Taxation

I am astounded by the paperwork required by the City of Phoenix to sell something in their boundaries.

To put an exclamation point on just how complicated they’ve made their two-sided form, the clerk includes a schedule of classes on how to fill out the paperwork when she hands over the license. It really is that complicated… OVER 70 lines that must be filled out… I think that’s more lines than the 1040EZ Federal Income Tax form.

Truth is, I bet there are only two lines that apply to us, but the fact that we need to figure what “35% Construction Contracting” means and that they are worried that we would include “Food for home consumption” is a bit over-the-top.

Oh, and did I mention this is only for temporary vendors. I can only imagine what the regulars go through.

Privileges in Arizona

We also had to get an Arizona Transaction Privilege License. Yes, Arizona considers it a privilege for us to sell things in their state. Their system isn’t too bad… a simple form with only four boxes. Super easy, especially since we started the paperwork online and finished it at the office.

The cashier explained that although the online form asks for all the locations we’ll be selling goods in the State, they really only want our home address… in Wisconsin (like we should have been able to figure that out on our own). If we followed the instructions, they would charge $12 for each location; instead, we just had to fork over $12. Whew, that bit of advice saved us $36.

Comparing the States

Gotta say, Arizona has the most paperwork we’ve had to deal with… $12 to the State and then each city charges a fee ($20 for the two cities we’ve worked with so far). Michigan and Illinois both have simple temporary sales tax forms to fill out… no licenses, no fees. California has a central office that gives out licenses for each town… no fees.

This paperwork is the worst thing about being in the making and selling stuff business.