[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome, everyone, to taxing poetic. I am Tim Hal, CEO of Synexis Tax Solutions. And as always, I'm joined with my co host.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm Jenny Carter. Not the CEO of Synexis.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: I was gonna say it's two episodes in a row. Tim has been like. Anyways, I'm the CEO.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Totally. Like, I'm just a manager.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: I'm the CEO.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: I mean, that's how I'm hearing it. Totally.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: And as always, we're here with our good buddy, producer dude, JB. How you doing, man?
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Good. I didn't have to change my shirt. Cause I'm not on camera.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: That is fantastic.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: And your shirt is quite nice.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: That shirt is fantastic.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot going on.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Get serious. Well, today we are going to be doing the Senexis web awards.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: And for those of you who do not know, Tim, JB and I were incredibly familiar with the Dundees. For any office fans out there, that every year they would get together and have the office people give out some really kind of razzie awards. Wouldn't you say, JB? Like, they weren't. Yeah, yeah. They're not nice awards. So we're doing the same, basically.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: The razzies.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: The razzies. Yeah. There you go.
[00:01:04] Speaker C: The good ones, though, right?
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Oh, we will talk about the good ones.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: That's not as fun.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: But as always, as our lead in our chief literature has a poem, a haiku for us today, Jenny.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yes. I will be taxing poetic with my opening haiku. If everyone is ready, I think I'm ready to run. And I have the appropriate silence.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: JB has his air sickness bag. He's good.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Rude. Okay, you ready?
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Top five worst websites. Get ready for the roasting. Worse than Tom Brady?
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Oh, I don't like that.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Did you guys watch that?
[00:01:39] Speaker A: I did.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: It was awesome.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: It was pretty freaking. It was pretty epic.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: It's so bad, but so funny.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I was working, of course, on compliance. Thanks. Websites this past weekend, and it's 3 hours long. I mean, it was not a short roast. I mean, it was a three hour roast. And so I just had it on the background while I was working, and I just. I was laughing the entire time.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: That is awesome.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: It was great.
[00:02:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty solid, not gonna lie.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: So. Yeah, so we're getting ready to roast some states. We're gonna roast some states. But first, we're gonna toast some states.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: So here we go. I had a nominations list, as you do, for every award, right? You know, we got your emmys, your razzies your dundies.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: You actually pulled the team, too, right?
[00:02:18] Speaker B: I did. That's where I'm going with this. Yes, I nominated for. So we're. Okay. So today we're covering top five best compliance websites, top five worst, obviously top five best. Not as fun, but we'll spend a little bit of time just giving them their toasts and it's good for our.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: Audience to know how you rate.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: What are we looking for?
[00:02:35] Speaker A: There we go.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get to that. So here we go. So I did some nominations and then, yeah, our compliance team here at Sunexus, I sent it out to them and I asked them to vote. I said, vote for your top five. I think I gave them eight or nine states of nominations. Give me your top five best. Top five worst. So how we. I would say let's start with the top five best states.
I would say this list encompasses states that have mostly moved to tap, which. Here's a quiz question. JB, for Tim, is what does tap.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Stand for taxpayer access point.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: And I know you looked that up yesterday.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: I did not.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Okay. You did just know that.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: I did know it. I mean, you see it frequently enough because, like 50% of the states subscribe to it. Right.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Well, and I have to say, maybe that's someone we can reach out to for the podcast. I just had this brilliant light bulb to have them on the podcast because they have just done an infinitely wonderful job with converting a lot of these states to a much easier interface for compliance. All of these states have then, you know, abandoned their old portals to move to tap, which is just a big move in itself. It costs money, right, to move it stuff. I don't know a lot about it, but I know it costs money.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Right, stuff.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Stuff, yeah.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Implement new servers, new security architecture, everything else, taxpayer money.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Get things approved. I know things don't move fast at a government level. Not knocking the government, but that's just how things move slow, fast in government.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Good oxymoron right there.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Yeah, good point.
Good point. Yes. Sorry, Frank O'Connell.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, sorry, Frank. Love you, buddy.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: So they seem to move most of the features from a previous website to tap. And so some features are there for some states, some not. But for the most part, this list of states, they have ease of customer service, you can view previous balances, you can email a representative, you can get a lot of help. I mean, there's just a lot of stuff that you can do on these websites that makes our job easier.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Love that.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: And I wouldn't say these states are in any particular order, but I'll say what tied for fifth was Maine and Wisconsin. Wisconsin especially has a great system. They not only have tap, but they also have an EDI website where you can upload an EDI file, which is awesome.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: So you got lobster, you got cheese. Where's the macaroni component? Yes, we can have some lobster Mac and cheese right there, dude, with no.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: God, I'm so hungry. I can't believe you just said that. Okay, Idaho, Ford State.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah, we're big fans.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Big fans of Idaho. I mean, it's a single rate tax. Absolutely. It's just so easy to report on there. And they're very helpful with their customer service.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: One of the coolest mascots in college football, the Idaho vandals.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Is that their mascot?
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. University of Idaho. That's pretty awesome.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Oh, I was thinking more of, isn't boise state the one with the blue field?
[00:05:25] Speaker A: That's broncos. Yep.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Broncos.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: Birds think it's water and they crash and die.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: But aren't all the birds robots, though?
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Birds aren't real, but they were that.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: They were, but that's what they do. Do they find robot parts?
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Can we talk about this for a second and explain to the audience why birds are not all birds, but have.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: You ever seen a baby pigeon?
[00:05:45] Speaker A: No.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: No one has because pigeons aren't real.
What do they.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: What do they do? What did you explain? What do they do when they sit on power lines?
[00:05:54] Speaker C: That's how they charge. Charging port isn't their feet. And they swim. That's why they sit on power lines and they're just washing you, and they're just doing government things. Birds were real. At one point, I would say 10% of the world's birds are real.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: So the birds that crash into Boise state's field, are those real birds, or are they computer parts, like, all over the field?
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Those gotta be cyborgs.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: It's gotta be, you know, it's just their software is like, oh, that's water. Go ahead and land on it. So people think we need to drink.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Water, but are they, like, Westworld birds where they have actual, kind of, like, tissue and stuff, or are they just, like, you know, robots?
[00:06:24] Speaker C: It feels like at this point they would have the tissue, but we did rag on government earlier for being a little bit lazy. So it's possible that they're working with some circuit city style.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Dude, I love this. There's a flaw in the matrix, and JB is identifying it. The birds are visible, and they're charging.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Okay, okay. All right. So we went from Idaho single rate tax to Boise state to birds or robots. So, okay, now we're gonna bring it back. Okay. Number three is Tim's favorite state, Massachusetts.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Taxachusetts, which is hot.
[00:06:56] Speaker B: I don't know why he says that. Cause it's not like Massachusetts has a lot of taxes. They have a single rate tax. They're not a home rule state. They have a great website. So quit ragging on Massachusetts patriots.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Boo. Red Sox.
[00:07:08] Speaker C: I don't agree with that.
It is very expensive to live in Massachusetts. Is there a correlation between states that have a high tax revenue? Because there's a lot of rich people there that get money and ease of use of the website. Is there any kind of.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: This is interesting. So there's a person on our tax staff, her name is Amanda Populari, and she's amazing. She actually lives in Maine. She explained to me something very interesting, that in Maine, you actually get tax credits if you live in Maine for greater than, like, it was like a year or something like that. Like, if you're a year round resident, you get this huge tax, like, income tax credit, and you have to be. Have to establish, like, residency in Maine for two years or something to ultimately get this tax credit. And I was like, wow, this is really, really interesting. But if you think about it, she's like, oh, yeah, there's a ton of people, like, in Kennebunk. Yeah, Kennebunkport and these other areas that only go up there a few months out of the year, and they're getting hammered on taxes while everybody else whose year round residents get this nice little break. And I'm like, man, that's. It's pretty genius.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: Look, I learn every day on this podcast from both of you. It's such a treat. Yes. So, okay, number two, I'm gonna say our group agreed. Indiana. Indiana has a great website. They actually used to. Even. Their old website was pretty good, too. Then they moved to tap, and it's just good. I mean, it's just easy to file. Single tax rate, great customer service.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: And then what comes in a. Number one is Connecticut. And the only reason why Connecticut edges out everyone else is because they're due at the end of the month. So. Which really doesn't have anything to do with their website. But we appreciate that. So, thank you.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: FYI, a few of those states have some really aggressive administration and tactics and the way that they do audits. So if you coupled my group's interpretation of those states, I can tell you that Donna's grab bag. Donna would be jumping up and down right now if you told her that Wisconsin or Massachusetts was in your top five list.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Cause she's probably like, well, hold on now. This is not. This is just compliance you're talking about. Yeah. You're doing more of a tax foundation. Kind of an index analysis on overall rates. Yeah. Andre, on a previous episode from Tax foundation. So I hear what you're saying. This is strictly compliance and ease of use.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Fine. And I like that we narrow the bandwidth there. I'm good with that.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: That's a good idea. With one of the things you said was customer service. What makes the customer service good?
[00:09:26] Speaker B: What is so critical in our job? Because it's so hard to get people on the phone for a lot of reasons. Just. There's tons of us calling the states to ask questions. It's really critical that we're able to email or through the website portals. They have a way. A lot of these states and websites, they'll be able just to email a representative through the portal, and they can email you back through the portal, and they have pretty good response times. But not every state has that. Who even has a tap website where.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: Like a no brainer.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Exactly. JB. This is what. Yeah, that's why there's a ranking. If every website was created a leg, we wouldn't have this episode.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: Well, now we've helped them.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: They want to move up in our rankings.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Here's what to do.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:08] Speaker C: Get yourself some.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: And like we said in a previous episode, hawaii, if you want to fly us out and, you know, get back on the. On the list here, I mean, you just let us know. Yeah, I can be bought, so, you know. Yeah. All right.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: All right, here we go.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: We ready for the roasting?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: Drum roll time. Let's start toasting these guys. Okay, what do we got? Please, God, tell me Colorado's on there.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Actually, no. I mean. Okay, we'll get to that now. But again, Colorado, you're thinking more of an index.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: This is just ease of complaint. No, their website is not good. Trust me. Like, it's not great.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: But the return itself. Yeah, 100 is a mess.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Let's. Okay, I'll just preface this by saying there are some websites, like Colorado, Alabama, that are not terrible websites. They're also tap websites, but they do not make their EDI uploads very easy to do, which is why they're not on the best list. In fact, Georgia, you know, our state that we currently reside in has a fantastic website. The only thing that our group does not like about it is, remember, Tim, they don't make their payments very clear. And it's very easy to double pay.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Other than that, Georgia is fabulous. We're going to start off with number five. Number five. So, Ron Burgundy's favorite mouth exercise before he goes on air is to say, unique New York. Unique New York.
[00:11:25] Speaker C: When we said mouth exercise, I was like, oh, no.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: What are we doing? Where are we going with that?
[00:11:33] Speaker B: What else do you call that? Like when you're warming up for a.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: It's called vocal exercise.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sorry. Vocal exercise.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Vocal exercises are something different entirely, I believe.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Do you want me to go back and say more? Okay.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Let's continue on down the path.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So, Ron Burgundy's favorite vocal exercise is. Unique New York. Unique New York.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: New York. Definitely is unique.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: And that's New York. You are number five on the list because we have so many things. And, Tim, feel free to jump in at any time, which I know you will.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: That website is the most difficult thing to navigate. I swear. Like trying to figure out.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: I mean, it's for many reasons. One of them being, as you know, they have their off schedule quarter.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Gotta love that.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: They're the quarterly minus one. It's so weird. JB, did you know this? So, New York doesn't subscribe to traditional quarters. January, February, March, April, May, June. Their quarters are December, January, February, March, April, May. Yeah.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Why?
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Great question, Bruntley.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: We even have a reason they're not.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: I'm sure.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: I mean, there has to be some reason.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: I'm sure there's a reason.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: You know what? Phone Andre.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yes, let's phone Andre. Or maybe we can call someone from the New York. Whatever. Department of Taxation.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Finance.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Yes. And have them on here. But it makes it incredibly complicated to file a return. Yep. Their prop tax system is also incredibly complicated, which is their version of prepayments.
[00:12:55] Speaker A: Vomitous.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: And I believe, Tim, correct me if I'm wrong, every other state has a pretty simple arithmetic. I mean, Florida is a little complicated, but.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah, the whole 60% thing.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah. But I mean, for the most part, it's like, okay, 50% of the current liability, or 50% of last year, same month.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Yeah, some states. 50%.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Whatever, 54. Whatever. It's pretty simple. This is like, oh, no. Your tax collected from the first to the 22nd of the month is your prepayment. And then you have to remit the 23rd, the end of the month. It's very complicated.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: There's some. I mean, in all honesty, every law, it's like when you look at a safety manual for a hand drill. Right. An electric drill. They've got all these warnings in there, like weird stuff like don't take a drill bit and stick it in your ear to clear out wax. And it's like somebody did that. Right? Somebody. And that's why the reason it exists. That warning is this same thing with New York website. We would, we need to talk to somebody about that.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: We do need to talk to somebody. And so I say all that to say, I know we're talking about strictly ease of compliance, but these rules they have make their compliance that much harder. And then their website does not help you with guiding you towards these rules making these payments. Also their payments are due at a different time than the return. I mean, it's just, it can be kind of a mess. Yeah. So. And just recently, I don't know about anyone else out there. Feel free to email us at
[email protected] comma. Everyone in our compliance group has to open an in private browser to even access the website. Now what? Like we can't even access it from like regular chrome or edge. So that's just, that's kind of crappy.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: That's. Yeah, that sucks.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: So New York, you're on the list.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Be better.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: You know what?
[00:14:37] Speaker C: Five.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: That was number five. So number four is Missouri.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Almighty mo.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Show me state.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: Missouri in. I know I haven't been doing sales tax as long as you, Tim, but in the ten or twelve years I've been doing it, they have not done anything to their website.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Well, you know, we just are bringing somebody from the Missouri Department of Revenue on board our team. So I think you can complain to her.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: I will complain to anyone, as you know. But I will look forward to having a new ear.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Absolutely. You will. Listen, you can turn around and bend her ear all you want. She's joining Donna's team and it's gonna be amazing. So.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Well, I. Maybe she can find someone from Missouri to come on our show as well.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: That would be great. She could.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like Missouri, you might could have some money to improve your website. You cannot upload an EDI file successfully, like ever. It always times out. You have to make your payment through a separate system and they charge you fifty cents a payment. Which is just ridiculous. Like no one else hardly maybe says.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: That money even for an ach.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Yes, every time. $0.50.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: Who gets that money? Just Missouri.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Apparently for administration of their system is, I guess why that's ridiculous.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Not many. Only some locals like, I know Washington state locals charge a buttload of money, like, to file a return up to $5. But I mean, that's a local, you know. So you think like, all right, locals don't have all the revenue, whatever. But I mean, for Missouri to charge for an ach fee every time, it's just ridiculous.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: That is absolutely ridiculous.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So. Oh, and then you can't even have a login unless you give them your Social Security number.
I'm not joking. And so you have to file as a guest every time. So they give you a pin and your account number then that doesn't work half the time.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: But what are they doing with that data?
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Great question. They're taking our fifty cents and you're taking my social? Yeah.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Good lord.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Because for all of our clients, you know, I'm like, I'm just going to create logins for everyone. Why don't we have logins? And then it's like, well, no, Jenny, give us your social. And I said, nope, sorry.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Yep, nope, sorry.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: All right, Tim, you ready for number three?
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: Okay.
North Carolina.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:16:45] Speaker B: See, don't you, as I say, these states, aren't you just like, oh, yeah. Because, I mean, you're wondering, you're like, why isn't Colorado in there? Why isn't so and so? That just tells you how many bad websites we have.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: The e 500 is the worst. That system literally, like, I poke fun at Nebraska and some of these others. North Carolina designed this system in like 1983 and it has not been updated since.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: It is so terrible, it's archaic. I cannot express how. What's the joke? We always make like, someone in college created it.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, dude. Our standard joke is they went and they hired someone at University of North Carolina, gave them three cases of beer and said, designed this website. And the dude did it like banged up.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Like when I was in college. Yeah, when I was in college, when the Internet was invented. It looks like something when we had to do like a website, quote unquote, like someone in my class, my business school class would have said, oh, here's a, here's a nice website for filing sales taxes. That's what it looks like.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: When Al Gore first created the Internet.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Al Gore?
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah. When Al Gore first created the Internet, he built the North Carolina website.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: No comment.
[00:17:47] Speaker C: Here's the first website. And now never look at it again.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: And now we can administer tax.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Maybe it was the first website in North Carolina. E 500. There is not enough time in this podcast, I think, to talk about all the terrible ways of how terrible North Carolina is. It is.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Hey, it's a great state, though. Let's not trash them.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Excuse me? I was born in North Carolina and went to college in North Carolina. There are a lot of great things about North Carolina.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: We're not saying wake forest isn't one of them.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Wow, you've got deaconation coming for you now.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Boom roasted.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that is a roast. Okay. Anyway, you cannot look up any past due balances. You cannot look up any past due returns. You cannot communicate with.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: You cannot look up notices.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: No, you have no idea. Sometimes we get a notice and they're like, oh, you have a return that was filed late three years ago.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: Are you the state that withdraws sometimes multiple times, too? You know what I'm saying? They'll break your payment up into, like, two or three different withdrawals.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: I think you're thinking of Alabama.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Oh, that may be it.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah. North Carolina did. Maybe they did do that, but I.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Don'T think they know one thing with North Carolina. Like, if you turn around and have to intercept a payment for whatever reason, like, if you forget about it, forget it.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: No, no, no, that's true. No, you cannot amend a return online. You have to do it on paper. And actually, I will put a boom roasted in for Nevada on this. Nevada, you almost made this list. But that is another. You cannot amend a return on Nevada's website. So Nevada, to consider yourself, like, number six.
So anyway, North Carolina, just in all ways, shapes and forms. There is nothing, I can't think of any positives about your website. It's pretty bad.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: Is there, like, do they make or lose money when they have a bad website? Is there any correlation between.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: That's a great question, how it goes.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: You know, like, you got to spend more time on a bad website. Does that help them?
[00:19:37] Speaker B: You would think they have to spend a lot more money and time on human resources to solve these issues. A lot of the issues you can resolve on these tap websites through, say, like, our top five states don't. A person doesn't have to do that. Doesn't have to handle it. You have a problem with North Carolina, you have to mail it in, and then a person has to process it manually. It's just very manual. So they must do some kind of analysis where it's more cost effective for them not to have a good website. I don't know.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: Just changing stuff sometimes is hard.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Don't touch the big black box. I mean, that's it, right? Like, don't open it.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Doesn't work.
It doesn't not work.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Nobody breathe next to it.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: Right?
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't do an update. We're getting our tax money, like, all.
[00:20:21] Speaker C: Of our bridges, right?
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:23] Speaker C: Don't bump into them. It's fine.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: If you bump into them, they're good. They're going down.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: They're going down, dude. Yeah.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: Yeah. The mob. Those in 1971.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: There are dead bodies.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Jimmy Hoffa.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: You never know. It's a possibility. Anyway, so. Yeah. Boise State burrs. Jimmy Hoffa. Okay, so back to North Carolina, buried.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: In the end zone of Boise state no matter what. The Meadowland stadium. That's what a standing joke was. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody said he was buried in the end zone there.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: I watched that movie, the Irishman, and they talked about it. Now I can't think of where. They said, okay, so, North Carolina, you are. Boom. Roasted.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: There you go. Number three. Done.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Okay. Number two, if you think it can't get worse, like, here you are thinking like, North Carolina, you're the worst, but you're only number three. But now we're moving on to Florida.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Our sunshine state for being, what are.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: They, the third most populous state? Fourth.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: And you have a lot of money. Like, I feel like Florida's a pretty flush state.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Well, yeah, tax wise, absolutely they are.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: So why does your website suck so bad?
[00:21:25] Speaker A: I have no idea, man.
[00:21:26] Speaker B: You are very similar to North Carolina in the fact not only.
It's my favorite joke, like they say about income taxes, like when you file your annual tax every year, it's like, uncle Sam knows what it is, but they're not gonna tell you. But if you get it wrong, you're going to jail.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: You're going to jail, right?
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Have you seen that?
[00:21:42] Speaker A: That's exactly it.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: It's kind of like Florida. Florida's like, I've had this happen with a client. It's like you submitted a prepayment, but it's incorrect. And I'm like, well, what is it? They're like, well, you have to calculate it. They know what it is.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: I'm thinking of a number between one and 10 million.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: And I'm like, well, can you just tell me what it is or. I don't understand. Well, you have to take the last twelve months of gross sale, undead, or whatever it is. And I was just like, dude, just tell me what it is and I'll pay it. I don't understand.
[00:22:09] Speaker C: So they do know it. They know.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Yes, they do. And they don't want to tell you.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: Just in case you accidentally pay more.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. And so it is the most bizarre thing. And so they're very strict about their prepayment rules. You also cannot look up any past due returns, any notices.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: No communication.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: No communication.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: No, they don't calculate your. Oh, gosh, I didn't even touch on this yet.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: The local taxes?
[00:22:32] Speaker B: No.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Well, the surtax piece.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Yes. Well, that's another good point. They don't calculate your vendor's discount for you.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: You have to calculate that yourself.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: I mean, and they don't help you. It's like every time I have to google it, like, how much is that again? Okay. You know, and then hope, and it can't be over $30. And then they will send you a $50 penalty for that. So all I'm saying is Florida. I mean, penalize me if I do something wrong, for sure, but, like, you just make it really hard.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: I mean, maybe that's what they're trying to do, make it hard, and then you overpay.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: In all honesty. Yeah.
[00:23:05] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: I mean, we could end up having the opposite effect. People like, ooh, we could make more money, and then we just, all of a sudden, the website start getting real bad.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: In all honesty, it's a pretty fantastic state. But, yeah, they should definitely be better.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Okay. And this might come as a surprise to you, our number one Maryland.
You are number one on our list, and I cannot begin to tell you how egregious your offenses are.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: So can we take stock real quick? Like, Marilyn's been through a lot in the last couple of months here. Jenny is speaking of bridges. Speaking of burning bridges, like, you might as well just drive a ship into the Scott key bridge. Oh, wait a minute. That's exactly what you just did. Congratulations. We're gonna get audited by every client for every client in Maryland.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: That was an excellent analogy. Burning bridges. I am burning a bridge in Maryland right now. I know. Wow. I'm so sorry. You have been through a lot, Marilyn, but it's no excuse.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: No excuse.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: This has nothing to do with the status of your bridges.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: So this has to do with a new website rollout, doesn't it? Yes, and it couldn't get any worse. Like, B file is actually a pretty decent system.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: That's where I was going with this. B file was definitely a decent system. Not the greatest. It wouldn't have made the top five.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: It was super easy to use.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Stored your banking information, rounded everything for you. Yeah, rounded everything. Like, calculated your discount. You don't have prepayments. It's great. I mean, b file was totally fine.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Two steps above North Carolina.
[00:24:27] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Infinite steps. Yes. So bfal was great. So then we find out, oh, Marilyn's going to a new website. We're all very excited because we just assume they're going to tap everyone.
Literally everyone. I cannot think of another state who recently moved websites who did not move to tap. So we are all thrilled. It's like, great. They're moving to tap. It's going to be even that much easier. They probably even would have made our top five because they're also a single state state rate. State.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Single state. Right.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Yeah. No prepayments. Calculate your discount. Like, if you had moved to tap, you would be in the top five for sure. Unfortunately, you are in number one of the worst because you know what you did, Marilyn? You took Missouri's crappy website, which is at number four, and made it worse somehow. It is Missouri's website, literally exactly.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: For those of you, not worse, but worse. For those of you that are not watching on YouTube, Jenni is getting very worked up, and JB is laughing his full head off.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: I mean, she's got, this was her episode. She was like, I'm gonna go in.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: I was like, all right, dude, she's all in. She just pressed all the chips in the center.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: I just finished compliance for the month. So this is all just very fresh and raw for me. I have a lot of lost sleep over Maryland returns right now.
Frustration. And then they didn't even make it easy like most of these states when they moved to tap. They don't even make it that difficult for you to create a login. And they give you lots of warning and they're like, you know, hey, as long as you can verify very specific information, fein numbers, past amounts filed, you know, they made it very easy to just make your login and file your return. That's all we wanna do. Right, Tim?
[00:26:07] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: We just wanna file a return and pay you your money.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: I mean, I really wanna just pay some money.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: I just wanna pay somebody money and then be done. That's right. And everyone's happy. But then Marilyn decided, oh, well, we're actually gonna send you a pin in the mail, but we're not gonna tell you we're sending you a pin in the mail. But then no one got the pin. And then you can't create a login. We still don't have logins for many of our clients, so.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: And didn't they take their system down during compliance?
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And then they put a big banner on the website saying, there will be no p and I till the end of time while everyone gets their returns.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: In and also get your pin number.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yes, but it's like, that's not a great way to do business either. Don't you guys want and need your money, too? It's such a waste of resources. But, I mean, the fact would think.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: A state like that, with the proximity to our nation's capital, there would be an adequate amount of resources that would, you know, educate and discuss with them. Hey. May not be the best way to do this.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: I just. I cannot express to you the amazement of our team of moving from your perfectly adequate website to an even worse version of Missouri. Just serving our clients and trying to file Maryland returns has been very frustrating. And so that's why. Maryland, you are number one. Boom. Roasted.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Done. Boom. Roasted. Well, yeah.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: Okay, so we've got some apologies. Obviously, there was a lot of. A lot of people that we offended in that some of them are on purpose. So I tried to avoid the ones that are, like, in the. You know, the obvious.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Like, they deserve it.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Frank.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Sorry, Frank.
[00:27:41] Speaker C: He was on the show. Come on.
Government in general.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: That was Tim.
[00:27:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Taxachusetts. That's just Tim.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: Come on. That's a. Everybody calls it Taxachusetts.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:27:53] Speaker C: Colorado. Because they weren't even on the list. And we saw. Still ended up roasting them a little bit like they thought. Maybe we'll get one episode off. Wake Forest.
The demon Deacon.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Demon deacons. I have. Pretty cool mascot, though.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: The mob.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Tim Howe would like to expressly apologize to any references that were made to the mob.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Did the mob have any more power? I don't know.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: I don't know, man. But I ain't gonna try it. I only have Joey bag of donuts showing up on my doorstep, snapping my legs.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: And dear mob, that was all Tim. Not me.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: The infrastructure of the United States.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: That was on you, dude.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Yeah, that was on me. I referred to birds.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Are you apologizing to birds?
[00:28:32] Speaker C: No, never.
And Citrus county.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Thank you, JB. Well, this has been a great episode. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel so much better.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: JB, do you need to send me a bill for this therapy session? Because.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: No, I think it was good. I have a layman's list of how states can make their sites better based on what I am hearing. Love it. Okay, so you got to do some stuff when you know how to do it. If you know how to do it. Just do it. Do that. Yeah.
If you can calculate some rates in the system, do that. That's just like, instead of making you do it manually.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: The customer service, important, but the ease of how you connect to a person is really what the goal is. There you go.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: That's the Nexus model.
[00:29:18] Speaker C: You need to be able to have a login, right. You got to be able to.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's kind of important.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: That's insane, obviously. But on the list. Get tap.
[00:29:27] Speaker B: Get tap. Tap that keg.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: Tap that website.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Yep. Tap that website.
[00:29:32] Speaker C: No snail mail of any kind.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Oh, my God, please.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: I love tap that website. Can that be our next motto for synexes?
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we make a bumper sticker.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: All right. Did someone from Tap reach out to us, email us?
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Love that.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you all for joining us today. You can listen to our podcasts wherever you get your current podcasts. And I'd like to thank JB, as always, for our apologies list and being a great producer that he is. Jenny, fantastic job on your best and worst five state websites. And as always, you can listen to these episodes in any order that you would like. And we look forward to talking with you next time.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Boom. Roasted.
