[Dixielandjazz] Re: CD Festival Sales Charges

[Mike Marois]

This problem could be solved with a Point of Sale package installed on the computer at the location that the CD's and/or merchandise is being sold at.  

Another solution would be to not have the merchandise at a central location and have the individuals sell at the venues that they perform at.  Make the bands sign a waiver releasing the Jazz Fest from the tax liability and make the individual contractors deal with the BoE.  This might be more appealing to the bands because the impulse buying at the venue would be better than having someone make the trip to a centralized CD mart where your product is on display with everyone elses.

Mike Marois


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Robert S. Ringwald" <robert at ringwald.com>
Date:  Mon, 13 Dec 2004 12:09:01 -0800

>Steve,
>
>In California, the BoE (Board of Equalization) collects sales tax.  They are 
>god.  You do not mess with them.  They can walk into a business, stand by 
>the cash register, take all the money collected that day for back taxes, & 
>then padlock the door and you are out of business.
>
>As I understand, they have ruled that the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee is 
>responsible for any sales tax owed from CD sales at the Jubilee.  This is 
>even though the bands are independent contractors.
>
>The Sacramento Jazz Jubilee has a budget of a million 5 or so.  Thus, we are 
>not just some little Jazz festival held in a hotel over a weekend where CDs 
>are sold & the BoE is not aware.  They are very aware of us.  In fact, we 
>have recently gone through a BoE audit.   .
>
>Because we are responsible for the sales tax, we have to collect sales tax 
>from the bands for all CDs that are soled by them at the festival.  In 
>Sacramento, the sales tax rate is 7.75%.  The typical CD price is $15. 
>Thus, 7.75% of $15 is $1.16.
>
> Again, because the Festival is so big, with over 100 bands, it is quite a 
>job to collect all of the information, total it, and fill out the forms. 
>Along with that, we have to bill the bands & keep track of who has paid & 
>who hasn't.  As any business man can tell you, trying to collect money owed 
>after the fact, can be very time consuming.  All of this takes a lot of paid 
>staff time.
>
> We have been told that, in order to do this job, we need to charge the 
>bands $4 per each CD sold.  This means that $2.84 of each $4 collected is 
>used to pay the staff's wages for doing this job.
>
>Up until last year, the charge to each band was $3 per CD sold.  This meant 
>that $1.84 per CD went for staff time expenses.
>
>In 2004, the price charged to bands was raised by one dollar to $4.00  This 
>was after we went through the BoE audit.  I suspect that the audit had 
>something to do with the price increase.
>
>My first instinct is to say that the bands are being over charged.  However, 
>without knowing exactly how much time it actually takes to complete all of 
>the paperwork, I cannot make an informed judgment.
>
>It does seem to me that with using a computer, it should be fairly easy to 
>do the bookkeeping.  Much faster than doing it by hand.  Listmates Bob 
>Williams and Paul Edgerton, our STJS web masters, should be able to come up 
>with a program to do this.
>
>I do believe that it is time for us to get an explanation from the Jubilee.
>
>  If and when we do, I will keep you informed.
>
>--Bob Ringwald
>Placerville, CA USA
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Dixielandjazz mailing list
>Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>