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Is the price you pay for a Sign Permit taxable to the customer? I'm getting a permit for a sign that will cost about 175.00. Is the $175.00 taxable? When I add it all up, do I put sales tax on top of the $175.00?
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3816 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Alicia, When we apply for a sign permit,I require the customer to write his check to the city inspections for the cost of the permit.I tell them up front that a check from them has to pay for it.They ask no questions and do it.As far as the permit being taxable,I've never heard of it.Every state has different guidelines.You would get an accurate answer from the state sales tax dept.there local.
-------------------- Bill Wood Bill Wood, Sign Artist 3628 Ogburn Ave., NE Winston-Salem, NC 27105-3752 336-682-5820 Posts: 397 | From: Winston-Salem, NC | Registered: May 2006
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Oh, well maybe I won't charge the sales tax on top. I was jus wondering. I am paying for the permit myself, my customer is based in Massachusetts. I just want to get the sign done as quick and easy as possible.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3816 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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-------------------- Len Mort Signmaker1.com 11 Juniper Drive Millbury, MA 508-865-2382 "A Good Business Sign, is A Sign of Good Business"(1957) Posts: 811 | From: Millbury, Ma | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
Ya, good luck getting a straight answer from the Dept of Revenue. I'm sure if you called three different times, you would get three different answers.
For the most part, I tax everything except decorated apparel - unless I can find a rule or law that clearly states otherwise.
I would follow Bill's suggestion. But, if the client doesn't want to bother, I would follow the guidelines for other taxable/non-taxable items, and the related charges. Here's an example...
In PA, shipping is taxable if the product is taxable. If the product is non-taxable, then the shipping is not taxed. I apply the same principle to intangible services like design and site surveys too.
Havin' fun,
Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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Brian is right on getting different answers, I have had several calls from them asking me why I report a certain way and I tell them "because you told me to".
I pull permits all the time and in 20 years have never charged tax on them, they are not a service you are providing since your just passing along the cost. I do charge tax on the permit drawings and application time though.
-------------------- Brian Stoddard Northwest Wholesale Signs
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It depends on the state. Also depends on whether or not your state has a sales tax agreement with the customer's state. Here in Michigan it would be a service and not taxable. Michigan does not tax services so when I make a sign, the entire cost of making the sign from sketches to raw materials are included in the total price and thus taxable.
But when I make truck lettering I only have to charge sales tax on the cost of the lettering including the vinyl, the time it takes to make it and the profit. But I do not have to charge sales tax on the application of the vinyl on his truck. It's the same with window lettering. If I'm applying graphics to something the customer owns, I am providing a service, therefore, non taxable. So filling out sign permits is pure labor and therefore a service.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5397 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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I have always wondered why they refer to it as Pulling A Permit" I'm just getting a permit., It's not like they are all there, the permits, and someone has to "Pull" them out of a drawer or something. You don't "Pull" a driver's or marriage licence. Strange lingo to me.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3816 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:I have always wondered why they refer to it as Pulling A Permit
I have wondered this, too.
When I looked in the dictionary, 'pull' has a ton of meanings and uses.
You can pull taffy and pull a tendon, but only one is fun. A printer pulls a proof, a farmer pulls a turnip, and a right-handed hitter pulls a ball (to left field). A crook can pull a robbery and he might pull a gun doing so. An officer may pull rank, a boxer may pull a punch, a politician pulls votes, but a soldier pulls guard duty. You can pull a fast one. You can pull strings. Sometimes you have to pull yourself together, and you should always pull your weight. You can pull someone's leg and you can pull a B in algebra, or you can pull up stakes. As a sign painter, I have pulled all-nighters. A car always pulls forward.
'Pull' can also mean to obtain or aquire: He pulled his own credit report. She pulled a sign permit. And you can have something taken away from you: the doctor's license was pulled.
And, of course, Walldogs pull together to get done by Sunday.
-------------------- Brad Ferguson See More Signs 7931 Wornall Rd Kansas City, MO 64111 signbrad@yahoo.com 816-739-7316 Posts: 1230 | From: Kansas City, MO, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Monday,I PDF file to the city of Lincolnton,NC and by Wed,I received the permit in the mail.Load my truck with the sign,drove a hundred miles to install it and low and behold,they said I had to get a permit from the county.I went to their offices there,got the application,filled it out with the anticipation of installing it.Wrong..they said it probably would take a week to 21 days before the permit would be ready.I told him I had driven from WS to install it and I needed to go ahead and put it up.This is his words to me..."I FEEL YOUR PAIN" you can put it up but it's on you.I brought the sign back,what would you guys have done,Why didn't the city inform me about another permit before I drove all the way there.
-------------------- Bill Wood Bill Wood, Sign Artist 3628 Ogburn Ave., NE Winston-Salem, NC 27105-3752 336-682-5820 Posts: 397 | From: Winston-Salem, NC | Registered: May 2006
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