Palm Beach Gardens (FL) Sales Tax

Sometimes, people have a hard time figuring out the math behind sales taxes. This is especially true when people have the total transaction cost and the total sales tax. To figure out the sales tax percentage, we must do a bit of math, which is very simple and can be done via a phone calculator. Let’s assume that your total transaction with taxes is $106.25 and you know that the shelf price of the products purchased is $100.

The first thing that you do is subtract the cost of the goods from the total. In that case $106.25-$100=$6.25. Now you know that the sales taxes are $6.25. Then you divide the total sales tax by the shelf price of the cost of the goods bought, hence $100. So, ding the math, we have $6.25/$100 = 0.0625. We take the ratio number, and we multiply by 100%. Hence, we get : 0.00625*100%= 6.25%, which is the rate.

Sales taxes are regulated by state and federal laws. Since states control the amount of sales tax that they charge locally, some others have decided to omit sales taxes at all to facilitate transactions. There are municipalities, or cities that can impose their taxes. As of right now, there are 5 states in the USA that do not charge a state sales tax. These states are Alaska, Montana, Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire.

Some areas have very small sales taxes. Starting, we have Alaska, which has a sales tax of 1.76%. We need to be mindful that products and services are very expensive in Alaska. Moving on with the list, we have Oregon, Delaware, Montana, and New Hampshire that have a 0% sales tax rate. If you need information regarding the ranking of states based on sales taxes, you can check this page.

When you make a purchase, you must pay sales tax. To find how much u, pay, all that u have to do is to add up the total percentage of applicable sales taxes to your location and multiply that by the total cost of goods. Let’s say that your total applicable sales tax rate is 8%. Let’s say that you make a purchase worth $100. You multiply $100 with 8% to get a total sales cost of $8. You then add the $8 to the original cost of goods, bringing your final transaction cost to $108.

A sales tax certificate is a document that allows a business to make sales-tax-free purchases of goods and services that it intends to reuse for business and to later sell and collect sales tax on. Some states allow buyers and businesses that engage in frequent transactions to create a blanket certificate. This is a simplified version of the sale certificate, and it is valid for a specified amount of time.

Sellers that do not have a large volume of transactions do not even need a sale certificate. Such is the case of garage sales. Some states offer direct payment certificates, which allow for the purchasers to not pay any sales tax to their sellers, but they pay everything to the government directly. There are numerous intricate scenarios and for this, you need a good CPA or a sales law specialist to better guide you.