Tips for Creating an Online Store

Posts Tagged ‘tax’

Do I need to Charge a Sales Tax?

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

In the United States you do not need to charge a sales tax to customers out of your state.

Here are some examples:

Running your business from your home:

Q: I live in Wisconsin and have a home based business (no warehouse or office space).  Do I need to charge sales tax?

A: No. You don’t have to charge any sales taxes.

Running your business from an office/warehouse:

Q: I live in Florida and have a small warehouse where I sell my products out of.  Do I need to charge sales tax?

A: You only need to charge a sales tax to Florida residents.

Running your business from multiple locations:

Q:  I have offices/warehouses in California, Illinois, and Nebraska.  Do I need to charge a sales tax?

A: You need to charge a sales tax to California, Illinois, and Nebraska residents.

MORE INFO:

Internet sales are actually regulated by the federal government because it reaches across state borders. Under current law, states cannot reach beyond their borders and compel out-of-state vendors to collect the tax owed by that state’s residents. What happens is those who buy online are supposed to report it and pay “use tax” in their state, even though it’s not heavily regulated.

Disclaimer: Please check with your state and local tax bureaus.  Local laws change all the time and I’m not a Tax expert.

New! More Tax and Shipping Options

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Want to tax different provinces or states?  Want to provide your customers next day delivery if they pay a little extra for it?  Now you can with PayPal override.

PayPal Override Shipping Instructions

PayPal Override Tax Instructions

Enjoy!

How do I use my PayPal Tax Settings?

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

If you want to charge tax to customers in your state only OR if you want to charge different tax rates depending on the customer location, we suggest using your PayPal Tax Settings option.  Here are step-by-step instructions:

1. Login to your store headquarters

2. Navigate to “Store” -> “Settings”

flyingcart-store-settings2

3. Scroll down the page  to the “PayPal Checkout” section and select “Use my PayPal tax settings”

PayPal Override Tax Settings

4. Hit “Update Settings” at the bottom of the page to save your changes

5. Login to your PayPal account

6. Click on “Profile”

PayPal -> Profile Navigation Menu Screen Shot

7. Click on “Sales Tax”

PayPal Sales Tax Screen Shot

8. Click on “Add New Sales Tax”

PayPal Sales Tax Screen Shot

9. Follow the PayPal instructions, repeat to setup more than one location

Please Note: If you are using Google Checkout and/or PayPal Express, your PayPal Tax settings will not be applied when a customer makes a purchase via PayPal Express.  We highly reccommend deleting all Google Checkout and PayPal Express information on your store settings page.  Your customers will still be able to pay with PayPal or any major credit card.