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Well, the State Tax Revenue give me a little call. I'm not very good at collecting enough sales for them. Yadda, yadda yadda, they nailed me for $1600. I asked her if she had ever worked with any other artists or sign people before. She said no, but she has audited a lot of people who have my reciepts. My customers actually keep them darn reciepts. What da ya know!
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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They tried playing that game with me in 91 because of a new vehicle bought with cash but at that time I striped a car collection for Robert Mossburger head of the IRS in NYS and he straightened it out
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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you all need to start acting right so we can get money for this great healthcare system.
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
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Yeah, like Bruce said, "y'all need to start acting right so we can get money for this great healthcare system" or whatever else we can dream up to spend tax money on!! I mean, they wouldn't ask us for the money if they didn't really need it & I'm sure they'll take good care of what money we do send in, right?
Seriously Alicia, like Joey, I've had some good results by negotiating with them and wound up paying $1.12 for each $7.75 that they filed liens against us for. If you can get the same deal we got that would cut your $1,600 tax bill down to $23.12 which stings a little less. Like Warren Zevon sang, "send money, guns, & lawyers"!
-------------------- Chris Elliott 1longshot@classicnet.net cell 62084two2232 Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Chris Elliott: I've had some good results by negotiating with them and wound up paying $1.12 for each $7.75 that they filed liens against us for. If you can get the same deal we got that would cut your $1,600 tax bill down to $23.12 which stings a little less.
well, actually that 14.4 % would cut it to $231.22, but who's counting
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Doug, thanks for catching that decimal slip! I really need to remember to grab my reading glasses or get a calculator with the BIG display because a mistake like that is NOT one of the methods of tax reduction that I was advocating!
-------------------- Chris Elliott 1longshot@classicnet.net cell 62084two2232 Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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Back in the early eighties they came to my place. I was paying taxes on all the materials I bought and calling everything a repaint, claiming I worked on customer supplied materials. When this guy showed me how they could take my house away, and offered the choice of doing it my way or his way and he'd just walk away letting me start fresh, I took his offer. So, we do a lot of bookkeeping for the state now. I like having a house.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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The state(s) are much worse than the feds. If they ever get on your back they seem to stay there. Many years ago I ran a part time sign shop. I later moved and took a full time position at a commercial shop. It took me forever to get the state to drop me from it's ranks. They said I owed them a bunch of money for waht they "figured" I had produced during the time I didn't have a shop. I had to settle with them and pay them money they didn't deserve just to get them to leave me alone.
Another thing about the state..at least Tennessee, is confusion. I used to do a lot of vehicle lettering. I never got a straight answer as to whether truck lettering was taxable or not. I remember one day when I has my second shop, I called three times, talked to three different people and got yes once and no twice
Forget pinstriping, they don't even know what you are talking about.
I had one officer come into my sign shop and offer me $100 bill if I would give them information on a neighboring busniess
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
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The state made it easy here...they get sales tax on everything we do (there was a time when only "signs" were taxed, truck lettering & glass lettering were not). I've been audited for "tax exempt" sales, you have to have a form from every church, town, school etc that is tax exempt or signs sold for resale (like to a contractor paying for the signs in a shopping center). I've also been audited for workers comp, you have to prove that anyone who gets a 1099 is qulaified, and has comp insurance if they're required to. I spend way too much time on paper trails.
posted
A long time ago in Texas it was a nightmare trying to figure out what was taxable and what wasn't. You could never get a straight answer from anyone and everyone had a different solution.
At one point I was told that I had collected too much tax on some customers and that I had to return some money to them My answer was that I had sent that money to the state and it could be their job to return it. Never heard anything after that.
Now, everything is taxable and there are no problems, as long as you keep sending the money to them.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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well I bet you're glad it's over. take a break and rest in happiness now...
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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We have different sales tax percentages in different towns. If a customer from town comes to my shop and picks up here, the tax is less than if I deliver it.
Lettering on a building or window or vehicle is considered real property and not taxable, while a magnetic sign on the same car is. I'd hate to think how they would consider vinyl, since it is removable???
We get our roads and teachers and social services and lotsa bennie's from these taxes, so I don't resent them.
God Bless our government.
PS. and keep them a healthy distance from me when I don't need them
[ August 01, 2009, 07:44 PM: Message edited by: Rick Sacks ]
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Since all the posts have been more or less negative regarding state or federal taxes that have to be collected and remitted in the USA...
I'd like to add a Canadian perspective......
| | | V
It sucks to be small business people everywhere....Seems that every "civilized" country has a government that panders to "BIG" business and harasses and makes life miserable for small business.
As othered mentioned, State tax people are worse than federal. In Canada, it is the provincial ones you don't want to encounter.
Been there, done that, on both levels of government and don't ever want to deal with them again!!!!
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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While I was at her office, I got to read the stuff she typed out. She had typed out my customers, the job, the date. One of my jobs read lettering for "White Trash Racing" On the back covers on all of my invoice books, are phone numbers, measurements, colors, quirky little sayings, and my little scribbles. I think she had got a kick from reading my invoices. And since I'm sure I'll be seeing her in the future, I'll be sure to really give her some eye candy in my invoices.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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I got audited for provincial sales tax a few years back. When they were done with me I had a refund of ~ 26.00. I told the girl that it cost me a days work to walk her through my paper trail and I should at least get my shop rate. She smiled and said "I know, Sorry." Taxes are a pain, but like Rick said, I don't mind collecting them all that much as I reap the benefits of them on a daily basis. Fortunately Jim is big on book keeping so he keeps me in line. My books would be a disaster without his prompting.
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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Mudflap Senyourita !ohhla. i generally read some posts and zip off to another site or what not, but..... i too got "pinched" by the Maryland State tax folks for more than they got you 4 !
luckily the 1/4 of the year they use in "their" magic formula was low...whew. i now have a tax # but 1/2 of what i buy still is has tax, home depot and similar stores could care less if you have a Md. re-sales tax. #. so.......they say ALL signs are taxable. ok......guess what, in my system we do a lot of trucks lately...which if the customer already owns, material wise,...non-taxable. Like others pointed out, if they were good stewards in the first place , Md. wouldn't be 11 million in the hole from lost tax revenue for 08' -AT LAST COUNT .
.....don't squeal on me folks, but i take in as much cash as i can lately.....paint fumes are good for something right ?
take care all. the Southern Md. Wallslopper-besides i'm from Pa.-these ain't my "people in the 1st place".
-------------------- mark zilliox mark z signs 8425 pushaw station rd. owings md. 20736 301-855-5407 thezs@earthlink.net http://www.markzsigns.com Posts: 348 | From: maryland | Registered: May 2003
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