Selling e-books: state sales tax?

With PPC and affililiate programs, you don't have to worry about sales tax, because technically you aren't selling anything. But if I was to write an e-book and sell it, wouldn't I have to charge sales tax for anyone from my state? How would I keep track of this?

 

I have heard that tax people are coming on to forums like this and the warrior forum to see what people are earning on the Internet.

So I would check with your tax office in your part of the world

Most sales letters that claim earnings are monitored by these tax people!

 

This e-book won't have anything about earnings, but since I am selling the e-book then I think I have to charge sales tax for buyers in my state.

 

I agree with you but you may want to check. My state does not tax services but some do. I'm not sure whether an e-book is a tangible product or not. My guess is yes.

Based on the way it is done here I will say you will need a sales tax number and will have to file a sales tax return montly, quarterly or annually based on volume. The good news is that the form is fairly simple most places.

If you choose to test the water by selling some before you get a number, I suggest you do not collect any tax on the few in state sales you make and pay it out of profit if necessary later. I mention that because not collecting it probably won't get you in any serious trouble. Collecting it and not remitting it a major NO NO and considered a crime.

How many are you really going to sell in your home state? And at what price? Even the tax man does not want spend $100 in processing to collect $5.

 

Thanks for the info
I was thinking about not collecting it, and just paying out of my pocket, but how do I keep track of which state the buyers are from? I will probably just be using PayPal, and that doesn't give physical addresses if you don't need to ship something, right?

 

It shows even when you aren't shipping.

 

The only state you have to be concerned about is your home state. When you create your buttons require that the senders address be included.

If you had a tax number PayPal would allow you to force tax collection for the state or states you selected. It would auto add it to the purchase price.

All of these items are options you can select when you create your links.