Grand Forks City Hall II

Things have been fairly slow the past few days. I can't complain, it gives me time to read, research equipment, figure out what the hell I'm doing and where I'm going.

One of the things I've been looking at is a 13x19in printer, and realising how close I am to actually getting one, naturally leads to other thoughts. Such as, "when should I register for tax purposes?" and "should I even register for GST?" The GST is a federal sales tax, in Canada, that is levied against just about every product sold in Canada. Small businesses having "taxable sales" under a certain threshold (I think it was $10 000 a year, I'll have to check that again) don't have to register for and collect the tax, but they can voluntarily register, and while they would then have to collect the tax, they would also be rebated any GST paid on equipment and materials purchases.

If I'm predominantly selling directly to other persons in Canada, then I don't necessarily end up with any more money in my pocket at the end of the day by registering (at least not where total end cost to the consumer is fixed at $X for both scenarios). Where things get interesting is in the realm of commissioned sales and exports. There is no GST on exported goods, such as a 12x18 photographic print shipped to Detroit or Hong Kong, and if the print is sold on commission through a gallery then they handle the tax collection. Similarly, GST does not appear to apply to publication and usage rights (but don't take my word on it). It really depends on how much of what type of sale to where, as to whether or not it make any sense at all to register for GST.

Naturally with all these thoughts, I also started to consider "value added" services for direct sales. To be brief, for either matting and framing, or for just matting, it turns out that it will only cost me about 60% more to gussy up a 12x18 print than it would cost to gussy up an 8x12 (and to be clear the 12x18 covers 2.25 times the area of the 8x12).

*the photo is Grand Forks City Hall, taken on a wonderfully misty January night.