Florida Sales Tax Confusion

I had to file Florida Sales Tax for my new Wedding Photography Business and was wondering how this works. IRS

really didn't have much answers. My questions are the following:

1. Do I tax only material items or both material items and photography coverage

2.If I sell a wedding package out of state...do I charge sales tax?

3. What is considered exempt sales (Per Sales Tax Form which is filed every quarter)

I know the above may seem as if the IRS can answer these questions...but they won't or can't...I don't know which. I

asked them and they were just short with me. All answers are much appreciated!!

Thank You!

You don't need to talk to the IRS. You need to talk to the sales tax division of the state of Florida. The IRS doesn't

process your sale tax; your state's department of revenue does.

You can likely get some info through the SBA. Check out this link to get started:

http://www.sba.gov/localresources/district/fl/

Each state also holds FREE sales tax seminars throughout the year. You may want to register for one.

Definitely do not use Photo.net advice to decide how to handle your sales tax collection! Sales tax audits are very real,

and the "someone on Photo.net told me" excuse won't prevent you from being penalized if you've collected improperly.

:)

Call the state, and be pushy until you've gotten the information you need. :)

And when you do get an answer, get the persons name, date and time the response was provided. If the state ever finds you in the wrong you can pull out that information and substantiate your method. This will avoid any penalties although you may still have to pay the tax.

I have found in dealing with the state, and the IRS, that two different people will give different responses. This is especially true of the IRS. I once had a tax issue, got advice from the local IRS office, and two years later was slammed with a penalty and threat of prosecution. I had documentation from the local IRS office that got me off the hook for the penalty, no charges, and hopefully the IRS person was severely reprimanded, or terminated.

When dealing with tax matters always, always, document any responses from the state or federal workers.

Maria,

You can find all the answers here http://myflorida.com/taxonomy/business/.

Basically in FL everything wedding photography is taxed (services, products, shipping). If the wedding takes place in FL and you are in FL everything is taxed. After a wedding that took place in FL, if an order comes in from out of state, it's still taxable. If you travel out of state for a wedding, you don't have to charge FL sales tax and if the the wedding occurred outside FL and an order comes in from outside FL and will be shipped outside FL, it's not taxable.

--Josh

also find your small business development center in your area. They will likely have classes you can go to - a few hours

on one day - that will have a rep from the state tax dept and they are there just to answer all your questions so you won't

get into trouble.

"when you do get an answer, get the persons name, date and time the response was provided. If the state ever finds you in the wrong you can pull out that information and substantiate your method. This will avoid any penalties although you may still have to pay the tax."

This is very misleading. While there are situations where providing such information can be persuasive in resolving a tax dispute, people often learn the hard way that a written repsonse is needed to bind a taxing authority from imposing, at least, penalties. This has been well settled and tested for a long time now. Even from a common sense standpoint, it makes no sense that just providing the name, date, time and response will be successful. If it were true, there would be a long stream of taxpayers meeting with tax officials, recording the info and making up the answer they recieved to avoid paying taxes and getting away with it.

As Anne told us... "Sales tax audits are very real, and the "someone on Photo.net told me" excuse won't prevent you from being penalized if you've collected improperly."

John quipped: "This is very misleading." Well, not quite. It just may have not been totally complete. It should have plainly stated that it needs to be in writing. Even without the information in writing having the name and date the information was received may swing things in your favor in the case of a dispute. Sometimes it is necessary to deal with the IRS over the phone.

Thanks for the clarification in my post.

In Florida, you can contact the Florida Department of Revenue. They have a web site, too.

If you use the same lab for your work, you should be able to obtain "sales tax exemption" for the prints you are getting made to sell to your customers. You only need to collect sales tax one time (on the finished product.)

If you take payment out-of-state, then Florida sales tax may not be needed, but that can go either way. If you used your tax exempt products to make up the out-of-state sale....the honest way would be to collect the sales tax.

Anything you purchase for your business (desk, table, a chair) will have the sales tax collected by the store selling you your furniture. You should not try to 'tax exempt' things like batteries, but film (used to make a product to sell) can be bought sales tax exempt.

Exempt sales: if a church or school has a 'sales tax exemption' certificate, you can sell your finished product to them without collecting sales tax. You need to have a copy of their certificate (or the number on your invoice) for your records.

The I.R.S. does not care what each state does for sales tax....that's why there is no help there.

<i>if the the wedding occurred outside FL and an order comes in from outside FL and will be shipped outside FL, it's not taxable</i>

Florida may not tax you, but the state your order comes from, or the work you do may be taxed. Most states that charge sales tax are now requiring you to collect sales tax based on where the customer resides. I know that Washington State does.

Thanks everyone!! I used to do sales tax for a restaraunt....but that was long ago and obviously for a different industry, so I completely understand the importance of this area of business. I basically needed someone to point me in the right directions because IRS were not helpful.

One More Question: Since we have to collect sales tax, do you place this on your pricing page? I currently have prices of wedding packages and next to those prices it says ( + 6% Tax). Plus I have above all the packages a note stating that all services and products offered through Maria Angela Photography is subject to a 6% Florida Sales Tax..... Is this the correct way of doing it? I am going to check out the above links today! Thank You!