Blackbird's SS Journal - Country to City

[Bettacreek]

Thanks everyone! I had company, sorry for the bit of delay.

Hi Country Freedom!

I'm about to walk over to another store and see if they would be interested in such a thing!

I haven't heard anything from Goodwill yet.

YES! I did try DE and I think that did the trick! No more itchy bites or anything. It took a couple days to get working. I sprinkled it around the bed, under the bed, and under my sheets, just in case.

I also have a question for anyone that might be able to help me.

I'm trying to order something online and it says I need to create an account with them first, before I check out. On their create an account page, it says that I must add the 'Tax/VAT Number'. It says this is required. Any idea where I can find out what this number is supposed to be??

From what I've heard, you can use your SS number if it's a tiny, one man operation.

 

[eggs4sale]

"Most are in their early twenties with fast stylish hot-rods. I walk down the apartment 'village' street with a grocery bag, in my .99 jeans, $2.00 shirt and 4-5 year old shoes with holes and they go speeding by and I secretly hope that they are in debt."

hot rods

 

[eggs4sale]

To receive your 'Tax/VAT Number', called an 'EIN' by the IRS, you have to have a business license. Since you will be selling items, you will be expected to pay taxes on them, and if the stores that buy your products from you pay you in check form, they may want your 'Tax/VAT Number', too. When they turn in THEIR taxes, they will give the IRS your tax I.D. number.

But since they require the number, it sounds like they will only deal with you if you have a business license. A business license is easy enough to get, but it does cost money.

Starting a business in Minnesota:
http://www.business.gov/states/minnesota/start.html

How to get the EIN:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small....html?cm_sp=ExternalLink-_-Federal-_-Treasury

Also, Hoo suggested setting up a shop on etsy. You also do ebay. I don't know anything about etsy's license requirements.

If you DO decide to go the legitimate route, don't forget to pay both federal AND state taxes. Once you start doing them, they're really not that difficult, as long as you don't do any hostile takeovers of other companies. And keep ALL receipts, no matter how little the amount.

(just sell on-line ...... I'd LOVE to see the BB website! )

 

[freemotion]

BB, in order to buy supplies from wholesalers and to get them tax-free, you need to give them the number that your state assigns to you when you apply for a sales tax id number. Go to your state's Dept. of Revenue website to see what is involved. Often there is no fee. This number is what you will use to pay the sales tax you collect. If you sell to retailers, you won't collect sales tax as they will when they sell to the end consumer. To prove that they are retailers that collect sales tax, they need to provide YOU with their sales tax id for your records. Yep. Paperwork.

The online wholesaler needs this info from you especially since everything is online, so it would be easily discovered if they were selling to someone without a sales tax id and not charging sales tax. They'd get fined.

There are some limits to flying under the radar. There are some advantages to all the paperwork of flying in the radar, such as being able to file a Schedule C with your federal income tax returns. You can often write off so many things as expenses that you can offset the income from your "real" job.

There is a book that you can probably get from the library called Lower Your Taxes Bigtime by Sandy Bodkin or Botkin, a former IRS agent.

I don't know if all my terminology is accurate or applies to your state. We use a tax preparer and have found that he pays for his own fees in the money he's saved us. You are not at that point, but will be some day, I'm sure, so it would be good to start learning now and decide what you want to do with the information.

A lot of states aren't using social security numbers anymore since you have to give the vendors a copy of your license with the number, and that leaves you open to identity theft. With an assigned number, all anyone can do with it is pay your taxes for you!

 

[Blackbird]

How depressing. I wish I had paid more attention in my business class. Well, actually I'm taking one now and it's a load of crap.

I guess I'll purchase from elsewhere until I get really selling.

 

[freemotion]

It is near the end of the year, so don't worry about it right now. But if you really, really get selling and it takes off, you will want to at least know what your options are. So do a little research now, and you can decide if you want to apply for a number in January. It is not as hard as it sounds, especially once you get going and get used to what you can and cannot do.

A lot of massage therapists don't declare all their income, as it is easy to hide. I declare all of mine, as that is part of my religious beliefs and personal ethics. Then I discovered that it was also very useful when applying for a mortgage....They do want to know if you make enough to pay them back!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, and if you have a primarily retail store business, you won't have to collect any sales tax. Which would make me personally very happy. It is a pain in the butt when you are doing everything by hand, and not with a computerized cash register that figures everything out for you! And when your state goes from 5% to 6.25% IN THE MIDDLE OF THE YEAR!!!

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh Freemotion you are so knowledgeable about so many things!

 

[lalaland]

Hi Blackbird!

hey, it is really easy to get a tax number in MN. Just go online to mn dept of revenue - the forms will be there. Then you just fill out a form, also online, once a quarter to report. it is pretty easy, and it might be worth it to you to get wholesale costs for some of your supplies.

Or you can wait a while and see what you end up doing.

What city are you in?

 

[freemotion]

That's what happens when you get to be my age.....

(I've fallen and I can't get up!)