Charging Sales Tax at a Home Jewelry Party

by Andrew

Should I charge sales tax for the items I sell at a home jewelry party?

Andrew

Comments for
Charging Sales Tax at a Home Jewelry Party

Jewelry Parties and Sales Tax
by: Rena

Hi Andrew,

Please see my newsletter article on Charging Sales Tax at a Jewelry Party.

If you're unsure whether your locality has a sales tax law, or how much tax you should charge, I highly recommend calling or visiting your state's Department of Revenue. You can usually locate it in the blue (government) pages in the middle of the phone book.

Best of luck with your jewelry parties!

Sales Tax Included
by: Diane

I pay the local & state sales tax for my customers. It makes it so much easier for me when I'm writing up a receipt and it helps my customers make the decision to buy from me - because the price they see on the tag is the price they pay - nothing more, nothing less. Good luck!

Diane
www.earthnskystudio.com

I agree w/ Diane
by: moondog

I agree w/ the previous post. I prefer to figure out the state tax from the final price, subtract it, and then pay when due (every 3 months in TX)

http://moondogtreasures.etsy.com

check the law in your state
by: Anonymous

In most states, even if you say that sales tax are included, you need to show the tax separately on the receipt. So, you need to make sure what the law is in your state before you make this decision.

Pay tax when tax is due
by: Laura

When you walk into any store, large or small, in most states you expect to pay sales tax on your purchases. It should not be any different for your small business. You don't charge the tax you just collect the tax and forward it to the state. Be honest and your customers will respect that.

Charging Sales Tax
by: Debby Caldwell

The question isn't so much as whether you charge your customer sales tax or not.

If you sell an item, sales tax has to be paid according to your state sales tax law.

In most cases you can choose to follow one of two options.
1) Decide on the price for your item, increase it enough to cover the sales tax and either round it up or down to the nearest dollar. Price your item at this dollar amount and tell your customer the sales tax has been included in the price. This is great if you don't want to deal with lots of change and the customers seem to like the simplicity of it. I use this option with my students when teaching classes.

2) Decide on the price for your item, price it at this price and then add the sales tax to the order total for each customer. I have used this method when doing trade/craft shows. However, I usually tell cash paying customers that I round the amount down to the nearest dollar for them. Again I hate trying to deal with change and it's a small cash discount for them that they appreciate.

In both cases I make sure my records are clear as to the amount of sales tax that needs to be paid to the state based on the selling price of the item.

Sales tax
by: Roxanne

I gave up trying to add sales tax because at shows people would come up with the exact amount of cash (especially kids) and then I would end up including it. So I now price my items to include tax. I have never heard of a state law that requires you to state the tax separately (and my real job is a tax CPA), so I think that is pretty rare. I think most states don't care as long as they get their money. I take my total taxable sales and divide them by 1.07 (because the rate here is 7%) and that gives me the gross amount of sales. That amount multiplied by 7% gives me the tax I need to pay. I make sure that I have my price marked up high enough to include the tax, because if not I would be taking a 7% pay cut.

Sales Tax on Price Tags
by: Cindy C

I've done several craft shows where they require vendors to list the sales tax separately on price tags. So I just started doing that and found it makes it so much easier to write up receipts for customers if it's all right there in front of me!

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