Retail tax exempt prints from my SmugMug account?

LightCipher

Is it possible to get prints made at Bay Photo from my SmugMug account without paying sales tax? I have a sales permit and plan on selling fine art prints at shows and fairs. When I make these sales I will have to pay the sales tax on them. Therefore I don't want to pay the tax when I print them as I can not pass this cost on to the customer.

Is ther a way to register my retail permit number with SmugMug or Bay Photo to do this?

Thanks,
Ira Weiny
Light Cipher Photography

Andy

I'm sorry, there isn't, I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't

LightCipher

Andy wrote:

I'm sorry, there isn't, I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't

OK. At least now I know.

Thanks,
Ira

Tim Kamppinen

Why are you paying sales tax on your customer's purchase? Make them pay it, that's how it works in every other transaction they make.

timk519

Tim Kamppinen wrote:

Why are you paying sales tax on your customer's purchase? Make them pay it, that's how it works in every other transaction they make.

Because the OP is the one buying the prints, not the end customer.

Tim Kamppinen

timk519 wrote:

Because the OP is the one buying the prints, not the end customer.

Well, I'm confused by this statement:

When I make these sales I will have to pay the sales tax on them. Therefore I don't want to pay the tax when I print them as I can not pass this cost on to the customer.

I took that to mean that the OP was paying the tax on the print purchase, and then selling the prints, and paying the sales tax for that transaction out of pocket without charging the end customer for it. I also don't see why the initial tax cannot be passed on to the customer. Just raise the selling price by whatever the intial sales tax amount for the prints is.

timk519

Tim Kamppinen wrote:

Well, I'm confused by this statement:
I took that to mean that the OP was paying the tax on the print purchase, and then selling the prints, and paying the sales tax for that transaction out of pocket without charging the end customer for it. I also don't see why the initial tax cannot be passed on to the customer. Just raise the selling price by whatever the intial sales tax amount for the prints is.

That depends on the OP's margins and competition - if the source sales tax rate is too high, then it could take too much of a bite out of the OP's margins.

The usual process is to give the source vendor w/a sales tax exemption number, then charge the customer the tax in question. That SM doesn't provide for such exemptions is an issue they'll have to overcome.

I expect there'll be similar, related "back-office" issues like this that SM'll have to deal with.