Archive for November, 2006
Compliance Events Summary
November 7th, 2006
Welcome to the first installment of shipping compliance events summary! These events are great opportunities to hear from experts on legislative changes to the rules, best practices for staying compliant and growing your market, special offers on shipping and other related services, and introductions to technology solutions.
November 8th – Wine Institute Sonoma County Member Workshop
http://www.wineinstitute.org/programs/workshops/2006/sonoma-nov.php
Vintners Inn Santa Rosa, CA
8:30 am
November 13th – Wine America Fall Board of Directors & Annual Membership Meeting
http://www.wineamerica.org/meetings/fall.htm
The Inn on the Lake Canandaigua, NY
8:00 am
November 14th – Finger Lakes Direct Shipping Compliance Seminar
http://www.shipcompliant.com/spdr/
Ithaca’s South Hill Business Campus Ithaca, NY
9:00 am
If you know of shipping compliance related events and we’ve missed them, please send an email to comments@shipcompliantblog.com and we’ll get them up there regularly.
Thank you.
FedEx begins shipping to Vermont
November 6th, 2006
From their wine landing page:
FedEx Express and FedEx Ground expands wine shipping services to accept legal wine shipments to consumers into, out of, and within Vermont. The effective date is November 1, 2006. For those shipping wine to VT consumers, please note changes on State Pairing Guide.
Vermont’s consumer direct legislation actually went into effect in May of this year, but this is the first time that a carrier has been approved to ship into Vermont. Licensed wineries can now officially begin shipping. The application requirements and license restrictions are spelled out pretty clearly in Vermont’s instructions on the permit application. In a nutshell, the permit costs $300, there are sales tax, excise tax, and reporting requirements, and a twelve case per calendar year per customer volume limit applies.
More on Georgia sales tax
November 3rd, 2006
A few weeks ago, Annie mentioned that wineries shipping directly to Georgia that do not otherwise have a nexus in Georgia are not required to collect sales tax. We have had a number of questions about this issue, mostly related to the fact that different people have received different answers to this question in the past from Georgia. A few months ago, a representative from the Georgia Department of Revenue gave clear guidance on this in a pair of emails. Responding to the question of whether a winery with no wholesaler in Georgia has to collect sales tax, the representative wrote the following
The simple answer to your question is that the Special Order Shipping License is not conditioned on licencees paying sales tax to the State of Georgia. There is no general requirement saying that these licencees must collect and pay Georgia sales tax on sales. Whether a Special Order Shipping Licensee is subject to sales tax collection requirements must be analyzed on a case by case basis taking into account whether the licensee has a nexus with the State. Relevant questions in the analysis of nexus would include, but not be limited to, whether the licensee has a physical presence in the State such as having an office or having salespeople that are based in the State.
When asked for further clarification on whether the Special Order Shipping License creates a nexus in Georgia by a winery that does not have any presence in Georgia, the winery received the response below
A Special Order Shipping License alone, without any other conditions that would establish a nexus with Georgia, does not establish a nexus. The Georgia law that created the Special Order Shipping License was effective July 1, 2000, not in 2006. The information listed on the Georgia Department of Revenue site www.etax.dor.ga.gov/salestax/salestax_genlinfo.shtml is correct. Tangible personal property (in this case wine) purchased by a Georgia resident via the Internet and delivered to a Georgia address is subject to Georgia sales and use tax regardless of where the vendor is located. The Georgia resident would report and remit Use Tax on Form ST-3USE. The tax rate is based on the county where delivery takes place. You have asked if the consumer does not pay the tax themselves on the purchase of your wine, could this fall back on your winery? Lacking nexus, you would not be required to collect and remit the sales tax; nor would you be required to remit the consumer’s use tax. However, a company that charges and collects the Georgia sales tax must remit that tax to the State of Georgia.
To summarize, any winery can make onsite shipments into Georgia. Only wineries without a distributor in Georgia can receive a Special Order Shipping License and make offsite shipments (as well as onsite shipments). In both cases, the winery is not required to collect or pay sales tax.
