I want to go into business for myself and had a few questions about sales tax (on services) and employee requirements (part-time…ie…project to project). I’m going to be doing decorative concrete work.
Pretty much the typical start-up questions as far as paperwork and making everything legit. I want everything in place, even if it is a side project for a while, just for when I do go full bore.
You can PM me too. Just looking for tips on where to go for guidance.
Don’t have employees, have independant subcontractors that do what you tell them too.
same. easiest way.
X3
You can use an attorney to aquire and submit all the required papers, and obtain all the licensing and such, or you can look up the SBA ( www.sba.gov ) and they have a good majority of what youll need.
Dont forget insurance, and get more than youll think you’d ever need just in case you take a huge job.
I bought coverage for 500k, then took a bigger job and had to call and up it to a Mil. now i carry 2mil. cover just incase. you never know when the building and its contents might just disapear. lol.
Anyways if you plan to creat a ficticious name youll need to file for a fictious name micro film, as for sales tax youll need a state tax id #.
Easiest but most expensive way is to have an attorney do the paper work, not to mention it goes alot smoother.
But in the meanwhile if you plan to do some of this work now just get to the insurance company and tell them what you need coverage wise,
Ive yet to use my insurance but IMO you can never have enough.
Thanks, guys.
FBA, great info.
Great thread.
Thanks for link chazz.
I’m currently an independent contractor for a courrier company.
It’s so much less of a hassle to answer to bosses, get shit done and be on your own.
We do commercial flooring and we run our business out of our home. You can also go to a CPA (instead of a lawyer) and get them to file all the necessary paperwork, set you up w/ a payroll service etc. We pay about $4K a year to our accountants to do the quarterly filings, and we do over $1M in sales a year. (price fluctuates w/ income) That includes them doing the taxes for multiple other states other than PA (about a dozen other states) Sales tax is when you are selling goods. I don’t think that would apply to you since you are selling a service, not selling the concrete itself. You DEF have to get liability insurance as a contractor, and workers comp insurance if you are going to have full time and part time employees. We work with Wells Fargo, and have for years (it used to be Acordia until it changed hands recently). If you would like a name of the rep that we work with pm me. I file the bi-weekly payroll taxes myself online. I enter the hours and cut the paychecks here, the payroll program figures the taxes. We use quickbooks pro contractors edition 2007 and use that payroll service, which I believe is about $350/yr for the payroll stuff. They can either send you discs with the updates, or you can do it online, it will update any and all tax changes that are made, for every state. I would THINK that you would be better of contacting or interviewing a CPA b/c they can get you straight w/ the taxes, filing for business etc all in one swoop, they can also advise you as to what you can write off and what you cannot. If you have any questions you can pm me anytime. Good luck!
Thanks, Jinxxy. I’ll definitely be in touch at some point until I get this rolling.