Bookkeeping & Accounting Help For Small Businesses

[SamDorrance]

Hi there, I'm new to these forums and I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Sam Dorrance and I provide bookkeeping, accounting, and tax preparation services to small businesses and individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA. I have been in accounting for 6 years and recently began working on my own (self employed on the 1099 basis). I have certainly learned a lot of non-accounting small business knowledge in the process of starting my own business, but I'd love to help anyone here with bookkeeping/accounting/tax questions if possible. Please like my facebook page: facebook.com/dorrancefinancial or visit my website: dorrancefinancial.com for bookkeeping and accounting related resources and tips. You can also contact me through facebook or email if you have a question that you need some help with. No charge just happy to share some advice. Also, if you have a facebook page or website for your business, let me know about it and I'll like/visit the page. Thanks and have a great day!

-Sam

[tinker9696]

I received a deposit for a Macaw yesterday to someone in New Hampshire..we are in NY. The sales tax here is 8.625 % . New Hampshire has no sales tax. Customer said she never pays sales tax when purchasing from state that has sales tax. Does anyone know if this is true and how this works when I do my quarterly sales tax. In 8 years I have never run across this before and I have sold outside my state about 1/2 dozen times.
thanks in advance for any input.

[jamesray50]

Welcome Sam. Good luck with your business. I will check out your Facebook page and website. Please feel free to do the same to mine (see signature).

I received a deposit for a Macaw yesterday to someone in New Hampshire..we are in NY. The sales tax here is 8.625 % . New Hampshire has no sales tax. Customer said she never pays sales tax when purchasing from state that has sales tax. Does anyone know if this is true and how this works when I do my quarterly sales tax. In 8 years I have never run across this before and I have sold outside my state about 1/2 dozen times.
thanks in advance for any input.

I'm not sure how you are receiving sales, on line or in person? If on-line your shopping cart should be set up not to charge out of state sales, unless in NY you have to collect sales tax on all sales. If you are collecting the payment in person, and the person is picking up the product in NY then I would guess that you would have to collect sales tax, unless the person has a sales tax exemption certificate. If NY does allow exemptions, then it would be on the return.

I am not familiar with NY sales tax so please do some searching on their website. But, be aware that there are people who will try to avoid paying taxes. Just because your customer says she has never paid the sales tax in NY does not mean she really hasn't.

Good Luck!

[tinker9696]

The sale is done on the phone. The deposit is collected on credit card through my store terminal to reserve the bird and then picked up here in NY when the bird is ready to go home with them.

[jamesray50]

I Googled it and you don't collect sales tax from customers outside of NY, if you are shipping the product to New Hamphshire, then no sales tax. That would apply to any state, it doesn't matter if the state has a sales tax, if they do then the customer is responsible themself for paying a use tax on their purchase.

When you fill out the return on line 1 you enter gross sales and service. This would be the total of all your sales for the month, including any out of state sales. On line 2 you enter the non-taxable sales. This would be the total of all sales outside of NY. In step 3 of the return Column C would be the amount of the taxable sales for each jurisdiction and Column D is the sales that are subject to tax. This may or may not be the same amount. The total amount in Column C should be the same as the amount in 1a in Step 1. By the time you have completed the form, the sales tax calculated as due, before any credits, should equal what you actually collected during the quarter. There is no where on the form to enter sales from outside NY.

Hope this helps. Here is the link to New York's sale tax website. http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/sales/pub750.pdf

[tinker9696]

Thank you @ JO. I appreciate you taking the time to look it up. I hate calling the sales tax number when doing the quarterly, sometimes the rep is very nasty : (

[rjoyce3582]

Sam nice to meet you. I really liked your website.