Taxable sales
You must charge tax on most sales, including:
- Retail sales of food, drink, cosmetics, and household supplies to the final consumer
- Newspapers and magazines sold over a store counter
- Reusable grocery bags
- Sales through vending machines
- Rentals of items such as DVDs, video players and carpet shampooers
Nontaxable sales
Some nontaxable sales include:
- Sales to customers who are buying with food stamps; with electronic benefits transfer cards; or with Women, Infants and Children (WIC) checks.
- Sales of prescription drugs and prescription drug refills.
- Items customers are buying for resale.
- Sales to exempt organizations.
- Sales of lottery tickets.
- Deposits paid on returnable bottles.
- Cylinder sales of liquified propane in units of 15 gallons or less can be sold without getting an exemption certificate. Sales of any other type of heating fuels require a completed exemption certificate from the buyer (e.g., compressed fireplace logs).
Note:
You must keep records of all untaxed sales and document why you didn’t charge tax. (See Keeping records.)