Giving Thanks to this Monumental Sales Tax Year

2018 has been one of the craziest, busiest, and for some of us, the most fulfilling years as sales tax professionals.

We feel a great need to take the time to pause and express our gratitude to all of the members of the Sales Tax Institute family who have been a part of this significant year in sales tax.

Diane Yetter, Founder of Sales Tax Institute, at the South Dakota v. Wayfair Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court this April

Thank you to our students –

Simply put, we wouldn’t be here without you. Working through tricky sales tax issues and sharing in “ah-ha!” moments with you are major reasons why we do what we do.  

It is because of you that we are always looking for new ways to engage and offer educational content. This year, we had more people in our classes than ever. We met so many new members of the Sales Tax Institute family through our webinars – live and on-demand, our 3-day in-person courses Basics of Sales Tax and Advanced Workshop, and our brand new Sales Tax Jumpstart online class.

Diane with students at Basics of Sales and Use Tax course in Chicago

We are energized by your engagement and look forward to bringing you even more new things in 2019 including a revamped Basics of Sales Tax class and a new cohort of Jumpstart. Keep an eye out for these big announcements.

Each of our students is an incredible asset to their company. We are honored to have been a part of building your sales tax skills this year.

Thank you to the instructors and staff

We are extremely lucky at the Sales Tax Institute to have some of the brightest minds in the sales tax field on our faculty. A big thank you to each of this year’s faculty members – Rachel Le Mieux, Michelle André, B.J. Pritchett, David Hughes, Chuck Maniace, and Carol Portman –  for the expertise, humor, and incredible teaching abilities they bring to our courses.

Advanced Workshop 2018 faculty: Diane Yetter, Michelle André, and Rachel Le Mieux

Our Sales Tax Institute team grew in 2018. We are very happy to welcome Tim Morrison aboard as a Manager and it was about a year ago at this time that Hannah Bannister joined us. Good thing too, because post-Wayfair has been an all hands on deck situation! Thanks, team, for all the work you put into hosting our courses and developing new resources and for your dedication to our audience and answering their questions.

Thank you to all of our clients –

Although many of you only know us for our training, we also have a large client base representing some interesting businesses, as well as household names. These clients have taken us not just across the U.S., but this year one client asked us to visit their team in London to start planning a VAT systems implementation.

Diane with client, Wendy Mancini, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London

We have clients from coast to coast, in big cities and small towns, and even from the land down under! From those we’ve worked with for many years to those who we took on this year – thank you for putting your trust in us to work through sales tax challenges during an uncertain time.

Thank you to our sponsors and partners

A related thank you goes to the trusted technology partners on our consulting side, Yetter Tax, that help us service our clients, Vertex, Avalara, and Thompson Reuters. A big shout out to the extended team members that help us service our clients – Cara, Chriss, Drew, and Eric as well as the R&M team for all their help this year.

An immense thank you to our 2018 Sales Tax Institute sponsors, Sovos and Avalara. Their continued support helps us offer the highest quality educational opportunities possible. We are honored to partner with them in ways that lead to the professional growth of our students.

In the craziness post-Wayfair, we are also grateful for the cooperation of the states in working with us to alleviate the burden to taxpayers. The Multistate Tax Commission has also been very helpful and interested in our input. It’s encouraging to see organizations like the MTC seek out practitioner advice to develop their policy recommendations after Wayfair.

We would not have made it through this year without the creative and strategic individuals that help the Sales Tax Institute communicate effectively and execute our training programs. Thanks to Brad Farris and Angela Jackson from Anchor Advisors, Hilary Buuck, the BizEase Support team, and our web team, Orbit Media, who delivered us a beautiful new website this year. Your insights are invaluable to what we do.

Thank you to you, our readers, fans, and followers.

To all the readers, fans, and followers of Sales Tax Institute – you push us to raise our game and we’re so thankful for it! It was because of you that we were able to get information out on the very first day of the Wayfair decision. You have motivated us to keep everything – from our charts to our white papers – up to date. We are honored that you have told us we have some of the best resources out there.

Sales Tax Institute Staff

Final thank you to the Wayfair decision

In a lot of ways, maybe we should thank the Wayfair decision itself (and the state, companies, lawyers, and courts behind it) for making this among the most interesting years in sales tax yet! The decision made people pay more attention to sales tax, and for that we are thankful.

We are humbled by everyone who has put their trust in our resources, courses, and consulting this year, particularly after Wayfair.

The support motivates and inspires us to explore new ways to share sales tax knowledge that meets people where they are. 2018… what a year!