I moved (again)

[Hammermechanicman]

Yesterday saw a Porsche with the license plate "WESUE U"
suprised he wasn't chasing an ambulance.

 

[PTmowerMech]

Sounds like some of you folks live in the twilight zone. I've been in this little town for many many years, and haven't seen any of these sue happy people.
In fact, the guy who owns the shop I'm in, told.me yesterday that he's not been sued for stuff like or anything else.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well there is a good reason why new mowers have so many safety features and it is not so shops can highlite unique selling features .
The new seat switches have a built in bridge contact so if you unplug it the mower can not start ( PIA that one is ) .
I have never been sued and no one I know has been sued but I do have a customer on 10 acres that they bought with a settlement from a mower shop that is no longer here because of the suit.
HE is blind in one eye and has a couple of toes missing because the shop sent the mower back without the belt covers on .
But I do have insurance just in case.

 

[StarTech]

Boy if my drawers were only that empty I could organize better.

And yes you do need a business license, sales tax license (which comes with resale tax exemption certificate here (TN)), and insurance. Buying from some vendors is a fight though to get them to accept the tax exemption. And that Department of Revenue does what to pay the collected sale taxes on time too.

Unless you know accounting then a bookkeeper is a must. Here my accounting and auto manager takes care most the accounting so I free to spend time just entering things. That alone takes over half of my time on new jobs if there is addition of new SKUs information. I operate on cash accounting system with FIFO inventory setup. It is nice that I don't need to dig file cabinets full of papers. I only need to update prices and add new SKUs that is not in the price files.

Just recently; however, a new update to my software is forcing me to redo this year inventory down to the last screw especially when you got 15,000 individual items. Went having 46K to 750K overnight but did find out for three months. What a pain while the shop is at full throttle. Just taking it one bin at a time. I still having to accept that somehow I got 58K in parts (or at least that is what I got it down to) in that 24 x 24 garage; no wonder I got to work outside.

At least here in the US as far as I know they still got employee expense deductions on our taxes. Form 2106. Just can't use it anymore as I am the owner.

And depending where you are the local tax people will be trying tax everything you got every year. That why I run with starting and ending zero inventory every year. In Madison county, Alabama they were even trying to tax my personal hand tools at one time. I carried in the small briefcase of tools and told them to go through them. They didn't stating they didn't have time to do it on such a small amount of tools.

Sounds like some of you folks live in the twilight zone. I've been in this little town for many many years, and haven't seen any of these sue happy people.
In fact, the guy who owns the shop I'm in, told.me yesterday that he's not been sued for stuff like or anything else.

OH I had one cat that threaten to sue because I didn't install a Craftsman belt on his mower and he was the one the provided the belt. Anyways if had installed a new belt it would have been a Husqvarna belt and not one from Sears.
He kept calling and cussing me and my brother out. Finally one day he called and cussed my mother out. That did it. I sent the county sheriff out to his home. He didn't think I had his home address. Anyway that resolved the problem.

But yes they are out there so you got to watch you P's and Q's with every customer.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

My house has never burned down but i have homeowners insurance. Haven't wrecked a car in 30 years but i have auto insurance. Don't plan to kick the bucket soon but i have life insurance. My business insurance is a not much compared to all the other insurance i need have. A local fellow was doing work under the table for years. Got caught when folks 1099 him. Got busted for income tax and sales tax. He was buying supplies claiming tax free farm use. Do what you want how you want. I have worked too many years to get where i am to risk a lawsuit or IRS issues for my small businesses.

 

[StarTech]

Better have auto insurance. I got caught once without it because of an insurance rep lied to me about my coverage. I had to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. I was making arraignment to pay the 20K when her husband jumped in sued me for 30K more for the lost of her services for a month. And I currently carry a lot more the state minimum auto liability now. Homewowner's is fairly expensive with 100K liability but I done collected 4K of the five years of payments for a new roof.

And I know of shops that are/were working under the table here too. Several of them are no longer in business as they got busted. I even had someone to turn me in for collecting sale taxes. The revenue guy was very sneeky as he brought in a push mower for repairs. When I gave the bill, he flash his badge and want to see my license and records. I said "No problem, turn around fellow and license is on the wall behind you and currently computer is keyed up and there is the filing cabinet so have at it". Just let me know when you are through so I can use the system again.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The tax man & I am not the best of friends after they lost a case against a previous business partnership I was in where eventually 8 separate companies came together to trade as a single entity.
Each one of us was a Pty Ltd company and we each employed drivers in my case as sub contractors but others as employees and one cash in hand.
Thus I get audited around every 4 to 5 years so yes I keep records in a mannar that no auditor can follow,
All reciepts, company or not get tossed into a big box ( it is a tea chest moving box ) which I regularly stirr up a bit .
I do my spreadsheets dates horizontal & headings vertical .
And funny enough university trained auditors & accountants can not understand ( so much for a higher education ).
Tax registration, business registrtions and other such notices are all on the dunny doors cause every wall has tools & shelves on them.
I only pay by cheque , write the stubs in pencil then overwrite the stub with the bank statement number, statement date & account number which makes them near impossible to read.
When the auditor turn up they get seated at a nice pic nic table with a jug of coffee or squash and a power cable because I have only one small desk & I need it to work on .
One time I did have a super keen auditor determined to get a case.
Stayed here for near a week but could not find anything to ping me for .
They sent me a long lists of "required improvements " for my book keeping and my solicitor sent them a reply asking for the relevent line & clause for each one. Funny enough no response .
Our tax is easier because it is like the UK VAT and gets added a every level.
Loop hole is businesses under a threshold ( $ 75,000 at present ) do not have to register for it
So I pay the 10% at wholesale price but can not add the 10% at retail pricing to my invoice so in theory I pay the tax & can not pass it on.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Never understood the VAT (value added theft) thing. I am sure taxes around the world are quite different. Even here in the states it varies by state and county. I don't keep meticulous records for each sale. I don't itemize out the parts on customer bills. I just keep track of the total customer bill, sales tax and expenses by a few categories. All my accountant needs is total sales and all expenses by catagory. Being a sole proprietorship LLC make things easy. I don't carry enough inventory to pay taxes on it. So all i have to worry about is sales tax.

 

[bertsmobile1]

When the GST came in sales tax was abolished so we have a flat rate 10% across the entire country.
To stop the dishonest going broke just before tax had to be paid, it is levied on every invoice at every level.
So the importer pays 10% on the landed price of the parts
The distributor add his margin then adds 10% to that price
And the retailer add his mark up and adds 10% to that as well.
At the end of every quarter we declair how much GST we paid against how much GST we collected and the difference goes to the government,
So if I gop bust anddon't pay the GST to the government, the only tax they don't get is the 10% of my mark up + the 10% of my labour charges.

Under the old system, the importer paid no tax on what they sold to the distributors as the distributors had a tax exemption
If the distributor sold the parts to a retailer then again no tax gets paid for the same reason
Only when the last person writes the final invoice does tax get collected so if I go bust before tax time they end up with no money at all

 

[PTmowerMech]

Luckily in Texas, there is no state income or personal property tax.