Traveling OUT of Massachusetts: If your business is located in Massachusetts, but you are traveling to shoot in another state, please review the sales tax requirements of that state.
Traveling INTO Massachusetts: If you are from another state and are traveling into Massachusetts to shoot, please follow the questions below to find out if you need to charge sales tax in Massachusetts.
When it comes to sales tax, you need to ask yourself three questions. We will walk you through those questions below:
If your business is located in Massachusetts and you are shooting in Massachusetts, you have a nexus in Massachusetts.
If you are traveling from out of state to shoot in Massachusetts, and your customer receives their photos in Massachusetts, you have a nexus in Massachusetts. (See Traveling to shoot in Massachusetts? section below for more details)
The following items address sales tax where everything is happening in Massachusetts. If you have an out-of-state client, see the orange section below that talks about out-of-state clients.
This specifically refers to digital photos transferred digitally over the internet. Please note any digital images transferred via physical devices like USB drives, CDs, etc., are taxed as physical goods, and all physical goods are taxable.
Massachusetts taxes the sale of tangible personal property unless an exemption applies. Massachusetts does not consider electronically delivered photographs to be tangible personal property.
This covers anything physical you can touch, such as physical prints, albums, etc.