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Grex > Coop11 > #154: Cyberspace Communications finances for January 2000 |  |
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| Author |
Message |
flem
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Cyberspace Communications finances for January 2000
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Feb 1 12:51 UTC 2000 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc.
finances through January 31st, 2000:
Beginning Balance $5,426.15
Credits $324.00 Member contributions
$00.40 Miscellaneous donations
$5.00 Auction proceeds
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$329.40
Debits $66.15 Pumpkin Rent for February
$54.34 Electricity for January
$344.68 Phone Bill
$44.00 Renewal of PO Box 4432
$18.00 Bounced check
$5.00 Bounced check fee
$14.31 Michigan Sales and Use Tax
$0.02 Correction - Australian anomaly
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$546.50
Ending Balance $5,209.05
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$5,017.19 General Fund
$131.86 Silly Hat Fund
$60.00 Spare Parts Fund
There was no activity in the Grex Store this month, so the balances
remain at:
Cash Stock
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($46.60) $301.60
We had 1 new member (dlw) and one returning member (n8nxf) in January.
We are currently at 96 members, 88 of whom are paid through at least
February 15th. (The rest expired recently and are in a grace period.)
Notes:
- The user who sent the bounced check also sent a replacement and told
me how I can go about getting a refund on the $5.00 fee. I'll report
more developments when they happen.
- We owed some use tax on the purchase of the UPS.
- The Australian anomaly is due to a mixup in the exchange rate of
Australian currency, combined with a certain amount of clerical error.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in December:
bruin, coyote, deembee, dlw, mlf, n8nxf, quail, satindra, witling.
Thanks everyone!
If you or your institution would like to become a member of Grex, it
only costs $6/month or $60/year. Send money to:
Cyberspace Communications
P. O. Box 4432
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432
If you pay by cash or money order, please include a photocopy of some
form of ID. I can't add you to the rolls without ID. (If you pay with
a personal check that has your name pre-printed on it, we consider that
a good enough ID.) Type !support or see
http://www.cyberspace.org/member.html
for more info.
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| 32 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 32:
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Feb 1 15:15 UTC 2000 |
why must grex pay a "sales and use" tax? grex is a non-profit
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flem
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response 2 of 32:
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Feb 1 15:50 UTC 2000 |
Mark can probably answer this better than I can, but if I understand
correctly, the short answer is that Grex can get out of paying sales
tax, but we're still stuck with use tax.
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rcurl
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response 3 of 32:
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Feb 1 16:56 UTC 2000 |
There is no necessary connection between being "non-profit" and paying
taxes. 501(c)3 (federal) tax exempt organizations do not usually pay
federal taces on income. What state taxes must be paid depend upon the tax
laws in each state.
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keesan
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response 4 of 32:
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Feb 1 18:33 UTC 2000 |
Flem, thanks for the good work.
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aruba
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response 5 of 32:
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Feb 1 19:25 UTC 2000 |
Re #1-3: Grex is normally exempt from paying sales and use taxes. ("Use tax",
for those of you outside Michigan, is tax that Michigan requires that people
and businesses pay on items bought out of state and then brought to Michigan.)
However, we can only get out of paying sales and use taxes if payment for the
items in question comes directly from Cyberspace Communications. Two items
that we bought last year (the UPS and some backup tapes) were bought by
staffers with their own money, and Grex leter reimbused them. That makes us
obligated to pay use tax on them.
The "Australian anomaly" is my fault. When Mic sent money for his membership
in November, the amount on the money order was $60.02 - I assume the extra
$.02 had something to do with the method of transfer and the change in
currency from Australian dollars to U.S. dollars. That would have been fine,
but I mistakenly wrote "60.00" on the deposit slip when I took it to the bank,
and the bank never noticed the discrepancy. They probably never will, so I
figured it was time to give up on the $.02.
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spooked
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response 6 of 32:
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Feb 1 23:33 UTC 2000 |
Quite a few years back, we got rid of 1cent and 2cent pieces in our currency,
so everything gets rounded up (and rounded down, too? - not sure) to the
nearest 5cent multiple. This probably had somethiong to do with the extra
2 US cents when the US money order was made out by me.
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aruba
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response 7 of 32:
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Feb 2 01:01 UTC 2000 |
That would explain it. That's interesting - I didn't know there were no
pennies in Australia.
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don
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response 8 of 32:
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Feb 2 01:16 UTC 2000 |
Same thing happens in Israel now. Then again, their currency has been devalued
a coupla times and they're becoming increasingly dependant on checks and
credit cards.
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mikep
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response 9 of 32:
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Feb 2 16:08 UTC 2000 |
Has anyone seen the new dollar coin yet? Supposedly it was to be
distributed at Sam's and Wal Mart out here in California last weekend.
What I can't wait for is the elimination of the dollar bill...
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pfv
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response 10 of 32:
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Feb 2 20:59 UTC 2000 |
Just saw one the other day.
made me sick to my stomach.. It's chinzy lookin' and if a bit more
crude, I'd think it was a foil-wrapped candy.
*sigh* I guess I start dealing more with barter or metals.
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prp
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response 11 of 32:
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Feb 2 21:11 UTC 2000 |
Re 5 (aruba)
Wait a minute. Does this mean that if I purchase a one hundred dollar
item for Grex, and get reimbursed by Cyberspace, that the state collects
$6 sales tax from the vendor and $6.36 use tax from Cyberspace? That's
12.36%! Something is wrong somewhere.
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aruba
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response 12 of 32:
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Feb 2 23:29 UTC 2000 |
Re #11: No. Use tax is only for items bought out of state. If you had
bought the item out of state, you wouldn't have paid Michigan sales tax on
it. You might have paid sales tax to the state you bought it in, however;
I can't remember for sure, but I think in that case Michigan credits that
amount toward the use tax. Anyone else know about that?
Both of the items in question were bought out of state, and we didn't pay
any sales tax on them.
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rcurl
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response 13 of 32:
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Feb 3 04:59 UTC 2000 |
To drift for a moment...the state says use tax applies to internet
purchases, but the question of whether or not these are legal is
in congressional committee now - some say they are taxing interstate
commerce by a state, which is unconstitutional. Where do matters
stand now?
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prp
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response 14 of 32:
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Feb 3 20:40 UTC 2000 |
Ok, what if instead of reimbursing staff, you purchase the stuff from
them? Then it is an in state purchase; so no use tax, right?
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aruba
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response 15 of 32:
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Feb 3 21:46 UTC 2000 |
I'm just going by what the lady in the Michigan Sales & Use Tax department
told me when I asked her. She said that if we buy things directly, we are
exempt from sales & use taxes, but if we reimburse someone for them, then we
owe tax.
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rcurl
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response 16 of 32:
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Feb 3 23:27 UTC 2000 |
Has Grex filed for sales tax exemption?
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aruba
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response 17 of 32:
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Feb 4 03:29 UTC 2000 |
As of 1996, 501(c)3 corporations in Michigan no longer need apply to the state
for exemption from sales tax - they are automatically exempt. We do have
forms from the state explaining this, and what we're supposed to do when we
buy something in-state and don't want to pay sales tax is give the vendor one
of those forms together with a copy of our determination letter from the IRS.
(This is all according to the same lady at the Sales & Use tax office.)
We are also exempt from charging sales tax on items we sell, *unless* we sell
more than $5000 woth of stuff. If we go over that amount, however, we owe
the state sales tax on the entire amount of stuff we sold, including the first
$5000 worth. So if we ever plan on going that high (the toal includes auction
items, BTW), we should start charging tax at the beginning of the year. (To
date we have never sold more than about $1500 worth of stuff in a year.)
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rcurl
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response 18 of 32:
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Feb 4 05:55 UTC 2000 |
That's funny, we got our exemption form from the state recently which
doesn't explain what you say it explains. It says nothing at all about
automatic exemption, and it also says nothing about the IRS determination
letter. The recent form, however, unlike the earlier forms, does not
show an expiration date.
By the way - if you don't have to apply, how did you get a form, which
bears the name of the exempt organization?
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keesan
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response 19 of 32:
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Feb 4 13:27 UTC 2000 |
Purchase Radio sells to Kiwanis without sales tax. All I had to do was bring
in a piece of paper saying we are 501(c)3. They keep it on file.
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darkskyz
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response 20 of 32:
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Feb 4 14:48 UTC 2000 |
re #8: where did you hear that from? appearantly you are not exactly aware
of what is happening here. the last major coin devaluation was in the early
80's. right now we have an annual inflation of less then 5% for the last 4
or 5 years, maybe more (i simply have no idea of the inflation back then).
comparing to the US$, the shekel has lost value from about 2.5 shekel/$ in
1990 to 4 shekel/$ right now. we use credit cards and checques just as much
as americans (i know, i lived in the states).
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aruba
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response 21 of 32:
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Feb 4 21:28 UTC 2000 |
Re #18: The forms, as I recall (Greg has them in the file cabinet), were
blank and I filled in the name of the corporation.
My information dates from the summer of 1998, so it wouldn't be a bad thing
to get an update. The place to call is:
Michigan Department of Treasury
Sales, Use, and Withholding Taxes Division
517-373-3190
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rcurl
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response 22 of 32:
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Feb 5 04:50 UTC 2000 |
Our recent form came in early 1999 - bearing our name and original
exemption date. It is true, however, that most vendors haven't even
recognized the state form when we showed it to them - ever, since 1990.
All they want to know is your EIN (which doesn't prove anything about your
non-profit status). I can't recall one asking for our letter of
determination. Of course, if they get audited in this regard, YOU would be
found responsible if you were really not tax exempt. This fact would tend
to lead vendors to take the path of least resistance - just the EIN.
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mdw
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response 23 of 32:
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Feb 5 09:28 UTC 2000 |
Probably the reason to show them the form & the letter of determination
is to prove they don't need the EIN, and to show you qualify. Probably
works great except over the telephone.
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rcurl
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response 24 of 32:
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Feb 5 19:51 UTC 2000 |
If they write anything down it always includes the EIN, which is just
a corporate SS number.
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