a result, taxable sales cannot be used as part of any time series of data that used retail sales for prior fiscal years.

We regret any inconvenience that this change will cause.

The sales tax collections figures remain comparable to prior years and may be used for comparison purposes.