I want to sell my handmade crafts on the internet–what do i need to know about payments,S&H, and taxes?
I have a handmade product I want to start selling over the internet. I made a website, etc, what I desperately need to know is how i go about accepting payment for my products and shipping and handling, and tax info. (i live in california)
EX: if a customer contacts me and wants to buy x items for a total of $25.–i assume I can accept a check or cashiers check,—–what is paypal?—and how would i go about accepting a credit card for my products?… (I am a simple 1 woman operation and I have not sold anything over the internet yet)….and S&H rates based on size or weight of the box and their location, is that right? do i add state tax? do i need any licenses or ? to do this and lastly, what do i need to report my sales (if any) to the IRS/taxman?? Thank you for all your help!wish me luck!
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Paypal is probably the safest way to accept payment I use it and never had a problem. It is simple to understand and in step by step format this also allows people to pay by credit card. Google have something similar.
Shipping you show separately but don’t forget to add into the price the cost of the packaging as well.
Not able to answer on state tax or licenses as I am in the UK.
The taxman wonderful people they like to know everything you have earned. You are best consulting an accountant just to make sure you understand the financial side.
With your website you will need to do some work to get it noticed if you need help email me.
Try selling on http://etsy.com or http://artfire.com to see what happens. Artfire is free so you won’t be losing anything.
Hope this helps and good luck.
you may get your best answer over on finance but here goes
pay pal is simple just register a debit card with them and when someone pays you pay pal will put it in your account read there charges info, but I think it costs each party a dollar, just put taxes and pay-pal built into your price so now your Item is $25+$1+ %tax so now you get a price of $27.36 or whatever it adds up to
Just go to eBay. It’s simple and self explanatory. eBay shows you how to sell everything. I sold on eBay and didn’t know anything about selling (though I had bought a lot of stuff on eBay). If I can walk through it and learn it, you can too.
There is a fee to sell. Depending on the price of your item, it may cost as little as .25-50cents to list an item.
…just go to eBay!
You don’t want to get into accepting checks or money orders – delays in getting them and in shipping.
Paypal is less expensive than the first answer states depending on the amount of the item (a percentage) but gives great protection while giving you the ability to have people pay with credit card as well as their Paypal account. Money does not go directly into your attached account, especially at the beginning, you have to ask for it and wait in some cases.
Most states do not collect sales taxes on internet sales if you do no retail business in the state but if you do any direct sales (craft shows, sell to people from your home, etc.) then you must collect sales taxes for items shipped in your state – like they phoned you to order. Ask your state sales tax people for guidelines or look online.
I agree with the previous poster, I would use PayPal to accept credit and debit cards, and they can also accept e-checks for you, too – you pay fees but only for the services you use with no account maintenance fees. They started as a free-standing 3rd-party payment-processing service, but they became so critical to eBay’s operation that eBay bought them recently (PayPal isn’t exclusive to eBay, tho – many sites use it). For more details, click the PayPal link below (you’ll want the ‘business’ tab).
https://www.paypal.com/
However, you’re going to run into people who refuse to use PayPal, and I suggest you consider accepting US Postal Service money orders from them (ONLY Postal Service ones, no other kinds, and no cashier’s, certified, or traveller’s checks, either). You cash them at the post office before you ship, and the staff there is trained to detect forgeries, so you know right away whether you got stiffed (if so, just don’t ship) or a valid payment (if they cash it, the money is guaranteed yours to keep, so you can safely ship).
Start out selling only within the United States, and ship through the post office. Figure out how you need to package your item to ship safely, then check to see what one item correctly packaged will weigh and what a single item by itself weighs (so you can figure the additional cost to ship 2 or more items) – the post office will weigh them for you. Once you know that, there’s a nifty postage calculator on the USPS site you can use to see your options and costs – ‘first class’ is the most economical if your item’s shipping weight is 13 ounces or less, but there are other possibilities. For some methods, the cost just depends on weight, for others, weight AND distance. You want to charge an amount for S+H that will cover actual postage (and maybe insurance and ‘delivery confirmation’) plus the cost of the packaging.
The tax issues vary by location, and you’ll need to get specific advice. Check with your local Small Business Administration, Chamber of Commerce, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and similar organizations on where to get reliable help in your area. There are also small-business-oriented groups in the ‘Groups’ section on Yahoo.
I also concur with the previous suggestion to consider starting out selling on etsy, etc. – they not only provide structure, services, and support, they’ve also become well-known ‘destinations’ for people wanting unique crafts.
Whatever you decide, good luck!