Loma is live for a little more Tax Q&A tonight!

some last minute Q&A for Texas sales tax. What I'm going to do, I am open to any questions to anybody that pops in tonight that wants to ask any questions. I'm only going to be on for a few minutes, maybe about 10 minutes or so. But until anybody asks me a question in the comment section, I'm going to go over some of the questions that people have been asking me in the comment section for my sales tax video. On the how to file Texas sales tax. And that way you kind of have something to reference, and maybe there's some more insight I can give aside from the response that I gave, or regarding the response I gave to the questions that people asked. So I had a question from Mystic Budgets. Uh, let's see, I don't know what all those notifications are for, but Mystic Budgets asked me, beyond thankful for this video, I've been holding out on even starting and making a sale because of anxiety of filing. Thank you. And I just can imagine a lot of y'all are in the same position. I understand, um, things that— topics that are new to you definitely can easily incite some anxiety. And so, um, I'm glad that she was able to find, uh, the answers that she was looking for in order to file or feel comfortable, uh, filing, um Let me see. That was not an actual question though, so let me go to the next one. Let's see if there's another one. I know there was a lot of compliments in the video and I appreciate all the love in the videos because that lets me know that I'm on the right path to answering questions and providing value to you guys because that's what I'm looking to do. The more you guys comment in the comment section, whether it's questions or you have insight or suggestions or anything like that, Everything is welcome. Uh, it helps me understand better what you guys are looking for and what for me, what I can prepare for you guys. I am about to get much more active, um, in YouTube. Um, I've got so many videos I've got lined up that I need to, um, shoot the final parts to it because I've already done part of the recording and I need to do the other half. And then once I do that, I need to edit it. And I'm doing all of this myself because I want to get the education. I want to learn how to do all the little parts. That are involved so I understand my business a little bit better as I continue to grow it and provide, um, all this value for you guys. So I'm getting— jumping back into the comments. There was another one sending out hugs for this beautiful and well-executed video. There's another one, thank you so much for taking the time out your day, much appreciated. Uh, excuse me. Oh my gosh. Pardon me, sorry, I don't know what tickled my nose. Sorry, I'm sorry. So anybody— they said, uh, the other comment said, thank you so much for taking out the time to help us with taxes, much appreciated. I'm gonna let them know you're welcome. Thank you for the video. That's another person. I have one question. There we go, there's a question. I, uh, I have got the sales tax refund as check. but for some reason I want it as direct deposit from the department itself. What are the procedure and is it possible? And then I asked them, what name of the department is it that you received a check from? They did not respond, so we can't— okay, so that was not the best example of a question, but here's another one. Let's see. Oh, compliments. That's every— you guys on, on YouTube are so sweet, and I really appreciate the support because again, that lets me know that I'm on the right track. And that's what I'm looking for, to be, just be on the right track so that I'm right there where you guys need me to be. I have over 25 years of business experience. I grew up in a business environment. My parents were business owners, and so I was helping them with their business, and my dad was— all I can say is that he must have been just so sweet for him to allow me as a young girl— I was, I don't even know if I was a teenager yet— he would let me help him with his business paperwork, writing checks, balancing his checkbook, processing payments, and like writing checks out to the, to the bills, filling out the envelopes, just all kinds of like clerical accounting type of, uh, stuff. And my dad would let me do that as a kid, and I had been in love with that type of thing for years since then. And, um, I actually thought I would want to be like a, like an actual like CPA when I go to college and go to be a CPA, but, um, life happened and It kind of shifted my direction to where I, I do help. I've been an accountant since, since like 25 years now. But that experience that I've had was in the 25 years and even beyond that, really for almost 30 years, was helping other small businesses with whatever accounting or document preparation type of needs that they had, small business tasks that they need to help with out. If there's anything that you guys needed to know, I would go and find out what it took to actually figure out what it was that was needed to finish what you guys— like, prepare what it was that you guys needed. But enough about that. Let me go back into, into the questions. Let's see. Sorry, there's just, there's so many compliments in here. I'm like floored by them. And I did comment to each one of them. I thanked them for the compliments. Let me see, I'm still scrolling. Oh goodness, I'm still looking through the comments. Very helpful. It also always helped me while filing. Thank you, this is really helpful. Thank you, it was helpful. Loma, you're a godsend. Thanks so much. Thank you times 10,000. Your video was beyond helpful. Many blessings. Thank you so much, very informative. Thank you, very helpful video. New business owner here. Would you ever charge sales tax on labor There's a good question. Uh, would you ever charge sales tax on labor costs? So, or only on the material goods? And, uh, what I did was because, uh, the law is lengthy in the rules, I linked there, uh, the list of taxable services. And so most people think, okay, well, it's only products that you have to charge sales tax for, but in actuality, there are many services that you actually have to charge sales tax for, and I'm going to read off just a few of them just to give you an idea. But there's, uh, amusement services, uh, that's like live and recorded performances, movie theaters, uh, circuses, concerts— they have to charge sales tax. Uh, exhibitions, displays, sporting events, uh, sports, carnivals, country clubs— all of those services have to charge sales tax. There's also like cable television services, of Of course, if you got a cable bill, you'll notice you're getting charged sales tax because Texas requires them to charge sales tax. Then there's credit reporting services that have to charge sales tax, data processing services, debt collection services, information services, insurance services, internet access services. So as you can see, there's like a long list of services that actually are required to charge their customers sales tax and collect the sales tax for the services that they charged them for. But, you know, there are still so many business owners that don't even realize that there's a requirement for that. Just a few more is the laundry, cleaning, garment services, motor vehicle parking and storage services. So if you have a storage where you keep your vehicle or a regular storage, they charge sales tax. There's nonresidential real property repair restoration. Or remodeling services, personal property maintenance, remodeling or repair services, personal services. And let's go into that one when they say personal services. So massage parlor, Turkish bath, or escort service are taxable. Massage parlors include any business that provides massage services for a fee, but does not include massage services performed by licensed massage Physical or massage therapist. Um, yeah, so interesting. Uh, escort services include any business that provides an escort, date, or bodyguard. Hmm, they have to charge sales tax for— to their customers, and they have to turn that sales tax in just like all other small business owners do. Um, real property services, security services, telecommunication services, telephone answering services, utility transmission and distribution services and taxable labor. So that one is probably more, um, it's more recognizable about of the type of services that are supposed to tax. Um, let's see, we've got, uh, examples of labor that result in the sale of a taxable item include the following: photography and videography, producing artwork, printing, calligraphy, embroidering, custom sewing or tailoring, woodworking, welding, catering, assembling products such as computer systems, toys, furniture, or equipment. So as you can see, there's, there's quite a few services that are actually taxable, even though most people, um, I, I feel like there's kind of like a like a concept that people get that, oh, because they're so used to paying tax when they go to the store and buy stuff, that they're getting charged tax there, that they don't think about having to pay tax in all the services that they pay, the ones that are supposed to charge themselves tax. So that, that is a good question, and it's always good to have a conversation with the Comptroller's representatives if you're not clear on what exactly is taxable or what's not taxable, because they'll guide you through that process. And they'll also, if you ask them, they'll tell you about any free classes that they're giving that help business owners learn a little bit more about what the rules are. And that way they are more apt to be able to stay in compliance and not mess up or end up getting in trouble with the comptroller, because the comptroller is very strict. In fact, they're— they are more strict to me. I feel like they are more strict and more, um, let's— how do you say it? They're, um, they're more intentional about following up with anybody whenever it comes to compliance. So if they think you're not being compliant and that you're either not charging sales tax when you're supposed to or you're not turning in the sales tax money that you've been collecting, Texas— the Texas Comptroller will come after you. So you've got to make sure that you're following the rules. Like I said, if you ever have any questions, call the Comptroller's office and then just talk to one of the representatives and ask them the questions that you have. Um, let me see if there's any other questions. I thought I'd be able to see so many, but there's a lot of these, uh, comments I'm looking at. Are literally just thank yous. Um, and okay, another question somebody asked was that I get asked all the time, and we can make this the last question for the night, but it says, um, hello, thank you so much for the info. I just have trouble understanding what exactly is taxable purchases. And I told them, hello, an example of taxable purchases would be when you originally purchase product that you intended to resell but ended up deciding to give it away or use it for personal use, the Comptroller wants you to pay the sales tax on those items. Because if you think about it, when you as a business owner are going to the wholesaler and you're buying product from the wholesaler, you fill out the resale certificate and then they don't charge you sales tax for the product that you bought that you're about to resell. Once you get that that product that you have in your possession has not been charged any— nobody's paid any tax on that item. Once you sell it, that's when you're charging the tax to the customer. But in the situations where you may have— say if you bought, uh, t-shirts for your business and you bought 5 t-shirts, and out of, out of the 5 t-shirts, one of the t-shirts you ended up using it yourself for, um, personal uses, you decide that you needed, uh, a t-shirt out of the set. Now, once you con— convert that one piece of product, that one shirt, into a personal item, you have to pay tax on that one shirt. So the value of that shirt is what would go in the taxable purchases box. I know people get confused about what that is actually for, but it's when you take something that, that was supposed to be— that was purchased, uh, without paying any tax on it and then you, you ended up using it for personal use and you didn't end up selling it, that's when you are now responsible for paying the sales tax on it. Hopefully that was helpful. I saw some people jump in, jump out, but I didn't see any comments. Hopefully I'm— the chat is working correctly, but I didn't see any comments. But I do encourage you that if you do have any questions about anything I've talked about today in this live, uh, go ahead and post that in the comments. I do answer all of my comments, so even though I'm about to shut down this live, I will answer the questions at a later time. As long as you post them, I'll definitely answer them because I answer all my comments. Um, I guess that's it for tonight. I appreciate everybody that has popped in. If you have any questions, again, put them in the comments, and I look forward to chatting with you another time. I don't know when I'll go live again because I don't go live very often right now, but I definitely have some videos coming out, so stay tuned for those videos that are coming out, because they're going to be about Texas sales tax, Texas franchise taxes, and the BOI requirement by FinCEN. Until next time, I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.