Ep 12: Legalities of A New Location

00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:32 [Alison]
Alright, guys.
00:00:33 [Alison]
We are back.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Thank you so much for listening.

00:00:35 [Alison]
If you’re finding this helpful, make sure you’re going to those show notes.
00:00:39 [Alison]
Those show notes are full of links and freebies.
00:00:41 [Alison]
Make sure you’re subscribed that this is automatically gonna populate in your feed.
00:00:45 [Alison]
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00:00:46 [Alison]
So make sure you subscribe wherever you’re listening to this and, leave a review.

00:00:50 [Alison]
Even just a whole bunch of stars would be great.
00:00:52 [Alison]
Y’all, this week, apologize in advance, but this is a really crappy topic.
00:00:57 [Alison]
It’s so boring, but it’s important.
00:01:00 [Alison]
So it’ll probably be a fast one because I ain’t got much to say about it, but it is important.
00:01:04 [Alison]
And we wanna make sure that you’re doing things right and you’re thinking about all the things.

00:01:08 [Alison]
We’re gonna share some stories about what we have run into and our different states that we’ve lived in.
00:01:12 [Alison]
But please know, disclaimer at the top, we are not CPAs.
00:01:15 [Alison]
We are not lawyers.
00:01:16 [Alison]
We are only speaking from our personal experiences and very limited states.
00:01:21 [Alison]
Without further ado, here we go.

00:01:23 [Melissa]
So, yeah, talking about legalities of a new location.
00:01:26 [Melissa]
And as Allison said, this is this topic is boring as crap, but you will thank us when you’re not realizing later that you’ve screwed up.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
So to get started, let’s just dive in on business structure.
00:01:37 [Melissa]
You’re in one location.
00:01:38 [Melissa]
You’ve got everything set up for this location.

00:01:40 [Melissa]
Everything’s great.
00:01:41 [Melissa]
Now you’re moving to a new location.
00:01:43 [Melissa]
So I don’t know if you remember back to when you first started and you’re, like, googling and figuring out what do I need to do.
00:01:48 [Melissa]
You’re gonna have to do it all over again.
00:01:50 [Melissa]
So I know for me, I going from Virginia to Florida, the first thing I did was start looking at opening a business in Florida.

00:01:56 [Melissa]
Like, it’s not even moving a business to Florida.
00:01:58 [Melissa]
You are basically opening a business in that new location.
00:02:02 [Melissa]
So just Google that.
00:02:03 [Melissa]
What does it take?
00:02:03 [Melissa]
Usually, the new state will have some kind of website that’ll walk you through things.

00:02:07 [Melissa]
So you’ll have to get registered with that new state.
00:02:09 [Melissa]
I believe for me, I had to register for a new LLC in Florida, and then I also had to take care of whatever else they were needing.
00:02:17 [Melissa]
And I know with Florida, they have something that you have to file every year because I literally just got the email about it, and they’re real harsh.
00:02:23 [Melissa]
So that’s the other thing, guys.
00:02:25 [Melissa]
The reason why this is important is you with some ridiculous fines for you not doing things properly.

00:02:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:02:31 [Melissa]
And the I didn’t

00:02:32 [Alison]
know, nobody seems to like that excuse.
00:02:35 [Alison]
They don’t care.
00:02:35 [Alison]
You should know.

00:02:37 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:02:37 [Melissa]
So I just got the email that was something about I think I had to update my annual report.
00:02:41 [Melissa]
And if you don’t update it and, like, literally in photography groups in Florida, we will remind each other when I was down there.
00:02:46 [Melissa]
They’ll be like, hey, guys.
00:02:47 [Melissa]
Have you filed your annual report?

00:02:49 [Melissa]
It’s like a $500 fine or something.
00:02:51 [Melissa]
It’s ridiculous.
00:02:52 [Melissa]
An important tale?

00:02:53 [Alison]
They wanted to know all your financial information?

00:02:55 [Melissa]
No.
00:02:55 [Melissa]
It was just like that your people have stayed the same.
00:02:57 [Melissa]
It literally takes you thirty seconds to fill this thing out, but you gotta remember to go online and do it.
00:03:02 [Melissa]
And so I got the email that said, hey.
00:03:04 [Melissa]
We haven’t gotten your annual report, and you can bet your butts.

00:03:07 [Melissa]
I jumped onto my email immediately to shut down my business in Florida or make sure I think I’d already shut it down.
00:03:11 [Melissa]
I think the first time I got the email, I was like, uh-oh.
00:03:13 [Melissa]
Because I had forgotten.

00:03:15 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:03:15 [Alison]
So Yeah.

00:03:16 [Melissa]
So there’s another thing.
00:03:17 [Melissa]
It’s not even just starting your business in the new state.
00:03:20 [Melissa]
You’ve gotta shut it down in the old state too.
00:03:23 [Melissa]
So I had to file my LLC there, and then I had to shut it down.
00:03:26 [Melissa]
And then ironically, getting back up here, I was working with my accountant.

00:03:29 [Melissa]
He’s, like, your LLC in Virginia has expired.
00:03:31 [Melissa]
And I was like, oh, you gotta be kidding me.
00:03:32 [Melissa]
So maybe what we need to do is put this together as a checklist, and then, like There you go.

00:03:36 [Alison]
You gotta check that.

00:03:37 [Melissa]
Checklist of what do you need to do.
00:03:39 [Melissa]
So Yeah.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
So LLCs.
00:03:41 [Melissa]
Allison’s got something funky I’ve never heard of until she mentioned it when we It’s an

00:03:45 [Alison]
yeah.
00:03:45 [Alison]
It’s an LLC.
00:03:46 [Alison]
So I because we’re military, my home of record and my home of residence is South Carolina.
00:03:51 [Alison]
So my LLC is registered in South Carolina.
00:03:54 [Alison]
But because we move all over the place in Virginia, I had to register with the state as a foreign entity because my LLC was not in the state of Virginia.

00:04:04 [Alison]
It sounds weird and the lingo really threw me for a loop.
00:04:06 [Alison]
I had to make a lot of phone calls to the state business corporate, whatever it’s called up there.
00:04:11 [Alison]
Play dumb, y’all dumb question.
00:04:12 [Alison]
You’re gonna feel like an idiot, but they’ll help you out.
00:04:14 [Alison]
I was registered in Virginia as a foreign entity because I was registered in South Carolina, and South Carolina is my home of record.

00:04:20 [Alison]
That was Virginia.
00:04:21 [Alison]
I haven’t had to do that here in Hawaii.
00:04:24 [Alison]
I registered with the state.
00:04:26 [Alison]
They wanted my LLC documentation, and they wanted to know that I was still in good standing.
00:04:31 [Alison]
Why doesn’t it call it the same thing?

00:04:33 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:04:34 [Alison]
So whatever your business is structured at, you need to identify that and decide if that’s going to stay the same in your new location, or if you need to make some considerations with, so you could be LLC, you could be sole proprietor.
00:04:46 [Alison]
That’s typically the default defacto structure that most people go with.
00:04:50 [Alison]
What’s the S corp some people do when you’ve got like associates or employees.
00:04:54 [Alison]
Some people.

00:04:54 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:54 [Melissa]
So S corp, keep in mind, you’re still an LLC, even if you’re an S corp S corp is your tax filing status.
00:05:00 [Melissa]
So you would still be an LLC.
00:05:01 [Melissa]
I learned that because I just became one.

00:05:04 [Alison]
See, okay.
00:05:04 [Alison]
There you go.
00:05:05 [Alison]
So you need to identify what that is on the big picture scale and how every state wants you to register or whatever.
00:05:11 [Alison]
Identify yourself.
00:05:12 [Alison]
So moving on to the city, state, and county considers.

00:05:15 [Alison]
This was interesting because when we left Mainland United State United States in general, we left January 2016 and moved to Japan.
00:05:23 [Alison]
And for three and a half years, we lived abroad.
00:05:25 [Alison]
And when I left, nobody was really charging photography permits for public spaces, public parks, land use, what have you.
00:05:34 [Alison]
Private places were gardens and things like that.
00:05:36 [Alison]
But and so for three and a half years, I operated without having to to pay permitting or or legality, anything at any level.

00:05:42 [Alison]
And we came back, and I don’t know if it was the three and a half years we were gone or if it we were in the capital National Capital Region with all the big national parks of the area.
00:05:52 [Alison]
But it was like getting soft in the face or whiplash.
00:05:54 [Alison]
Like, everything, all these state, local, and federal parks required permits.
00:06:00 [Alison]
And it was really hard to wrap my head around.
00:06:02 [Alison]
I was like, what?

00:06:02 [Alison]
These are first of all, these are public spaces, but, okay, there’s a lot of people.
00:06:05 [Alison]
I get it.
00:06:06 [Alison]
But some people like filming movies up in the DC area.
00:06:09 [Alison]
But then the more I started trying to make connections and ask questions of the right people at the right time, come to find out, even the national parks were operating.
00:06:18 [Alison]
The national parks at the George Washington Parkway area operated completely differently than the Manassas Battlefield area and still yet again differently than the Spotsylvania people, which I actually never went to.

00:06:32 [Alison]
And I was like, are you sure?
00:06:34 [Alison]
Like, this, I’m reading your document on your website, and I’m talking to you in person or on the phone.
00:06:39 [Alison]
And so it was very different from what was actually being required than from what was posted on the website, if that makes sense.
00:06:47 [Alison]
It’s probably

00:06:47 [Melissa]
But even that, you have to look at I know I had to look at individual parks.
00:06:51 [Melissa]
If I was shooting at this one location like Chatham, they had their own rules versus if I was shooting at another park that barely had a website out there or barely had a page of, like, here’s the address.
00:07:01 [Melissa]
Here’s the GPS coordinates.
00:07:02 [Melissa]
Go check out the battlefield.
00:07:04 [Melissa]
The so different ones will have that.

00:07:05 [Melissa]
So you definitely wanna Exactly.
00:07:08 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:08 [Melissa]
As you’re doing that research into locations that we’ve talked about previously, you probably wanna put start a spreadsheet.
00:07:13 [Melissa]
This is the location.
00:07:14 [Melissa]
This is the address because that’s gonna be helpful too when you go to email clients.

00:07:18 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:07:18 [Melissa]
This is where I want you to meet.
00:07:19 [Melissa]
You got the address on hand.
00:07:20 [Melissa]
And then have them that says, does this require a permit?
00:07:22 [Melissa]
How much is that permit?

00:07:24 [Melissa]
And then a link to, like, what is the permit process?
00:07:26 [Melissa]
So that way, maybe you’re just passing it on to the client to do, which is a lot of times, I’m like, look.
00:07:30 [Melissa]
If you want a place that has a permit, here’s the link.
00:07:32 [Melissa]
You’re getting the permit.
00:07:33 [Melissa]
I’m not gonna deal with it.

00:07:35 [Alison]
Go ahead.
00:07:36 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:36 [Alison]
Because then going into DC is another it’s just another can of worms.
00:07:40 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:40 [Alison]
So, yeah, so that was getting whiplash.

00:07:42 [Alison]
And then coming out here to Hawaii was also very different.
00:07:46 [Alison]
I checked before we even moved out here.
00:07:48 [Alison]
It’s all my scouting trip.
00:07:50 [Alison]
So plug for another show.
00:07:51 [Alison]
Go listen to the other episode about that.

00:07:52 [Alison]
I had to do research through the Hawaii Film Bureau.
00:07:56 [Alison]
So it’s film and it’s the movie office.
00:07:58 [Alison]
And then there’s the parks for the city and county of Honolulu.
00:08:02 [Alison]
So they had a special permitting process.
00:08:04 [Alison]
And not only do they have a permitting process, they require not only liability insurance, but very specific wording within the liability insurance that covers them specifically with their very specific address for the 2nd Floor of the building.

00:08:19 [Alison]
Like, it’s they’re very particular.
00:08:21 [Alison]
And so that was the county.
00:08:22 [Alison]
And I had all those ducks in a row for about and I even took a small business administration course, paid $15 to be in this how to start a business in Hawaii class.
00:08:35 [Alison]
And Lisa sat there for ninety minutes, went through a thirty minute q and a, was like, hey.
00:08:39 [Alison]
Am I doing this right?

00:08:40 [Alison]
This is how I understand this tax.
00:08:42 [Alison]
This is how I understand that.
00:08:43 [Alison]
Got a lot of good information.
00:08:45 [Alison]
I’ll even keep going about that in a minute, but they did not mention the Department of Land and Natural Resources, DLNR.
00:08:52 [Alison]
They’re the ones at the state level that control all the permits for the shoreline.

00:08:56 [Alison]
So here in Hawaii, there’s the county is the Island Of Oahu.
00:09:00 [Alison]
The state is the entirety of all the islands.
00:09:03 [Alison]
Right?
00:09:03 [Alison]
And the state maintains way for every shoreline, and that’s defined as any land from the low water mark up to the high water or vegetation mark.
00:09:13 [Alison]
That is all always free access, doesn’t own it’s never private property, but is controlled and permitted by the state.

00:09:20 [Alison]
So I went through this whole multi hour class and q and a with the Small Business Administration of the state of Hawaii, and they did not know about the DLNR Wiki permits for the state.
00:09:32 [Alison]
So I didn’t learn about them until I was already here for about seven months.
00:09:35 [Alison]
So just do your due diligence about this.
00:09:38 [Alison]
I would have never guessed to look into the Department of Land and Natural Resources, but say, Levy, Hey.
00:09:45 [Alison]
Yes.

00:09:45 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:09:46 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?
00:09:48 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got

00:10:49 [Alison]
Got something for you.
00:10:50 [Alison]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.
00:10:54 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start.
00:10:57 [Alison]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:11:01 [Alison]
So head over to alisonbell.co, that’s alisonwith1l,bell,.co, to get your pre move checklist.

00:11:08 [Alison]
You got this.

00:11:09 [Melissa]
So when you were in Virginia Beach, did you run into any issues with work with working on the beach?

00:11:14 [Alison]
None.
00:11:15 [Alison]
Nothing whatsoever.
00:11:16 [Alison]
As long as it was open access, there was no they didn’t charge anything.
00:11:20 [Alison]
The county didn’t run anything.
00:11:21 [Alison]
We just use public access or private access according to the rental that they were using, and we were good to go.

00:11:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:28 [Alison]
Public property, there was it was free and easy.
00:11:30 [Alison]
No issues whatsoever.
00:11:31 [Alison]
That could change.
00:11:32 [Alison]
Don’t hold me accountable.

00:11:33 [Alison]
I don’t know what’s going on there now.
00:11:35 [Alison]
Don’t at me.

00:11:36 [Melissa]
No.
00:11:36 [Melissa]
But and then not even just permits for locations and stuff.
00:11:40 [Melissa]
You still have county permits.
00:11:42 [Melissa]
So there’s still business license.
00:11:44 [Melissa]
I know when I had my office in my home in I was in one county, and I didn’t need a permit.

00:11:49 [Melissa]
And then when I got an office in a downtown city location, I needed a permit for that city because it was the city versus the county.
00:11:55 [Melissa]
So I had to get a or not a permit, a business license for there.
00:11:58 [Melissa]
Now where I’m at again, I’m out in the sticks.
00:12:00 [Melissa]
They don’t have business licenses.
00:12:01 [Melissa]
And that the easiest way to find that one is to just go out to the county you’re moving to and look up and see if they require a business license.

00:12:07 [Melissa]
If they do, you’re gonna wanna make sure you sign up for that.

00:12:09 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:12:10 [Alison]
Virginia Beach was different in that way because Virginia Beach is not it’s considered an independent city, part of a county.
00:12:16 [Alison]
Fun fact, they the city of Virginia Beach and the county of Princess Anne merged in the sixties because my mom didn’t believe me.
00:12:23 [Alison]
So so there were no county there are no county considerations whatsoever because the city and the county were technically one.
00:12:29 [Alison]
I had to pay a business property tax, which caught me off guard.

00:12:33 [Alison]
I was like, had never heard of that in the state.
00:12:36 [Alison]
But that’s a thing in Virginia.
00:12:38 [Alison]
So, again, go directly to the horse’s mouth and get it from them of what you are liable for because every location, every city state is gonna be so different.

00:12:50 [Melissa]
And I love the you were mentioning the small business administration.
00:12:53 [Melissa]
Like, definitely use them as a resource on things just because they may have a short class.
00:12:58 [Melissa]
They may just be able to tell you what’s going on.

00:13:01 [Alison]
And, yeah, and talking about that sales tax or not the sales tax, the small business administration class that I went through, they were really able to, like, paint a clear picture of how tax works here in Hawaii because Hawaii doesn’t have sales tax per se.
00:13:15 [Alison]
They have a get tax, a general excise tax where they see as privileged to do business in Hawaii, and so it works totally differently.
00:13:21 [Alison]
And they have a little loophole where anything that is shipped out of state here in Hawaii is not due state tax.
00:13:29 [Alison]
I think they’re losing out on a lot of money for it.
00:13:31 [Alison]
But so so all of my printed artwork that I send to my clients back on the Mainland is not charged tax at all.

00:13:38 [Alison]
It’s not a sales tax.
00:13:39 [Alison]
It’s not a get tax.
00:13:40 [Alison]
I’m not do anything.
00:13:41 [Alison]
So it’s only my sessions that I do execute on island.
00:13:44 [Alison]
And, of course, if anybody lives on island and purchases product, then they’re that’s due sales tax or tax.

00:13:50 [Alison]
But I only knew that because I went to that small business administration class.
00:13:54 [Alison]
So that was really helpful.
00:13:55 [Alison]
Highly recommend.

00:13:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:56 [Melissa]
And when it comes to sales tax, y’all do not mess around.
00:13:59 [Melissa]
Sales tax is one.
00:14:01 [Melissa]
Honestly, you’re definitely gonna wanna check out your sales tax office.
00:14:04 [Melissa]
You may wanna consult with some other photographers on what’s going on.

00:14:06 [Melissa]
I would not just consult with one and take their word for it.
00:14:09 [Melissa]
Not that they’re trying to sabotage you, but because I know here in Virginia, this was probably, like, ten or fifteen years ago.
00:14:16 [Melissa]
We were trying to figure it out.
00:14:17 [Melissa]
It was like me and a group of charmers were trying to figure out, are we supposed to charge sales tax on everything because we were shooting weddings, or do we just charge it on a portion of it?
00:14:25 [Melissa]
Do we not charge it at all?

00:14:27 [Melissa]
And so three or four of the girls called and talked to different sales tax office people, and they got differs.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
It was a huge pain in the butt.
00:14:34 [Melissa]
I think we finally Virginia, at least last time I checked again, as Allison said, we’re not lawyers or CPAs and consult your local thing.
00:14:42 [Melissa]
But, basically, Virginia finally came down and said, hey.

00:14:45 [Melissa]
Photography is supposed to result in a product.
00:14:47 [Melissa]
Even though it’s a service, it’s revolt it’s resulting in some kind of product, whether it’s a digital file or a print.
00:14:53 [Melissa]
Therefore, the entire thing is taxable.
00:14:55 [Melissa]
So I know for me, I just collect the tax, and that’s another important thing to think about, guys.
00:15:01 [Melissa]
You are collecting sales tax.

00:15:02 [Melissa]
You are not charging.
00:15:03 [Melissa]
So if a client’s, why are you charging me this?
00:15:05 [Melissa]
I’m not charging you.
00:15:06 [Melissa]
I’m collecting.
00:15:07 [Melissa]
It has to get paid.

00:15:08 [Melissa]
It is your tax that, that comes through me and gets paid.
00:15:12 [Melissa]
I’m not charging it to you and then keeping your money.
00:15:14 [Melissa]
That’s not how it’s working.
00:15:16 [Melissa]
There can be some rules too depending on whether somebody is out of state, that kind of thing, but you want to talk to your tax office.
00:15:23 [Melissa]
And I know for us, when we when I got down to Florida, when I registered my business with Florida, I will give them credit.

00:15:30 [Melissa]
Like, I got a call from somebody in the tax office.
00:15:33 [Melissa]
I think I probably went out to their website and registered there.
00:15:35 [Melissa]
I’ll send my phone rang, and I was like, hello?
00:15:37 [Melissa]
Because she never I think I

00:15:38 [Melissa]
had my business number on there, and

00:15:39 [Melissa]
I was like, who knows this number yet?
00:15:41 [Melissa]
It’s brand new.
00:15:42 [Melissa]
And she was like, hey.
00:15:43 [Melissa]
This is so and so from the tax office.
00:15:44 [Melissa]
And I was like, I’m sorry.

00:15:45 [Melissa]
What?
00:15:46 [Melissa]
Seriously?
00:15:46 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:15:47 [Melissa]
And she walked me through my first return, which I will say after doing that first return, I realized why they call you.
00:15:53 [Melissa]
Because in Florida, that thing was cray cray cray, y’all.

00:15:56 [Melissa]
I used to call in Allison all the time.
00:15:57 [Melissa]
I was like, I miss Virginia, and they’re easy online fillable drop down form that does the math for you.
00:16:03 [Melissa]
Florida is one of those that y’all, this is crazy.
00:16:06 [Melissa]
It’s I think somebody said this about the IRS.
00:16:08 [Melissa]
They’re like, you owe us taxes.

00:16:10 [Melissa]
We’re not gonna tell you how much.
00:16:12 [Melissa]
But if you get it wrong, we will know.
00:16:13 [Melissa]
Florida is the same way with sales tax.

00:16:16 [Alison]
And we’re gonna tell you you cannot file until you get it right.
00:16:19 [Alison]
But we’re not gonna tell you what it is, but we know what it is.

00:16:21 [Melissa]
That was the thing with Florida.
00:16:22 [Melissa]
It was like, I would figure it out, and it was like, nope.
00:16:25 [Melissa]
You got it wrong.
00:16:26 [Melissa]
And I was like, oh, then what’s the answer?
00:16:28 [Melissa]
Like, if I got it wrong, tell me what’s supposed to be.

00:16:30 [Alison]
Obviously, you don’t wanna do

00:16:31 [Melissa]
the math, but I finally got it figured out.
00:16:34 [Melissa]
But I hated it with every passion.
00:16:36 [Melissa]
I sent messages to them when they were very I’m like, yes.
00:16:39 [Melissa]
I will fill out your survey, and I will bless to you how much this sucks.
00:16:43 [Melissa]
And you guys should talk to Virginia and get your stuff straight.

00:16:46 [Melissa]
So, anyway, that’s my sales tax office rant.

00:16:49 [Alison]
Like, there’s 49 other states doing the same thing.

00:16:52 [Alison]
Right?

00:16:52 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:53 [Melissa]
And that’s the other thing, guys.
00:16:54 [Melissa]
Every state does it differently.
00:16:56 [Melissa]
So you may, like, you may hate where you’re at and love where you go to, or you may be like me that loved where I was, hated where I went to.
00:17:03 [Melissa]
So Godspeed.

00:17:04 [Melissa]
Make yeah, make sure you’re doing your sales tax.
00:17:06 [Melissa]
A lot of times too with sales tax, when you register with a new plate, they will some places will set you up quarterly.
00:17:11 [Melissa]
So you’re only paying it quarterly because you’re not making it a lot yet.
00:17:15 [Melissa]
And then once you hit a certain amount, they’re gonna switch to monthly.
00:17:18 [Melissa]
And all of them, all of the states I’ve been through, there will be a fine if you are late.

00:17:23 [Melissa]
Florida’s was ridiculous fine.
00:17:25 [Melissa]
And that was another thing.
00:17:26 [Melissa]
You had to figure out what the fine was gonna be based off oh my god.
00:17:29 [Melissa]
Oh, okay.
00:17:30 [Melissa]
I’m gonna stop.

00:17:30 [Melissa]
Because it was insane.
00:17:31 [Melissa]
I had to go look at tax tables and, like, interest rates, and then I had to do math.
00:17:35 [Melissa]
And I was like, this is insane.
00:17:36 [Melissa]
But you wanna be really careful.
00:17:38 [Melissa]
I personally little hot tip.

00:17:39 [Melissa]
I set a task on my account for the first of every month.
00:17:42 [Melissa]
I just went in and did all I think it’s a recurring task.
00:17:44 [Melissa]
And it says file monthly sales tax.
00:17:46 [Melissa]
And I then I think I have another event that goes off two days before it’s, like, gonna be late due that says, have you filed it yet so that I will file it on time?

00:17:55 [Alison]
That’s a

00:17:55 [Melissa]
good point.

00:17:56 [Alison]
I need to do that, and I have an SEO day scheduled for every month.
00:18:00 [Alison]
But it’s the fourteenth of the month, and I don’t think I’ve done it for last month yet.

00:18:03 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:18:03 [Melissa]
I think I just paid mine yesterday.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
I think yesterday, I was like, oh, we’re coming up.
00:18:07 [Melissa]
I need to go pay my sales tax.

00:18:08 [Alison]
But that’s a good word that from the beginning, just to reiterate, we are not charging sales tax.
00:18:13 [Alison]
We are simply a pipeline.
00:18:15 [Alison]
We are only a conduit of that sales tax charge.
00:18:20 [Alison]
It’s not fun.
00:18:20 [Alison]
Yes.

00:18:20 [Alison]
You need to do it.
00:18:21 [Alison]
Whatever.
00:18:22 [Alison]
It just comes with the territory.

00:18:23 [Melissa]
I have a separate account.
00:18:24 [Melissa]
Out of your

00:18:25 [Alison]
yeah.
00:18:25 [Alison]
It’s just a funnel.
00:18:26 [Alison]
You are only a funnel.

00:18:28 [Speaker 6]
So

00:18:28 [Melissa]
I just I have a sales tax account.
00:18:30 [Melissa]
And as soon as it comes in, the sales tax part gets transferred over to that account.
00:18:34 [Melissa]
I don’t touch it.
00:18:34 [Melissa]
And then when it’s time to pay it, transfers over to the main account, and then there you go.

00:18:38 [Alison]
That’s a good word.
00:18:39 [Alison]
We should do an episode on profit first too.

00:18:41 [Melissa]
Oh, yes.
00:18:42 [Melissa]
That’s a good one.

00:18:43 [Alison]
That’s a good idea.

00:18:44 [Melissa]
Let us know, guys,

00:18:44 [Alison]
if you wanna hear that.
00:18:45 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:18:46 [Melissa]
So there’s a lot of rules depending on your state, and we don’t want you to get caught thinking one way in one state is gonna be the same in the new because it may not be.
00:18:54 [Melissa]
So do your research on that.
00:18:55 [Melissa]
I don’t know.
00:18:56 [Melissa]
Do you have anything on, like, regular income tax?
00:18:58 [Melissa]
I don’t feel like I do.

00:18:59 [Melissa]
Let that’s pretty much gonna stay the same.

00:19:00 [Alison]
Income tax, yeah, it’s complicated.
00:19:03 [Alison]
You work with a CPA.
00:19:05 [Alison]
Just I we started working with a CPA because everything got convoluted with our personal stuff with houses in multiple states and us moving again and blah blah blah blah.
00:19:15 [Alison]
Work with somebody.
00:19:16 [Alison]
Get a CPA you trust, somebody who is knows your state really well, but also can at least figure out whatever state you’re going to, that’s in in somebody you can work with in person and talk to and understand.

00:19:28 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:28 [Melissa]
And I don’t necessarily know if you need to work in person with them, but just to be able to have good communication and stuff.
00:19:32 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:19:36 [Melissa]
I can we can leave I’ll put his info in the show notes that I’ve actually been on.
00:19:40 [Melissa]
So here’s the thing that also goes back to marketing guys.
00:19:42 [Melissa]
I’ve been on this dude’s email list for ten years now, and finally never

00:19:45 [Alison]
click unsubscribe.
00:19:47 [Alison]
Never unsubscribe.
00:19:48 [Alison]
That’s what baffles me.

00:19:51 [Melissa]
So I’ve been he said he doesn’t overload you with emails.
00:19:54 [Melissa]
He’s, like, smart.
00:19:54 [Melissa]
He keeps those of us who work stale.
00:19:56 [Melissa]
He just reminds us, like, hey.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
It’s tax season.

00:19:58 [Melissa]
Do you need a guy?
00:19:59 [Melissa]
And finally this year, I was like, alright.
00:20:01 [Melissa]
I need to get an s corp.
00:20:02 [Melissa]
I wanna separate out the business taxes and all of that.
00:20:04 [Melissa]
And so when he asked me, he’s like, how’d you find me?

00:20:06 [Melissa]
I was like, dude, I’ve been on your email list for a decade now.
00:20:09 [Melissa]
And I was like, so go you on email marketing and stuff.
00:20:14 [Melissa]
But we’ll drop his stuff in the comments because he does work with photographers.
00:20:17 [Melissa]
That’s how I found him initially, and now I’m using him.

00:20:20 [Alison]
So That’s awesome.
00:20:22 [Alison]
Y’all, that’s our very boring conversation on very boring topic.
00:20:26 [Alison]
It matters.
00:20:26 [Alison]
Use it.
00:20:27 [Alison]
Let us know if you have questions or if you have a crazy about your state or something they do well or don’t do well.

00:20:33 [Alison]
Entertain us.
00:20:33 [Alison]
Hit us up on Instagram.
00:20:34 [Alison]
Look for our links in the show notes, and until next time.
00:20:37 [Alison]
Bye bye.

00:20:40 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:20:42 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:20:44 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:20:46 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:20:47 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:20:52 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:20:55 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog or Melissa at group raise your ranking.
00:21:02 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.