Now that ZF offers the option to collect sales tax (which I see is now turned "on" by default in my account), I'm confused.  I live in Illinois.  Since ZF did NOT collect sales tax on vendor-fulfilled orders before, I'd assumed that my compensation was simply a commission and not subject to IL state sales tax (comparable to an Amazon affiliate commission).  Is this not the case?

If I should have somehow been collecting sales tax on my sales up to this date, I'm grateful the feature has been added; however, this brings a significant wrinkle to the sales I've made up to this point since starting with ZF a month ago.

Sales tax laws relating to photography vary considerably from state to state. I would suggest at the very least reading up on the info the State of IL provides on the subject -- and probably, a discussion with a knowledgable IL-based accountant is in order.

I know that in many states, you are required to collect sales tax on prints you sell. I'm not a tax expert, but it seems to me that Zenfolio and MPIX are merely functioning as a fulfillment partner, thus the onus for tax collection is on you, not them. But again, I'm just a photographer and could be wrong.

Best

Paul

Thanks for the response, Paul.  This seemed more clear when I was with InstaProofs since I took the orders and did the fulfillment.  As a result, I collected sales tax for sales in IL.  Since signing on with ZF/Mpix, though, and they now handle fulfillment, the matter became less clear. I've done some further research this morning and it looks like IL wants me to collect sales tax.  So that's what I'll do.

Cheers--

Michael

Michael...

I'm in Illinois and this is something I'm pretty sure I can speak on pretty intelligently and I'll tell you why.

I'm a guy that will have major anxiety attacks over doing anything not clearly in line with the law, because I'm just SURE I'll be the one getting caught and owing a million bucks in fines and facing the rest of my life in jail.  So when I really started going after my photog business a couple years ago, I consulted with one of the top tax accounting agencies in Rockford (Blascoe and Associates... use them from whereever you are in Illinois and Wisconsin, awesome and very reasonable pricing!)

Kim Blascoe had her people check directly with the state to make certain we were doing things properly.  If you are a photographer in Illinois, you have to pay sales tax on products you sell... prints, photo mugs, photo mouse pads, etc.  If you dont want to charge your customer the tax, that's up to you, but YOU still have to PAY the state.

If you don't sell products, like say you shoot a wedding for a flat fee and give them the photos on cd, then you are expected to pay sales tax on... (I think it's 25%)  of your service bill.  And since there is the sales tax, that means you have to submit the IL-ST1 forms.  :)

If you are not in Illinois, this post isn't even worth reading... cuz I guarantee it's probably different for your state.

Thanks, Kevin.  I've been collecting (and paying!) sales tax to the state since I started my business a few years ago.  Transitioning to ZF, though, I wasn't sure exactly how this worked.  Now it's clear.  Thanks for your input!

Cheers--

Michael

I am confused about the taxes also.

Is this only collecting STATE sales tax? or can we input city and county tax as well?

If I sell an item to someone inside my city, I have to collect all three. I just need to know how to handle this.

In Rockford, Illinois, we have state and city taxes.  6.25% for state, and 2% for city. I asked my tax accountant about this and she said to charge anyone from Illinois the 8.25% tax because the order was received/taken by my office located in Rockford, but for customers outside Illinois, don't charge sales tax.

I trust these people so that is how I'm handling it (if anyone ever buys a print from me!)