ESALESTAX.COM AWARDED STREAMLINED SALES TAX SYSTEM PILOT PROJECT

Web-based tax company provides online tax calculation services

September 14, 2000 – ENGLEWOOD, CO esalestax.com (www.esalestax.com), the first online company to offer merchants and tax authorities a Web-based portal solution to Internet taxation, today announced the signing of the Streamlined Sales Tax System Proposal with the North Carolina Department of Revenue. Wisconsin, Michigan and Kansas are also in the process of adopting the Streamlined Sales Tax Proposal and participating in the pilot project. Through the proposal, esalestax.com will provide retailers with tax calculation, tax collection, tax remittance, tax reporting and record retention services

“Our proposed solution will demonstrate how the Internet and other technology can be used to create a Streamlined Sales Tax System,” said Mike Blandina, President of esalestax.com. “Retailers will have the ability to integrate the sales tax calculation process in to the order processing system of retailers without having an adverse effect on the sales transaction.”

“We are pleased to award the contracts and are anxious to work with esalestax.com among others to conduct the pilot project,” commented Diane L. Hardt, Wisconsin Department of Revenue and a co-chair of the Project. The companies selected were chosen from nine vendors who submitted proposals to participate in the pilot. “We were very encouraged by the number and caliber of the companies responding to the RFP,” commented Charles D. Collins, Jr., North Carolina Department of Revenue and a co-chair of the Project, “and are very excited about working with firms selected for the pilot.”

Representatives from approximately 39 states have met on several occasions developing the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. The Project is an effort by the states to respond to repeated calls for simplification of the sales tax and concerns about the impact of applying the current system to the burgeoning electronic commerce world. Begun in September 1999, the Project goal is to develop a radically simplified sales and use tax system that eases the burden of sales and use tax compliance for all types of retailers, particularly those operating on a multistate basis. The Project also intends to facilitate the application of new and existing technologies to the tax compliance process.

About esalestax.com Esalestax.com is currently developing a product suite for online sales transaction taxation that will serve as a ‘go-between’ among merchants and state tax authorities. The Englewood Colorado-based company will offer merchants and state tax authorities the first Web-based portal solution for Internet tax processing. esalestax.com’s architecture will perform the appropriate tax calculations, return the results to the merchant, and then retain the information for filing and tax authority audits. The company’s application system accurately calculates and applies existing sales and use taxes to online purchases and ensures that each jurisdiction is able to collect taxes on all transactions as required by law. This takes the burden away from the merchants having to collect, file and remit taxes to taxing authorities.