ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Mine was a personal purchase. California requires vendors outside of 
California who sell to residence to collect state taxes, and then 
forward them to California. If one extended this to all 50 states, a 
vendor would have to register in every state as a vendor in other 
states, and then pay collect and pay taxes in all states. Does that make 
sense?? Not to me it doesn't.

I'm checking with some consumer advocates here to see the legality of 
this. It appears that only Texas and California may require this. It may 
be that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against both states on this issue.  
Interestingly, this appears to be voluntary. That is, the company in CT 
would have to write to CA and volunteer to do this. Why would any 
business want to do that? I'd be interested in knowing from the CT 
company proof that they pay the CA tax.

Barbara Punt wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Hi Wayne, 
>
>
> Last time I checked, California does not provide tax exempt status for items
> purchased for museums unless they were on display, and even then, it only
> applied to the two museums specifically named in a piece of state
> legislation (those two would be the California Science Center and the
> California African-American Museum, both state museums).  I worked at the
> Science Center for years, and we always paid sales tax on purchases for
> administrative purposes.  I think that applied for lab supplies, too.
>
>
> Sorry!  I know it's very unusual.  Could be worse - in Arizona they have a
> "use tax," which is different by county and by city and applies with wacky
> percentages on certain types of expenses.  
>
> Cheers, 
> Barbara 
>
> Barbara Punt 
>
> Punt Consulting 
>
> 409 North PCH, Suite 326 
>
> Redondo Beach, CA  90277 
>
> Telephone (310) 937-3366 
>
> Fax (815) 377-3633 
>
> Barbara @puntconsulting.com 
>
> www.puntconsulting.com 
>
> http://www.puntconsulting.com/  
>
> When in doubt ... Punt! 
>
> Hi Wayne, 
>
>
>
>
>
>   

-- 

           Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)

             (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
              Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
            
                 "Science is what we do, when we don't know 
                  what we are doing" -- Alvaro de Rujula
            
                    Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/>

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]