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Plum Cottage BearsThe city where I live, Long Beach, California, has come up with another way to raise money for the municipality's coffers. Let's backtrack a little. I have to have a resale number to sell bears at shows in California. There is apparently not something like a temporary resale number available for one show at a time. To have a resale number, I have to have a business license. The city clerk's office requires me to pay a business license fee of about $196 US$ for what they call a home crafts license. I have seven or eight tubs of mohair, and I still like to make bears. So I'm going to have to get a home crafts business license to get a resale number to be able to sell at shows and other venues. Luckily I will be starting a new job in July, as a library clerk, checking in and out books, collecting fines, issuing library cards, scheduling times on the public computer, etc., etc. Does anyone else's home town or home city require something like a home crafts business license? Just curious.
Hugs, Gail S. Thomas
The Littlest ThistleGood grief, no! Thankfully we don't, but I did google to see if there was anything we did need a licence for and sicovered the following: Cinemas, Theatres, Child Minding, Taxi and Private Hire Vehicles, Indoor Sports Venues, Public Entertainment (in any Venue), Nightclubs, Pet Shops, Pet Boarding Kennels, Scrap Metal Dealing, Sex Shops, Nurses Agencies and Street Trading.
So there you go, if we wanted to set up a stall on the street we would, but a fair is fine. Seems like someone in your city has cottoned on to the popularity of crafts and decided it's a way to make a quick buck, poor you!
Posts: 280Here in Texas, you are supposed to register your business, which I did over 20 years ago. The system is supposed to protect your rights to the name of the business that you own so that no one else can use it. My experience has been that companies use the register to harvest names to send junk mail to, since it is public record. They issue you a sales tax permit, and are supposed to collect the sales tax and report it on every sale. I think the fee is pretty nominal, if any.
To participate in shows here - of any kind - you are supposed to be required to have the sales tax permit. Not only do I have to pay the sales tax, the state has also started charging me inventory tax on the materials and goods I have in stock.
I do not know of one other person that does the shows that has one of these permits, and simply cannot figure out why or how they are getting away with it. Bottom line - they haven't gotten caught collecting the sales tax and not paying it. If the state would show up at the shows and ask for copies of the sales tax permits, we wouldn't end up in the red like we do every year. They could simply collect the tax at the end of the show and issue permits. If the artists knew the state was going to be there, they would comply, as they should. The answer is right in front of their faces, yet they can't see it.
I certainly don't mind paying my fair share, but think everyone else doing business should have to pay theirs as well. This is a very sore subject for me.
Luann
Past Time BearsTo participate in shows here - of any kind - you are supposed to be required to have the sales tax permit. Not only do I have to pay the sales tax, the state has also started charging me inventory tax on the materials and goods I have in stock.
I do not know of one other person that does the shows that has one of these permits, and simply cannot figure out why or how they are getting away with it. Bottom line - they haven't gotten caught collecting the sales tax and not paying it. If the state would show up at the shows and ask for copies of the sales tax permits, we wouldn't end up in the red like we do every year. They could simply collect the tax at the end of the show and issue permits. If the artists knew the state was going to be there, they would comply, as they should. The answer is right in front of their faces, yet they can't see it.
I certainly don't mind paying my fair share, but think everyone else doing business should have to pay theirs as well. This is a very sore subject for me.
Luann
Hiya, Luann . . . good to see you posting at Teddy Talk again. Just thought I would address a point you brought up in the above comment. I've had my Texas Sales and Use Tax Permit since 1989 and have taken it to all the shows in Texas that I've participated in. Like you say, I've never had to show it to any state official; I've only had to produce it in order to buy tax free materials from other dealers. Just wanted to clarify that I've always paid sales taxes to the state every year since 1989.
Posts: 280Hope I didn't step on your toes here Sue Ann. Since there aren't any bear shows here anymore, I was referring to (but didn't clarify) it was other venues where the problem lies. You probably remember what a stickler I was about insuring that anyone who participated in my shows had to provide me with their tax number or they didn't get in. One year, I even went to the tax office myself and got several out of state vendors temporary permits.
Anyway...the craft/doll/quilt shows don't even ask if you have a sales tax permit. It really rubs me the wrong way, because they are making one sale after the next, and not collecting or paying the taxes that they should. I certainly am glad that they are making sales, but they need to be collecting taxes and paying them like the rest of us. Some of these people have been doing these shows for 20 years or more, so I know from talking with them first-hand that they don't have permits. Just doesn't make sense to me - especially when all we hear about on the news is the shortage of tax revenues. If they enforced their own rules, we'd probably be back in the black in no time.
Luann
Past Time BearsAh - okay - wasn't sure what shows you were referring to.
