Sales Tax & the website
Round a-bout, 7/8/02 10:10 am, ya’ll Psychicfair said:
> The Texas State Comptrollers office called
> me yesterday (Tuesday) and said
> that they “would probably come to
> the El Paso Psychic Fair to see if you all
> had your ORIGINAL Texas State Sales Tax
> permits WITH YOU, that they could SEE,
> or a photocopy of it.”
I’ve had a State Tax Number since 1995, or thereabouts. Nicest folks in the world to deal with, the State officials. No, really. Be nice to them, they’re nice to me. Simple. Easy. Local sales get charged the requisite 8.25%, and I had to jump through some extra hoops to get the website order form to do it correctly, but it works well enough. I was absorbing and paying the required amount until one year, the numbers didn’t work out.
But I haven’t seen my actual certificate in over 5 years. I’ve been paying taxes, I just don’t have the proof. I can recite my tax number, I just lack the actual piece of paper. Last time I saw it, it was in a laptop case that’s three laptops, four or five cases, and many thousands of miles long-gone.
So what do I do? Hit their website. They’re mailing me a duplicate.
I remember watching as one “psychic reader” got up in arms, jumped up into the face of the state official, hollering about the work being “spiritual” and hating being classified as “entertainment” as the State of Texas calls us.
That’s a battle I don’t care to enter. It all comes down to accreditation, as in, are you sanctioned by a particular religious body? [Actually, I am, but I tend to regard my work as entertainment>. Then there’s the double-edged sword, and I haven’t argued either “for” or “against” on this one for years, so my data may be completely wrong, but the way I understand the law, if you’re a “counselor” then you have to have an advanced degree with so many hours of supervised counseling before you can legally call yourself “Counselor” in Texas. As I recall, that was a move by Virgo [former governor> Ann Richards, but don’t hold me to that question on a point of legislation.
In internet terms, if you’re really a “not for profit” then you’re a “dot org.” Or, as some would call it, a “501(c)3” corporate entity. Me? I pay taxes. This is where I earn my income, such as it is.