Saturday, April 09, 2011
Tax Exemption
I have been selling my disability resource books for several years now, and something I have seen a few times is confusion by non-profit agencies that think they do not have to pay sales tax because they are "tax exempt."
The short answer to that is - No.
Tax exempt status means that the agency is exempt from income tax and property tax... but not sales tax. There are lots of web sites that explain this. Just do a search for" non-profit tax exemption status".
Also, Some agencies that have purchased books from my web store also wanted me to fill out a W-9 form for taxes.
The short answer for that one is also - No.
A W-9 is for sub-contractors. If you were contracting me to write a special manual or training for your agency - something I would happily consider - then I would need to fill out a W-9 so you could issue me a 1099 form at the end of the year, showing how much you paid me. But you do not need a W-9 to make a purchase from a store.
I hope this helps. One agency got mad at me and cancelled their book order over these issues. I asked if they insisted that WalMart fill out a W-9 when the agency made a purchase at their store, and that was the last I heard from them. That was too bad for their staff and clients who might have benefited from the information in the books.
