California Sales Tax for Authors

Introduction: Sorting Trash

The first week I came to live in Japan, the district sent us bright-eyed English teachers down to City Hall, where a patient woman lectured us for an hour and a half about how to sort trash. We listened with rapt attention.

"By all means, tell us more about the proper way to recycle plastic bottles."

Now, no one in their right mind cares about sorting trash, until you come to Japan and learn that you need to separate your Burnables from your Non-Burnables, your Recyclables from your Plastics, but that Recyclables is further subdivided into Bottles, Cans, and Paper, and that paper is divided into Newspaper, Magazines, and Cardboard, but shopping lists go in Burnables, and plastic bottles go into a section called Pet Bottles, which is in Recyclables, but separate from the normal (i.e., glass) Bottles, but if a glass bottle breaks, it goes in Non-Burnables, and if a plastic bottle is bent out of shape, it goes in Plastics, and if food is encrusted to your plastic bottle and won't wash off, it goes in Burnable...

You'd better know which container to stick it in!

...and heaven help you if you don't do it correctly, because then they'll write up a notice on your bag and leave it at the designated trash pick-up station for the whole neighborhood to stare at, until you're shamed into picking up your trash and sorting it the right way... or worse still, until a nosy grandma knocks at your door and returns your trash to you.

And that's what California sales tax is like. No one cares to learn about it, until you have to do it yourself, whereupon you take one look at the convoluted system and start hyperventilating into a paper bag. But whereas, in Japan, if you fail, you are branded with dishonor and disgrace, in America, Uncle Sam simply slaps you with a hefty fine.

Why does America make money so difficult!

I'm a new author, and my passion is words, not numbers. But by becoming an indie publisher, I've essentially started my own small business, and so I need to learn about taxes. Fortunately, on September 15, 2015, the California State Board of Equalization invited me to a free seminar discussing the basics of sales tax.

I'm passing on what I think I've learned, not because I'm an expert, but because I believe that even a little practical information makes the whole process less intimidating. Hopefully, it will give you a foothold to start your own research, whether or not you live in California.