Up Front Price

tinner666

"But I sure the hell am going to find out!"

Didn't you do that before you got your business lic? I made it a point so I wouldn't get in trouble with the state or feds. Anybody getting a lic for anything should make it #1 or #2 priority. Othterwise, how are you going to know how to run your business?

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

Inner10

Read that again for me...you expect to pay tax because your not an idoit....but if some one give you a price verbally you don't expect to pay tax?

You PAY tax therefore you should CHARGE tax...it kinda balances out that way no?

In Ontario you pay provincial tax on goods but not labour 8%, labour is subject to goods and service tax though 5%. Until they switch to HST...then it will be 13% for all.

jarvis design

Not to be an a**, but, as a contractor you should be including the PST in your price - not seperately. I have a feeling you are probably doing it to show the customer how much friggin tax they are paying, but, if you ever get audited and they see that your were "collecting" PST - you would have to not only pay them, plus penalty and interest, but you would have to pay back your customers the PST that you "collected".

I have a friend in a similar business to mine in Hamilton and he kind of does what you do when he quotes a job - shows them how much PST is Included in the price - but when it comes time to provide the official invoice - you do not see PST anywhere.

Of course, all this is going to mean nothing come next July, but, (and this is from personal experiance), the PST cops are pricks!! - they will go back 4-7 years without blinking.

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Bathrooms Built for Life.
www.JarvisDesignBuild.com
519-495-4062

Inner10

What do you mean exactly?

My invoices and quotes look like this

Subtotal ***
PST ***
Labour ***
GST ***
Total ***

And it goes to the government....

The price the client sees is the price with the tax all outlined on a piece of paper...and the invoice is exactly like the quote but at the top of the page is says "Invoice" instead of "Proposal".

I don't really see what I'm doing wrong...although my 4 years of accounting at university were wasted but thats another story.

Big Shoe

2009 guidebook to Florida taxes......In general real property improvement is not taxable provideing contractor pays all sales tax on products purchased.

Now thats the rule I've been working under. Thats the way I got it from the start.

Your missing my point,not all services are required to charge tax. Everyone does not carry a tax guidebook in their back pocket.The way I look at it the junk guy is no different than my lawn guy who does not charge me tax to cut my grass. I could go on.

Just for you that think I'm cheap,it took the guy 15 minutes to show up and 10 minutes to load 1/4 of his truck. The dump was at the most 15 min. away.

kubie

yup, anything that improves your home is not taxable here in WI

i agree with Big Shoe on this one

you dont pay tax on a service, only if a product is purchases. i just talked with a rep from the WI tax office

hammer11379

This tax issue varies from state to state in the US. MI requires taxes paid on all materials or products purchased. As a remodeler taxes are paid to the supplier but none on the installation/labor. If you are a cabinet shop for instance, you can buy your material tax exempt but you must charge tax on your final product. But in New Mexico a remodeler would purchase materials tax exempt but has to pay tax on gross reciepts.

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Chuck Bittner
American Home Improvements
www.AHomeProNow.com
www.American-HomeImprovements.com

Framer53

Let's see. Your arguement went from how could the junk guy charge tax, even though he has no control over that, to he only worked 1/4hr and the dump is close.

Do you really own a business? Funny but this is the same nonsense I heard from customers.
Have you considered the cost of truck, insurance, overhead? Probably not.

If you didn't like his pprice, why did you hire him?

oldfrt

Some of the individual states tax codes are pretty vague.
Here,tax on labor is charged on commercial property and income producing rental property,unless the owner lives in the building and it is under a 3 family limit.

First you'd have to know your states codes.
Then you have to figure that the quote you got was the haulers price.
The tax is the states price.
Not everyone will quote with tax,unless you ask specifically if it's included.
I,personally,always quote with the tax included when it is applicable.
This keeps the client from getting upset later with added costs.

As far as his only taking 15 minutes to load and 15 minutes to get to his destination,there's still the time for him to get to your destination,unload the truck,possibly sort out for individual recycling requirements,and getting back to his original location.

It's just a matter of how he views his charges,and the fact that you should know that it may be taxable.
Like somebody already mentioned,when you buy retail,the tax burden is assumed.

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https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-...94183374011504

ARI001

You might want to talk to your accountant to clarify that. If sales tax is collected when the materials are purchased then you do not collect sales tax, if you purchase the materials wholesale and no tax is collected by the seller then you must collect or pay the taxes.

ARI001

Are you sure you know the tax rule now or are you still just guessing because your to cheap to pay an accountant to find out for sure.

Your lawn guy charges you taxes of some form or another (there are many forms of taxes that businesses pay and pass on to their clients) he just does not show you how much. It is buried in his overhead and lumped into the price he gives you.

I think your cheap as h*ll. When I do haul (I prefer dumpsters when practicable) debris from a job site the landfill charges me a commercial dumping fee. The minimum charge is $65.00 (which I pass on to the client). That is just the dump fee. Then you have time to load and unload, maintenance costs on equipment, business use taxes on equipment, travel time, typically these along with many other expenses are what is known as general and fixed overhead expenses. Then, God forbid, the company has to make some kind of profit (you know the reward for the risk you take to operate a business and get a return on your investment).

Inner10

Get a copy of you state tax act or call a taxation accountant.

Either you just screwed the poor guy and beat him out of 15 bucks, or he was charging tax and not paying it to the government and hence stealing from you.

Either way its 15 bucks, I think I would have brushed that off and not been a dick about it so long as he did a good job and you were happy with his service.

Gus Dering

Moving a loved one into assisted living is an emotional time. I feel for you and your family for that.

What is the chance that the trash guy got a little of the stress from the move that he didn't deserve?

Just looking at the big picture is all.

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Every parent who has walked barefoot into their child's room late at night hates Legos

JumboJack

I think the bottom line is that in most states you do not collect sales tax for services.

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in texas with framing and cornish people will do it for 3.00 a foot. What do yall think about that? Just laber

jmacd

I was under the impression that in my area you pay sales tax for everything that is not connected to the home. A pool or driveway is taxable but a roof is not.

The home owner has to obtain a form from the county, a capital improvement form and file it with county to eliminate tax. The tax still has to be paid when and if the home owner sells the home.

The contractor has to have a tax number, resale certificate and provide this number to all vendors when buying material if you are charging customer tax and don't pay tax at the vendors so the material is not taxed twice. You also have to fill out a form that the vendor keeps on file.

The contractor then charges customer sales tax when required and pays this to state every three months in one lump sum. I don't do any of this, my wife does most of my paperwork. I do believe this is how it takes place. I have a spreed sheet with all my sales listed and if I collected tax or not.

I just looked up some information and the two words used are "capital improvement" and "repair". The first is non taxable and the secound is.

Granted that most home owners and contrators don't follow any of this.

bwalley

Food items are non taxable, except for prepared food.

bwalley

Call the Florida Department of Revenue and ask them if they have a sales tax number, I would bet that they don't, services like hauling away trash is not taxable.

If they get caught collecting sales tax and keeping it, they will be in some serious trouble.

bwalley

The guy was collecting sales tax when it wasn't due, the junkman was committing a crime, yet the victim who refuesd to pay it is a dick???

The Florida Department of Revenue would view this as a crime of theft from them, they take this very seriously.

tinner666

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I collect and pay taxes from my retail business.
My roofing business gets taxed on the profits. Not collectible from the client. The sales tax I pay is NOT collected from the client as a line item. It's included in the materials cost.
Both businesses are charged a tax based on gross receipts too. Not collectible from clients. Then, at years end, my profit is taxed separately.

Oh yeah! I went all over the whole thing with the tax department the day I got my licenses. I get a separate payment book for each operation.

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Frank Slate Roof Repairs, Richmond, Va.

Big Shoe

I'm so cheap I should have left all that trash on the curb for the city to haul away on taxpayers money. And all the neighbors would have to look at it for a few weeks.

I'm so cheap I just shipped 250.00 worth of tools... saw, drill, tape,pencils,speed square,chalkline to my son and other soldiers in Iraq so the can build some storage sheds.

While I'm at it who needs an accountant and insurance, why bother to renew my license! Think of all that money I'll save.

By the way, thanks Gus