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Hershey and Sales Tax, Any Chenges in the Future?


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I was surprised that I was not able to buy some parts from a major Ford hardware dealer.

It seems the sales tax issue for major corp is not economically feasible. As I understand it for an out of state corp to get a sales tax permit they must submit to a considerable opening of their books and a huge potential tax liability.

I have noticed that several vendors just brought some display items and all sales had to be via telephone and mailed to your door. I have also noticed a lot of better tool dealers and just others that no longer attend.

I personally have stopped selling and dropped my transient vendor tax because it was not worth the potential problems. I just go to walk around and buy stuff anymore anyway.

I assume not much can be done about this problem. Are there any changes expected in the future?

I have to wonder how the increased need for state revenue might impact the face to face sales at places like Hershey.

Please note I have intentionally steered clear of political comments. Please keep to the subject in any comments.

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All quiet right now. There are some interested political allies who want to tackle this issue but no one wants to make the situation worse. May be a case of letting sleeping dogs lie or lay or whatever it is! Anyway, thanks for the last statement as that is the last thing we need. We will keep you abreast of any changes on this site. We do have another AACA member recently elected to the legislature.

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Our medium-size company displays and sells at Hershey and at Spring and Fall Carlisle. For some time, we reported sales taxes twice a year (spring and fall). This made sense, since we were in PA only during those time periods. However, due to large sales during the 4-5 days at each show, PA's computers evidently decided that we should report our sales taxes monthly (was semi-annually). We called numerous times without getting anywhere, and last week we were finally verbally approved for quarterly reporting, but when the time came to report on the Internet, we were listed as being back on monthly reporting.

More calls and eventually we were told we could report quarterly, but since approval was verbal, anything is possible - we are hoping we do not receive penalties. Even filing quarterly (instead of semi-annually) means sending in reports in the two off-quarters (zero sales tax returns). It takes a lot longer than expected to file the returns, which previously were on a small card - fill in the numbers and mail it in (5 minutes). Now it must be done on the Internet and things don't always run smoothly - very frustrating. After going to these shows for over 35 years, we are wondering if it is worth the hassle. If we are forced to report monthly, will be taking a good look at the overall sales/profit picture, which is already marginal.

It isn't hard to figure out what is happening when you see so many empty vendor spaces (especially at Carlisle). Cost of hotels and fuel are also becoming more and more costly. We can deal with all of this, but are still becoming discouraged with all of the rules and regulations that we must follow for the few days in attendance.

In my opinion, if PA and other states do not lighten up a bit, they will find out the hard way that sales tax collections will decline even further than they could ever imagine.

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As you indicated, if your sales in PA are small and spread out over the year you can report quarterly. Wasn't always that way. When we decided to go into business in 1978 the first gov official approached was a clerk at the PA Dept of Revenue concerning what we had to do to get a sales tax #. Actually remarkably simple except for what his first statement to me way "The PA Sales Tax year is divided into QUARTERS, of which there are FIVE". Yep, used to be in PA Jan-March was a "quarter", April-June was a "quarter", July was a "quarter" by itself then Aug-Sept and Nov-Dec. They did it that way to get every possible cent they could into their coffers before the July 31 end of the PA fiscal year.

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More calls and eventually we were told we could report quarterly, but since approval was verbal, anything is possible - we are hoping we do not receive penalties. Even filing quarterly (instead of semi-annually) means sending in reports in the two off-quarters (zero sales tax returns). It takes a lot longer than expected to file the returns, which previously were on a small card - fill in the numbers and mail it in (5 minutes). Now it must be done on the Internet and things don't always run smoothly - very frustrating. After going to these shows for over 35 years, we are wondering if it is worth the hassle. If we are forced to report monthly, will be taking a good look at the overall sales/profit picture, which is already marginal.

In my opinion, if PA and other states do not lighten up a bit, they will find out the hard way that sales tax collections will decline even further than they could ever imagine.

This is not surprising. I'm sure they have some good people working at the Dept. of Revenue, but I've yet to encounter them. They do, however, have some genuine doomkophs in their ranks. A couple of times now I have had some very minor problems with them (that they invented) that became a major undertaking to correct.

When you do correct them with hard proof, you'll hear nothing back. No follow-up, no explanation, no nothing. They just drop off the map. When we screw up there are penalties and interest. When they screw up there's not so much as an apology -- just lots of lost hours fixing a problem that never was.

Moral of the story -- have in writing, one way or another, proof of the permission they give you with someones name attached.

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