Sales Tax Ifo

[Jim O]

Hi All,

I apologize for these basic questions.

I am starting a small side business and charge for digital signage ads in retail stores.

I do prepare the ads but for now am only charging for actual playtime.

My question is do I charge sales tax for the playtime?

If I did charge for layout is that taxable? 

What is the tax rate - Travis County?

Thanks in advance.

Jim O'Connor

[Stu Smith]

The safe bet is to talk to an accountant. I have a great small business accountant and I'd gladly share his info.  Email me directly and I'll hook the two of you up. I doubt he'd charge you for this simple advice. 

Sales tax is a thing not to be messed with in general. 

Stu Smith
@stuthesmith | sputnikcreative.com

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[Brandon Kraft]

::Disclaimer: I'm not a tax professional and this is only friendly advice. Use at your own risk::

My understanding is actual ad time (newspaper ads, TV ads, radio ads, etc) are not taxable, but the creation of the ad is taxable, e.g. if you charged to produce/modify the ad design. See, specifically, example 5 of this query to the Comptroller's office:

http://aixtcp.cpa.state.tx.us/opendocs/open31/200106350l.html 

The Comptroller's site is pretty good (  http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/sales/ ) and they do respond in detail to e-mailed questions submitted via their form at  https://www.window.state.tx.us/taxhelp/ (sales and use tax would be the area you're asking about). I sent a long, multipart question to them and, after a few weeks, I got a detailed multipart response.

As far as the tax rate, it depends on your exact physical location. Within Austin, it is 8.25% (6.25 to the state, 1 to Austin, 1 to CapMetro... but the tax return will calculate that). You can look it up for your business's address at:  https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/atj/addresslookup.jsp which includes a link to the publication to help you determine which rates to charge.

Hope that helps.

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Brandon J. Kraft
Coffea Web Services

brandonkraft.com · coffeaweb.com

@kraft · @coffeaweb

Tel: 512-476-3761 · 877-563-2467 

SMS: 512-696-0411

[Brandon Kraft]

Do be sure they are well-versed in the sales tax rules for your particular industry, though. A couple of accountants have informed me/colleagues incorrectly on some the nuances of what's taxable with web development (only 80% is taxable) and ended up having to figure it myself with the state anyhow. 

I'll go back to lurking quietly in the corner now :-)

Cheers,

--

Brandon J. Kraft
Coffea Web Services

brandonkraft.com · coffeaweb.com

@kraft · @coffeaweb

Tel: 512-476-3761 · 877-563-2467 

SMS: 512-696-0411

[Jim O]

Than you all for your replies, very helpful, and much appreciated. I will that you advice and check with a tax expert.

Jim O'Connor
512 663 9481

[David Bluestein II]

All-

I have a client looking for a simple image markup tool (e.g. upload a JPEG/PDF file, draw text comments/arrows/etc on it, save the image) for their website to use for simple image review and approval. Does anyone know of a solution for this that could be integrated into a web application either via source code or an available API? It doesn't have to be open source, it just has to be professional looking (or skinnable) so that it can be integrated into their website. 

David

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

David H. Bluestein II

President & Lead Developer         db...@interaction.net

ii, inc.                                                  http://www.interaction.net

    -- Specializing in Interactive, Database Driven Web Applications --

[cory fro]

I could make you something in a few days. If you are interested.

[Lloyd Wells]

David/All,

I am actually looking for something very similar. Most of what is available commercially, to handle this sort of task has WAY more features than we need, which equates to much more expense. We really need something simple, that can do just what you mentioned, upload, markup/comment (and maybe email notifications). It would also be nice to be able to brand it (on a very simple level) for multiple users, since we do some work as a "third party" and would have to remain anonymous to some clients. I will keep an eye on Refresh, but also please let me know if you find any leads.

Thanks, and good luck!

Lloyd

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Lloyd Wells
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www.swellgraphics.net
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[Mason Hale]

Hi  David --

Two online image processing services that come to mind are:

Aviary -- http://www.aviary.com/

Blitline -- http://www.blitline.com/  (a Heroku add-on)

I've not personally used either of these.

After some light Googling, I think Aviary could be what you are looking for. It has the features you described and a free version.

I found the Flash-based "Falcon" image markup editor, it looks like what you want: http://advanced.aviary.com/tools/falcon

However, it looks like their Flash-based suite of image editors are being retired next month, see: http://advanced.aviary.com/splash

Based on the demo of their new HTML5-based editor, it has basic markup capability (add text, draw lines), but doesn't seem to match the features of Falcon (no arrows or callouts).

This may be a case of "less is more" -- maybe you don't need extra features. It might be worth contacting the Aviary team to learn more about the direction they are heading and to ask them if their solution is a good fit for you problem.

Mason

[Sarah Worthy]

Have you tried the Aviary's javascript website embedded editing tool: http://www.aviary.com/mobile.aspx?

It is pretty simple to add to a website and is the photo editing tool Flickr uses.

~Sarah