Traveling OUT of New York: If your business is located in New York, but you are traveling to shoot in another state, please review the sales tax requirements of that state.
Traveling INTO New York: If you are from another state and are traveling into New York to shoot, please follow the questions below to determine if you need to charge sales tax in New York.
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 New York and you are shooting in New York, you have a nexus in New York.
If you are traveling from out of state to shoot in New York and your client receives their photos in New York, you have nexus in New York. (See Traveling to New York to Shoot? section below)
The following items address sales tax where everything is happening in New York. 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.
Sales of designated services and tangible personal property are taxable. Photography is not a designated service, and New York says that electronically delivered photographs are not considered tangible personal property. As a result, this item is not taxable.
This covers anything physical you can touch, such as physical prints, albums, etc.