sales tax+craft fairs

[flutterbye]

I'm getting ready to do a few craft fairs this fall, first time, and was wondering if anyone knew if it is ok to include your sales tax in your asking price for an item instead of charging say $10.00 + $.60, just price the item as $10.60. It would save a lot of time not having to figure it in for each sale.

Anyway, I'm in Missouri, not sure if anyone is from around here and knows the tax laws on this. I cant seem to find anything on this specific topic on the web either. TIA:smiley2:

[Candybee]

Thats what I do. Last year I added the sales tax on and it was a pain in the butt to always have to carry all that change at every show. So this year I included the tax in the price and report it in my tax statements. It is so much easier IMO.

[EmpressC]

I've only done a few shows thus far, but I thought about the fact of having to have change and thought it'd be a hassle to have to include coins as well. So I figured in the tax for my products and either rounded up or down to the nearest dollar. Just makes life that much simpler. When it's busy, my mind doesn't work well enough to have to figure in tax and all that jazz. I want to make the transaction as fast as possible. LOL!

[flutterbye]

Yeah, It would definatly be much easier but I remember someone saying something like you have to have the products price and the sales tax amount listed seperatly on your receipts or you must have signs posted stating that tax is included in the price. I'm just not sure if the rules are different from state to state, I'm wanting to make up my price signs but want to make sure before I do.

[Beth-VT]

It depends on your state. In VT, we can't do that without clearly posting what the breakdown is (item price and sales tax).

I figure my show prices to be the item plus tax, rounded to the nearest quarter. Makes for easy change. Then I put out tags on the shelves showing the price with the breakdown in small print below.

[Dagwood]

Yep, it goes by state. A quick call to your state tax department would answer that for you. I know in Ohio, we're allowed to include tax but we have to state "price includes Ohio state and local taxes".

[Judy, USMC]

Just a helpful hint. If you decide to round your prices and want to figure out in reverse how much you are selling the item for you will need to divide the marked price by 1.sales tax rate.

For example your 6% rate. If it's $10. and $10.60 with tax and you only want to take quarters you can bump it up to $10.75.

$10.75 divided by 1.06 equals $10.14 for the product and the remainder ($0.61) is the tax you have collected.

[Guest Candelishis]

Just a helpful hint. If you decide to round your prices and want to figure out in reverse how much you are selling the item for you will need to divide the marked price by 1.sales tax rate.

For example your 6% rate. If it's $10. and $10.60 with tax and you only want to take quarters you can bump it up to $10.75.

$10.75 divided by 1.06 equals $10.14 for the product and the remainder ($0.61) is the tax you have collected.

That's basically what I do for craft shows. It's soooo much easier to just deal with quarters than it is to have to mess with pennies and the rest. (That and I suck at math!! So I'd be going to the calculator every time...).

[gerrie]

After adding my sales tax to the pruchase price on the spot for 2 years I found that when you get busy people really don't want to stand around in line waiting for you to figure all the tax with your calculator. That's when I started to include the tax in my products, and at the same time not messing with the penny crap. Most the time they can add up their own purchase if they don't have to figure the tax, so they can start making out the check or getting the cash out of their purse, so it saves everyone time. It just runs smoother, and people can move on to the next vendor faster, keeps them happier.