Illinois Sales Tax

Do you sell your work on line?  While it is generally believed that interstate sales are not subject to sales tax this is only true to some extent.  When you shop from an on line catalog the catalog company is required to collect sales tax when delivering goods to a state where they have a physical presence.  That means if you are selling your work on line you should be collecting and remitting sales tax on the art you sell in state.  I live in Illinois and the Illinois’ system is exceptionally complicated.  There is a base rate that is broken down into a percentage for the state, city, county and in addition, the local government might impose a percentage as well.  The rate in Illinois could be anywhere from 6.25% to 11.5%.  The tax is also broken down into four divisions, Retailers’ Occupation Tax, Use Tax, Service Occupation Tax, and the Service Use Tax.  An artist selling in state is required to pay the Retailer’s Occupation Tax who then in turn collects the Use Tax from the consumer offsetting the amount and remitting it to the Illinois Department of Revenue.