Hello all,

VAs in Florida, do you charge sales tax to your in-state customer? I'm trying to understand this info on DOR website http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/taxes/sales_tax.html but not quite sure if we're under the same caterogry as cleaning or detetive services? I might be going to the local Service Center some time this week, but my only concern is I will have a hard-time explaining type of services that we do. I mean, I could say some sort of online secretarial services, but since there is no definite category for Virtual Assistant, different associates might have different answers.

Also, this might be a long shot, but I will try to ask anyway. Are any of you from Hernando county? When you register for your business in the county tax office, did you have to call for Zoning Approval? That sounds kind of scary. I mean, pretty sure every household nowadays have PC & printer, but because we're doing home-based business, do we have to seek for that approval? I will try to go to the Tax Collector office too next week, but we're back to the same problem, explaining the type of business we do I guess that means less local competition, right?

Thanks in advance
-Jean

__________________
-Jean
Simplify it, delegate it.

Hello,

So I went to the local Service Center in regards to the Sales & Use tax, and here's what I found.

As long as I'm offering service and just service, i.e. I do works for clients online & submit the works online, and they have to print the works out themselves, that's considered service. And I'm not required to charge Sales Tax.

However, if I'm doing the work, print them out, and send them to clients via mail/courier...then I'm required to charge Sales Tax, because that's considered Publication.

Also I was thinking of doing some Internet Research, but that would fall under category of "Private Investigator" and thus I'd have to report Sales Tax. The problem is, if you're going to charge just one taxable service, you'd have to register for that. And thus, you have to report it to the FL DOR quarterly. Even, when you file "0". For that mere reason, I decide not to offer that for now. Maybe as the business progress & I have enough demand. But for now, starting-up while still working FT, I have enough things to worry about.

Now, for Hernando County...as long as you're located outside city of Brooksville, you're no longer required to have a business license (previously known as Occupational Permit).

However, you do still need to call the Zoning Inspector office for running business from your home. So I called and -as expected- since I answered "NO" to the question that if I will have customers come to my home, as far as she concerned my Zoning Ordinance should be OK. She did send me some Home Business guide file, that I'm yet able to open because it's in .wpd form. I will figure out how to open that file one of these days but I'm not quite concern about it.

Also, I called the Tangible Personal Property office. And I'm supposedly qualify to submit a Return Tax Return. But that's another thing I don't need to worry about until next year tax time.

Hopefully someday this info will be useful for someone who looks for them.

As always, every business is different at some point eventually. So if you're not sure about something, always call and ask. When I was at the Tax Service Office I was fortunate that I had the Supervisor assisting my window, so he knew what I was asking about and he looked pretty sure when he answered my questions.

Have a great day everyone.

__________________
-Jean
Simplify it, delegate it.