The statewide sales and use tax rate dropped to 7.25% on July 1, 2011, and the change has prompted a lot of questions from our clients.  The Board of Equalization recently released a notice explaining all of the details (available at http://boe.ca.gov/news/pdf/l285.pdf), but here are the highlights for all you busy retailers out there:

• The current rate for your area can be found at http://www.boe.ca.gov/cgi-bin/rates.cgi. If you are using QuickBooks Point-of-Sale software, make sure to change the rate on the Company Settings screen of the Headquarters store to ensure that taxes are properly collected
• If you collected taxes at an incorrect rate, you must either refund the monies to the overcharged customers, or pay the overcollected taxes to the State of California.
• If an item was purchased before 7/1/11 and is returned, you should refund the tax to the customer based on the rate in effect at the time of the original sale.
  

If you are still corresponding with the Board of Equalization via regular mail, take a minute to register as an eClient by visiting http://boe.ca.gov.  Just click on the eServices tab to get started.  The Board of Equalization will send you notices via email, and you can file returns and make payments online.  Once your done registering, consider yourself one step closer to that virtual, paperless office you imagine!