I would like to know if it is required to charge sales tax on hosting/dedicated server plans? Company is based in michigan and have servers in texas and new york. Do I have to charge tax in those 3 states or all of them, or how does that hole system work?

Best bet would be to seek some legal advice from a professional to be sure.

Look up the Michigan Department of Revenue, download the appropriate docs, and charge accordingly.

Or, just call them. ;) Calling is the fastest and the state's sales tax office will the expert on their own laws, after all. :)

Hosting is not taxable in Wisconsin, FWIW.

:D Bailey

to the best of my knowledge you are only required to charge sales tax in michigan if your customer is from michigan.

Your best bet would be to contact a lawyer or a professional within your state whom can help you. Using the excuse "well someone on WHT told me otherwise" is not an acceptable excuse to the IRS.

i thought there was no sales tax on products and services over the internet...

I believe some states charge sales tax on internet sales. I know Michigan has wierd sales tax laws.

In Ontario, Canada you pay tax, but dont charge it to your customers because its an internet related business.

- Eddy

Originally posted by jmweb
Your best bet would be to contact a lawyer or a professional within your state whom can help you. Using the excuse "well someone on WHT told me otherwise" is not an acceptable excuse to the IRS.

hah good point, sounds like I will have to consult a lawyer to get a definite answer. I will post something here after I figure out the solution. thanks for the advice all

I have been emailing my states dept. of revenue and here is the way I understand it. These are for the state I'm in (TN) and I do not know if they apply in other states.
Web hosting and domain name registration are not taxable.
E-mail is a taxable telecommunication.
That's what I've been told, but I don't know about the e-mail thing and am still in contact with the Dept. of Revenue about what that means.

Just to throw this out there, I also do web design and that is taxable in my state. But only if it's hosted in my state, if not it's interstate commerce and not taxable.
I'm also trying to find out if it matters where I am as a reseller of the hosting or only where it will physically be i.e. Michigan.

Hope that helps.

Originally posted by sirgamesalot
In Ontario, Canada you pay tax, but dont charge it to your customers because its an internet related business.

- Eddy

Eddy - While we're not in the same province, I do think you are misinformed. Any taxes that you must pay to the government, are fair game to charge to your customers. And, for what it's worth, you actually have to show each tax as a seperate charge on your invoices.

Ie. GST and PST must be on seperate lines.