We love California. Great weather, inexpensive houses (just kidding) and no taxes (now I’m just crying). We have had a lot questions about how California sales tax works so I thought I’d try to share what I know.
Since our production facility is in Santa Clara, California we are subject to the California sales tax rules. As a former accountant I know that sales tax is really a use tax. The rules are as follows:
- If we ship within California we are required to charge sales tax unless the person we are selling to has a California resale license.
- If your customer is located in California (even though your business isn’t) we must charge and pay the state. To learn more I recommend this article: TAX ARTICLE. You can also visit the Franchise Tax Board
- You can apply for a license but I’ll warn you there are requirements you should review to make sure it makes sense for your business. Quarterly filings, etc.
It probably only makes sense if you ship multiple stationery orders per month to your clients with shipping addresses in California.
For most of you who occasionally ship an order in California we recommend you add 9% to your prices to cover the cost of the sales tax we are forced to charge you.
Now can we talk about our great weather instead? Even though I’m a recovering accountant I really hate taxes.
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