Pricing

[wkshank]

Hi,
I was wondering why some of you have odd cents in the price you do a yard for? If when you do an estimate for someone and you come up with some cents in it, why not just round it up or down to make it a bit easier.

[guntruck]

Never really paid attention but i know we dont ever have odd cents on our prices we just give an even price. The only thing i can think of is other services with the odd cents on the dollar due to charging procedures.

:)

[Premo Services]

Mabey it is in a state where they have tax on the job, and I don`t think you can charge more than the tax is.;)

[joshua]

just got donw talking to my tax lady and i have to start charging sales tax. so i'm gunna have some odd ball prices. never thought i would be this big this soon that i would have to charge sales tax. hope the customers take it good

[wkshank]

Never thought about sales tax because in Il. there is no tax on a service. Was just wondering because I know of a few lawn services and a pest control company here that has all sorts of odd cents on different accounts. Drives the pest control guy nuts he has to collect odd cents. He does set up the accounts.

[wkshank]

Sorry, should be the pest control guy does not set up the accounts

[jjfehr]

Joshua
I have never heard of paynig tax on a service once you reach a certain gross figure. What are you talking about?
I had a business before that I have since sold, and when I needed to make it legit, I told them that they would have to pay tax, I split it with them, that way they felt like they were getting a great deal,
"Hey this guy is paying half of the tax for us" It helped them swallow the increase, it told them that I was sorry for the increase and it wasn't dictated by me, and that I was willing to split the diff. I felt that this would help me retain more clients than if I just told them that I was increasing prices by 5 1/2% /order 1 month after a 3% increase. Maybee you could try this when telling cust. about increases!

[Randy Scott]

joshua wasn't charging tax! Were you just paying it out of your pocket ? Your profile says you have been in business for five years. Does this mean you were doing work for cash? Does this mean YOU are a scrub, dodging the tax laws and regulations? Please, explain.

[Just Turned Pro]

The easieast way I found to deal with sales tax is to "pre-figure" it into the price that is quoted. Example... the customer is told $30.00 for a service. That is what they pay but the invoice reads $27.62 (for the service) + $2.38 (sales tax) = $30.00 total price. Of course make sure you set the $2.38 aside for uncle sam.... and most importantly make sure you leave yourself enough $$ profit margin!!

Spend a little time and make a laminated chart that lists the cost+tax=total for the amounts that you charge. It will be some work but it will come in very handy in the field. :cool: :D

[LoneStarLawn]

What? When we are giving an estimate we tell them how much "our" services are...the sales tax is the states money...I don't figure in the states money in "my" estimate to the customer. Our estimate sheets specifically tells you that the estimates does not reflect sales tax. Sales tax shows up on invoices after all services are calculated for the month.

[1MajorTom]

We always tell the customer in advance that we collect the sales tax for the state.

Believe me, most people are very shocked about the sales tax, and they don't really understand why sales tax would be collected on grass cutting.

We don't like to give our customers any surprises. I could almost guarantee that if we didn't tell the customer about the tax and then just added it to their bill, they would be calling. We don't want that added hassle, so we disclose upfront.

No surprises makes for a happy customer.

[LoneStarLawn]

As I said in my post Jodi that our estimate forms state that sales tax is not reflected in the estimate and that there is a sales tax for our service...there is no surprise when it is on the invoice.

[thelawnguy]

"Believe me, most people are very shocked about the sales tax, and they don't really understand why sales tax would be collected on grass cutting. "

Exactly why, if its a $30 lawn, the customer is quoted 32; 30 plus 6% equals 31.80 the .20 is to round it off, lesss headaches that way.

BTW state of CT sales tax return lets sellers take gross sales and back out the 6 per cent (multiply by .94) use that figure as the gross then add 6 per cent to that to come up with tax due.

[lawnboy82]

maybe i am a scum bag here, but when i give a price it is for my work and my work only. when the customer gets the bill, if it is 100 dollars for the billing period i add on another $6.75 for sales tax. if it is in the next county up it is another $7.25 so the bill would either be 106.75, 107.25 etc. there are no problems with this ever. however i hope we are all aware of capital improvement. you cannot charge sales tax for that, capital improvement. this means, but is not limitted to: clearing land, planting large trees and shrubs, and anything else that is permanent. that is what my accountant told me. if you are doing something that cant be done on a regular basis you cant charge sales tax on it if they want to claim capital improvement.

[thelawnguy]

One thing to say to that: different rules for different states; beware of your own states peculiarities.