Utah Sticks It To All Their Photographers

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/03/16/utah-sticks-it-to-all-their-photographers/

maybe this time haha

lol, what makes photographers think they get a free pass out of paying taxes? Because it's a service and not a product? Hell that argument only works if you never do anything with the photo's you take. Half the professional photographers probably don't even have a business license anyway. We all have to pay taxes, don't like it: move to a 3rd world country.

I think their talking about Sales Tax that the photographer needs to remit back to the state. Up here in Oregon we do not have Sales tax so I don't really know how it works in the tax system but I assume that if you're self-employed, like many photographers are, you have to send the state the sales tax that you should have collected from your business.

^^ but yeah i don't see how Utah is "sticking" it to anyone. there just enforcing their right to tax.

Isn't this a contradiction to republican 'pro small business' ideology?  In the most republican state, no less.

It is the principal.  I am sure the state gov has much more pressing issues they could be spending their* time on(*actually your time, they work for you).  This is  an niche market,the tiniest sliver in the tax revenue pie chart....they are probably wasting more resources enforcing it than they will gain from the tax that is collected.  All it will do is create one more obstacle to success for aspiring photographers/ creatives.

So if you are self employed and run a business that sells products you have to pay sales tax to the state? Woooahh. I dont see how this is a big deal. Add sales tax to your photos you sell just like any other store.

The reason it is gonna hurt photographers is not because they have to pay the sales tax, because they don't, its because they have to collect sales tax from their clients.

Its already hard enough to sell photos (this is coming from someone who is trying to) these days, with all the hobbyists out there who are willing to give their shit away for free. This makes it more difficult since now businesses will have to pay an additional tax on top of the photographers price; which will encourage them even more to go affter the more mediocre, yet free shots from the hobbyist who just got a kewl new dslr.  

From the outset this does not seem unreasonable, especially since everyone else is required to collect sales tax. However any time you increase or add a tax to an economy, it takes a hit.

Right now, photographers, like everyone else, are struggling to maintain their businesses and income, if not more so. Increasing the taxes involved with photography will cause many clients to look for photographers outside of Utah. This will push many photographers to leave Utah, pulling even more money out of the state's economy, as it becomes less attractive for photographers to work there.

If the photography industry were booming right now it would be a different story, as many photographers could simply look for another client who was willing to pay the extra taxes, instead of struggling to hold onto their current ones.

I'm not buying any of that. First off the business is the one responsible for paying taxes on sales they made, they do not have to explicitly add on a sales tax. These laws aren't new at all. Any legit photographer with a studio, assistants, and real clients making a real living has probably been collecting sale taxes all along. Now with the rise in hobbyist photog's they have to reiterate the rules as those are the people who haven't been collecting or paying sales tax. After looking though your photo's I would definitely consider you a hobbyist.

I don't think I would be dumb enough to upload anything I really care about to newschoolers.

affter watching that movie you made and distributed a few years ago I would consider you less then professional.

I was talking about your flickr account. My movie made money, and because I produced and distributed it for real, under a real business, I paid sales taxes. The trailers I edit now are watched on-demand by 300k people a week. I'm a professional in every sense of the word. You are a hobbyist with no understanding of business practices made very apparent by your previous post. I can say with 100% certainty you have never paid taxes on any money you may have made(or pretended to make) you industry robbing hobbyist.

kewl, good for you, your ski movie still sucked balls.

Your right, my ski photos are not jaw dropping. I am not a professional ski photographer, I don't pretend to be. I shoot skiing because I like to ski.  I am not even a full time photographer, I am a full time student. I do make money however, and I do pay taxes on my earned income.

One other thing, how does one pretend to make money?  I mean its money you either have it or you don't. I have heard of people trying to pretend they are not making money while they are, but not the other way around, that just seems foolish.

Asking people to pay taxes on a business is "hardly sticking it to them".

Most artists don't make a huge income off of their work... that by no means exempts them from paying taxes.

That was a stupid article... coming from someone who's household income is almost entirely from the sale of fine art.

i actually think your photos are really really sick actually