Does your state have a sales tax?
Here we don't.
But most people don't know that. We have instead, a General Excise Tax.... which is 4.5% of your gross for the privelege of doing business in the state, filed semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly, depending on your tax liability. The only nice part about it is, it is allowed to pass that onto to end customer. So consumers see it simply as tax and assume it's sales tax... even though they are in reality, paying for your business license. Kind of an interesting system I thought.
Doesn't work out for some businesses, like a realtor for example... businesses of that type would look stupid charging the homebuyer a 4.5% GE tax... but for retail, it works.
We also have something called a Use Tax... which is, anything you have shipped in from out of state, hardware, software, office supplies, whatever.... unless you are a wholesaler, you have to pay a use tax on that stuff. Can't remember exactly the amount, but I think it's around 2% of the value.
But most people don't know that. We have instead, a General Excise Tax.... which is 4.5% of your gross for the privelege of doing business in the state, filed semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly, depending on your tax liability. The only nice part about it is, it is allowed to pass that onto to end customer. So consumers see it simply as tax and assume it's sales tax... even though they are in reality, paying for your business license. Kind of an interesting system I thought.
Doesn't work out for some businesses, like a realtor for example... businesses of that type would look stupid charging the homebuyer a 4.5% GE tax... but for retail, it works.
We also have something called a Use Tax... which is, anything you have shipped in from out of state, hardware, software, office supplies, whatever.... unless you are a wholesaler, you have to pay a use tax on that stuff. Can't remember exactly the amount, but I think it's around 2% of the value.
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