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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: jamesbond007 on May 23, 2022, 05:31:37 PM

Title: [SOLVED] Did I get myself into a mess? How do I pay CA Sales Tax?
Post by: jamesbond007 on May 23, 2022, 05:31:37 PM

I am a hobby photographer. I recently was approached by a pre-school to take their students' pre-school year-end/graduation pictures. I thought I could make some side money and said yes. I took the photos and uploaded them to a website. I signed up for stripe to accept payments from parents and linked it to the website. I disabled the Sales Tax option on Stripe. But the website that I used (Pixieset), had it enabled (I did, by mistake) and it collected sales tax for every print order. I now have $750 in sales in the last week.


I thought I could just pay the sales tax as a sole proprietor by going online. It turns out that I need to have a seller permit before I even sell anything. I don't have any legal entity set up. It just happened in a matter of a couple of days. What is my recourse? Do I incur huge penalties?


Edit: This is in California.
Edit2: I called CDTFA and I was able to create a temporary seller permit online. The rep walked me through the process. No issues. But always good to register BEFORE a planed sale.

Title: Re: Did I get myself into a mess? How do I pay CA Sales Tax?
Post by: Sibley on May 23, 2022, 05:48:32 PM

@SeattleCPA this might be up your alley?

Title: Re: Did I get myself into a mess? How do I pay CA Sales Tax?
Post by: yachi on May 23, 2022, 07:51:02 PM

Quote from: jamesbond007 on May 23, 2022, 05:31:37 PM

I thought I could just pay the sales tax as a sole proprietor by going online. It turns out that I need to have a seller permit before I even sell anything. I don't have any legal entity set up. It just happened in a matter of a couple of days. What is my recourse? Do I incur huge penalties?

I don't think you were wrong the first time.  You're just reading the 'register a business activity' as 'register online for a permit' when in reality it's also to register for an 'account for Sales and Use Tax'.  I worked through the Registration Options as far as I was comfortable without putting in my own social security number.  See the attached screenshots. 

Title: Re: [SOLVED] Did I get myself into a mess? How do I pay CA Sales Tax?
Post by: jamesbond007 on May 24, 2022, 09:45:44 AM

Thank you. I was able to resolve this. I called CDTFA and the rep walked me through the process. I was concerned that I did not obtain a permit PRIOR to selling. He said that it is OK and I was able to complete the process.

Title: Re: [SOLVED] Did I get myself into a mess? How do I pay CA Sales Tax?
Post by: cool7hand on May 24, 2022, 10:00:46 AM

Glad it all worked out!