Most businesses think about sales tax as a compliance obligation. Something to manage, minimize, and get off your plate as fast as possible. But what's unfolding right now in the San Francisco Bay Area is a sharp reminder of what sales tax actually does for the greater community, and what happens when the funding it generates starts to disappear.

The BART Crisis

BART, California’s Bay Area transit system, is staring down a $380 million deficit in its 2027 fiscal year. Moving nearly 200,000 people daily, the agency has already burned through $318 million in emergency state and regional funds just to balance its 2026 budget. In an effort to make ends meet, they also imposed a 6% fare increase as of January 1. But the problem isn’t solved. 

Without new funding, BART has released a detailed doomsday scenario: Phase 1, starting January 2027, would see 63% of train hours and ten stations eliminated. By July, Phase 2 would be complete, with up to 70% of train hours and 15 stations cut. By winter 2028, Phase 3 would see the end of passenger service entirely. 

The Proposed Fix

The solution on the table is a ballot measure called Connect Bay Area, a half-cent sales tax increase in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, and a full cent in San Francisco. If passed, it would raise roughly $980 million annually over 14 years to fund BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, and local transit agencies across the region.

It needs more than 186,000 valid signatures by June 6 to make the November ballot, and a simple majority vote to pass. If it fails, the cuts begin.

Why This Matters Beyond the Bay Area

The BART situation is a visible, high-stakes example of something that plays out in communities across the country every day. Sales tax is one of the primary tools that state and local governments use to fund essential services: public transit, road maintenance, school budgets, emergency services, and more. 

When BART runs, Bay Area residents can access 800,000 jobs within a 15-minute walk of a station. During peak morning commute hours, six trains carry the same number of people as 120 buses. If those riders were pushed onto the roads instead, commuters driving from El Cerrito to San Francisco would have 2.7 hours added to their daily commute. 

Lower-income workers and working-class communities feel it most. Not everyone can absorb a two-hour commute or afford a car. When transit funding disappears, access to opportunity disappears with it.

What This Means for Businesses

The sales tax your business collects and remits funds things like this. Roads your deliveries travel. Transit systems your employees use to get to work. Schools in the communities where your customers live.

When businesses undercollect, misfile, or fall out of compliance — whether by accident or by neglect — it’s more than just a liability on your balance sheet. It's a real gap in the funding that communities depend on. And as the BART situation shows, those gaps compound. Emergency funds get depleted. Deficits balloon. Services that people rely on start to disappear.

The easier and more accurate compliance is, the more reliably that funding flows where it's supposed to go, making state and local communities more vibrant and increasing the quality of life for people in those regions. It makes a truly powerful impact. 

Getting It Right, Automatically

Sales tax rules change constantly: rates, nexus thresholds, filing deadlines, exemptions, and so much more. Keeping up manually across 50 states is a losing battle, and the cost of falling behind isn't just penalties and back taxes. It's the broader gap created when businesses aren't contributing what they owe.

Kintsugi monitors every jurisdiction in real time, updates automatically when rules change, and handles filing and remittance so you never have to think about it. The taxes you owe get where they're supposed to go. And you get back to building your business.