How do you collect your Sales Tax?

[lemonjenny]

In my city/state, I have to collect & pay sales tax for the work I do. Which means I need to add .685% to what I'm charging.

So, which is the standard more professional way as a photographer to do this? Do I include tax in my basic pricing, and charge a flat rate? Or do I price my sessions as "$xxxx plus tax"?

How do you do it?

[mandyatm]

I charge for the session fee, without tax, because in Texas there is not tax on a service. HOWEVER, if they client gets the images in any form, be it prints or electronically, there is tax on both the prints AND the session fee. So what I do is have them pay the session fee, then when they order prints I send them the invoice for the session fee and prints, add the tax to the total, then subtract the session fee back out since they already paid it. They pay the bottom total.

Maybe others can share if there are better ways of doing it. I list my prices on my website and specify that they do not include sales tax. Also, I have to charge a different sales tax rate based on which city/county I do the session in. At my house, the tax rate is 6.25%, so no local tax, but 5 miles in either direction, the rate is 8.25%.