Where to get Business forms?

[mikehende]

Hey guys, I need a vendor application and invoice forms template which I can customize, any ideas please? Not really finding anything suitable on google. Or if not, then where can I get professional looking forms?

[vangogh]

I don't know what software you have, but I'll assume you have a copy of Microsoft Word. Microsoft offers a lot of free templates (https://templates.office.com/?legRedir=true&CorrelationId=65401c30-1044-4f6c-808b-b4e1b080fe91). I see invoice templates. I don't see vendor application templates listed, though I can't say I know what one would look like. There are enough templates that I would think you could find something close enough to customize.

[mikehende]

I had tried creating invoice with one of their templates but you can only edit and not customize. I will have to create my own using Open Office.

[Fulcrum]

I had tried creating invoice with one of their templates but you can only edit and not customize. I will have to create my own using Open Office.

Why not spend a couple of hundred dollars and get some proper accounting and management software? It will make your life easier and save you a lot of time.

[mikehende]

Why not spend a couple of hundred dollars and get some proper accounting and management software? It will make your life easier and save you a lot of time.

Quickbooks has invoicing so that's not an issue, was just looking into designing my own so it's mainly only the vendor application I will need and that's a one time thing. I'll try Open Office today.

[Freelancier]

Vendor application for what exactly? If part of it is to grant credit, you'll want to get a lawyer involved to make sure that you don't accidentally violate the credit laws of your location.

[Harold Mansfield]

You can create forms using Microsoft Word, and covert them to PDF using Adobe PDF converter or Adobe Acrobat. I'm sure there are free conversion tools as well.
You can also create using Acrobat. Adobe has very robust form creation tools.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/how-to/create-fillable-pdf-forms-creator.html

To answer your question, there are general forms to buy all over the place, but most businesses need them to be specific to their business and they create them or have them created.

[RR151]

You can create forms using Microsoft Word, and covert them to PDF using Adobe PDF converter or Adobe Acrobat. I'm sure there are free conversion tools as well.
You can also create using Acrobat. Adobe has very robust form creation tools.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/how-to/create-fillable-pdf-forms-creator.html

To answer your question, there are general forms to buy all over the place, but most businesses need them to be specific to their business and they create them or have them created.

Over at Fiverr check out the PDF forms section. They have very competent sellers that will create a custom PDF form. I use PDFHelper...RR

[tallen]

Vendor Application Form? You mean for someone who wants to sell YOU services? Do you need more info than what is on the Federal IRS W-9 form (which you can download from the IRS website)? Yes, you can create your own substitute W-9 form, but not sure why you need a template -- can't you just make your own form from scratch?

[mikehende]

Hey guys, sorry for being so late in getting back to this. I am a wholesaler, the vendor Application form is for new Retailers who wish to purchase. I want the form to be and look professional so I am going to go with RR151's suggestion, since it's a one time thing, I will have someone on Fiverr make one for me the way I want it to look, thanks guys! All of the distributors we've purchased from ask for both our Articles of Incorporation form and Resale certificate so I am thinking any retailer wishing to purchase from us should provide the same or do we only need to see their incorporation info?

[Business Attorney]

Unless you want to get stuck with a huge sales tax liability, you definitely want to require a resale certificate from each of the retailers are selling to.

As for copies of the Articles of Incorporation (or Articles of Organization, in the case of an LLC), the general idea is to make sure that the legal name on the resale certificate matches the legal name of the articles of incorporation. It is a good idea to do so, and can help you detect issues before they become problems, but I'm not aware of any state's Department of Revenue that requires you to have on hand the Articles of Incorporation from your purchasers. If in doubt, you should check your own state's sales tax rules.

[mikehende]

Unless you want to get stuck with a huge sales tax liability, you definitely want to require a resale certificate from each of the retailers are selling to.

Thanks for the info but I am not understanding why we would have any tax liabilities for a customer as long as we pay taxes for all local sales? Isn't it the customer's liability whether they pay taxes or not?

[Freelancier]

why we would have any tax liabilities for a customer as long as we pay taxes for all local sales?If you give sales tax exemption to a company that does not have a valid sales tax number with the state, you're the one who is liable for the tax. If you charge everyone tax and remit said tax, you won't owe anything... but some resellers may not do business with you.

[turboguy]

As long as you collect and remit the sales taxes you should be fine. I don't think there are any requirements to have detailed information such as the articles of incorporation or the like or for that matter anything beyond an invoice. There are places you can get into trouble. One is if any of your customers are sales tax exempt such as a re-seller or producer. You need to have them fill out a sales tax exemption form and may need a new one each year. The other issue may be out of state sales. One place this can be an issue is for example lets say you make an out of state sale and then attend a trade show or make a delivery in that state. Just going to a state on business can give you a "presence" in that state and after that point you need to collect taxes for that state (legally but this may slide by). It is far more your responsibility to do what you need to do than it is the customers.

We got into some problems a while back. If we sold out of state and shipped the merchandise then we were not responsible for collecting sales tax and it was the customers responsibility to declare it as "use tax" and to pay it to the state (which few did). Well, if an out of state customer picked up at our factory we still considered that an out of state sale and didn't collect the tax. We got audited and got hit with a $ 110,000.00 tax liability. We do also sell to a lot of tax exempt people such as schools and cities and did have to get all the signed exemption forms from them or pay the taxes on the sale. People expect to pay sales tax when they buy and it is far better to just collect it and do everything properly.

The day is rapidly approaching when you and we will have to collect sales tax on any sale anywhere and remit the funds to the proper authorities and that is going to be an administrative nightmare.

[billbenson]

As far as the vendor application forms, most purchasing departments will have sheet with all of the information you need. It's really a pain in the ass to fill out forms. I don't recommend you use one. You will loose business.

As for invoice templates, Word was mentioned above but Excel is probably a better option because it does the math for you. There are plenty of templates online. Excel can be used in a database like fashion. If you don't want to learn database programming it's probably worth the effort to learn Excel. A Dummy's book can show you how to write interactive spreadsheets.

[mikehende]

As far as the vendor application forms, most purchasing departments will have sheet with all of the information you need. It's really a pain in the ass to fill out forms. I don't recommend you use one. You will loose business.


Yes, I am aware of the hassle of filling out forms, we are trying to get our accountant to verify if we will be responsible for any buyer's tax situation, if not then all we can ask for is their incorporation. I am being told there is a company somewhere out there whom we can pay to get all info on a business including credit check e.t.c so will look into that also, will report back here.

[Business Attorney]

You said you are a wholesaler selling to retailers. As freelancier and turboguy pointed out, if you collect and remit sales taxes, you are going to be OK. Except, as freelancier also noted, many resellers will not do business with you if you make them pay sales taxes on the items that they purchase for resale. You will have the same problem if you sell to schools, governments or non-profits that are exempt from sales taxes. They may not be willing to buy from you if the addition of the sales tax translates into a higher price.

If you don't plan to collect and remit sales taxes on sales that are exempt from sales taxes, then if the state ever decides to audit your business, the burden is on you to prove that the sales were exempt.

[mikehende]

Oh I see, sorry I misunderstood. We have already refused quite a few people here locally in NY who wants to pay by cash so we will focus our efforts on out-of-state sales but yes, we don't want any problems with IRS so all local sales will include taxes.

[Business Attorney]

... we don't want any problems with IRS so all local sales will include taxes.

The IRS has nothing to do with the collection of sales taxes. That is a state and local tax matter.

In New York state, you will be dealing with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. You should check out the information at Sales and use tax (http://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/st/stidx.htm) for details.

[mikehende]

So then to clarify, we do not need to have anyone fill out a form, all we would need is a copy of their incorporation to make sure they have a legit business?

[turboguy]

So then to clarify, we do not need to have anyone fill out a form, all we would need is a copy of their incorporation to make sure they have a legit business?

No, that isn't what you need. That won't help you at all. I am in PA and know what the form is here but there will a tax exemption form that the State of New York will have available. You should be able to download it off the states site which David just provided a link to. You need to have your customer fill out that form and then keep it on file. Then if someone is exempt you are fine not charging them the tax. Here is is a pretty simple form. They just fill in the business name, their state tax id and check why they are exempt in the list of reasons on the form such as farming, resale, government agency, school etc. They sign it and send it to you.

Probably when you signed up to collect sales tax there should have been one in the packet.

[Business Attorney]

No, the articles of incorporation are purely secondary, as I said above. You really need to study and understand Publication 750 (http://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/sales/pub750.pdf) from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. There is a lot of material to understand, including recordkeeping requirements. Don't go by a few sentences on a forum post.

On page 30 it says (my emphasis):


You are not required to collect sales tax from a purchaser who furnishes you with a properly completed exemption certificate that you accept in good faith within 90 days of the delivery of property or rendition of a service. Accepting an exemption certificate in good faith means you have no prior knowledge that the document is falsely or fraudulently issued.

If you don't have a properly completed exemption certificate, you will have to pay the tax, whether or not you collect it.

[turboguy]

Here is a link to the exact page with information about what you need to do. The form you need is an ST-120

The information it requires is the following.

the date it was prepared;
the purchaser’s name and address;
the seller’s name and address;
the identification number on the purchaser’s Certificate of Authority (some exemption certificates don’t require this, or may require another identifying number; see the certificate’s instructions);
the purchaser’s signature, or an authorized representative’s signature; and
any other information required by that particular certificate.

[billbenson]

@David

I'm in Florida. I don't ask for resale certificates for companies outside of FL. They aren't taxable. Should I be asking for tax information from them?

[mikehende]

Here is a link to the exact page with information about what you need to do. The form you need is an ST-120
.

Yes, we our accountant handles our taxes so we won't have any issues paying taxes from local sales and thanks for the info guys. So to clarify we should NOT ask a customer for their resale certificate, only their EIN, is this correct?

[Business Attorney]

@billbenson

Generally, out-of-state sales are not subject to sales taxes imposed by the state where the seller is located because of constitutional issues (nexus). States are becoming much more aggressive and have developed a number of theories that have limited the application of the nexus requirement. You have probably read about many states treating affiliates as extensions of online sellers like Amazon, with the result that sales by Amazon to residents of the states in which affiliates were located were subject to sales taxes.

What you are talking about is not New York imposing taxes on your sales to New York residents but Florida imposing taxes on your sales to New York residents. Under current law, I don't think Florida could do that if your sale did not occur in Florida. I can't say that in the future the states won't come up with a new theory but as long as your records show that the sale did not occur in Florida (that is, you delivered the the product to a location outside the state), you should be OK without obtaining an exemption certificate.

On the other hand, if for some reason NY does successfully establish an ability to reach your sales, an exemption certificate would be essential.

[billbenson]

Thanks David.