 carol e. rader |
finally making it an official business in order to sell photographs in stores and art shows, do I have to finally take the plunge and get a tax id? what are the advantages? up until now, I guess i've been scared, but I think I may be ready..any help would be appreciated, or maybe take a look at my gallery and see if you think I have a prayer!! thanks Carol
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Monnie Ryan |
As the owner of a sole proprietorship business (as opposed to a partnership or corporation), you can use your Social Security number as your Federal I.D. number for tax purposes. But more important, you'll also be subject to various rules, regulations and licensing requirements at your state and local levels. If potential customers will come to your home to look at your photos, for instance, you'd need to make sure your property is zoned for business purposes. All these laws and regulations differ from state to state and locality to locality. My best suggestion is to check your state government Web site (generally the Secretary of State's office), where you should find everything you need to know if you want to start a business in that state. Ditto for your city. Lots of work? Yes. But the alternative, should you be found in violation of any law (whether or not you knew it existed) is that you'll be shut down and possibly face a large financial penalty. I also highly recommend the experienced volunteer counselors at SCORE -- all retired business executives who help new and would-be business owners get started. Everything is confidential and FREE; just look in your phone book (government pages) for a chapter near you or visit http://www.score.org.
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carol e. rader |
Thank-you. I am in the finger lakes region of New York State, and we can barely breathe in this state without being taxed!
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Jeffrey R. Whitmoyer |
Monnies advice is pretty much spot on. Here in PA your contact for a sales tax license is the PA Dep't of Revenue, I'm sure NY does the same thing. You can always query the state website and do a search for "sales tax license" and you should be directed to the right place. Keep in mind, that if you go out of state you will also be responsible for having a tax license for those states. I currently have PA and MD sales tax licenses. The aggravation of having to file in more states has kept me from doing shows in states other than those. For shows, you may run into business permits in various locales, often the show promoter will take care of that by including the price of the permit in the entry. Catoctin Colorfest does the leg work for you for the local permit. BTW you guys have some great wines up there and I've had some fast laps around the track at Watkins Glen in my younger days. A nice area to spend summer in.
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Monnie Ryan |
Totally agree with Jeffrey on those wonderful wineries!! Hope to get back one of these days to those and the also-wonderful Watkins Glen State Park and that awesome gorge area. We tried to get in to peek at the track when we were there but there was a big race in a few days so "outsiders" like us were kept out. Bottom line? You live in a beautiful place (and Ohio's taxes aren't a whole lot more pleasant)!!
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