Self Employed in CA, file taxes in UT

[caphoto 10]

Hi everyone,

I'm a self employed photographer in California (just starter here last month) but we file taxes in Utah as my husband is in the military and that's his home of record.

Right now, I can't really estimate my income so can't apply to pay taxes quarterly... is this something that's going to cause an issue later on, or can I wait until the end of this year to pay all taxes at once and then pay quarterly next year?

Right now I don't pay sales tax as I don't offer my clients any actual products, just digital downloads (and I gift them some prints as a surprise). But if I did start offering print purchases through my business, would I apply to pay Utah or California sales tax?

Thanks in advance,

Caroline

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

SALES tax and INCOME tax are different topics.

If your business and clients are in California, then any sales tax you would collect would be according to CA state laws and paid to the state and possibly local districts. Basically you are just a tax collector for the state and passing the sales tax on to the state. You aren't losing or gaining money (income) in the transaction.

That's a separate thing from your federal income tax return. The sales tax you collected and passed on to the state of CA isn't your income or reported on your federal return. I think what you need to figure out is whether you will file a state income tax return in CA because you do business there and earn income there. I am not able to help with that because I live in a state with no state income tax. No clue how that works.

[MariaR323 199]

The "home of record" (HOR) is different from the "state of legal residence" (SLR) and HOR does not define where you file a state income tax return but rather the SLR does.

You say your husband's HOR is Utah and you live in CA... so when your husband comes home from service he "goes home" to Utah and not CA? I would suggest verifying that information with your husband and his branch of service as to what is the SLR on record and if it should be changed to CA since you're living in CA and I would assume he would go home to CA and not Utah.

As to sales tax, if you will be conducting business in CA then you would apply to the California Board of Equalization for sales tax.