Traveling OUT of Rhode Island: If your business is located in Rhode Island, but you are traveling to shoot in another state, please review the sales tax requirements of that state.
Traveling INTO Rhode Island: If you are from another state and are traveling into Rhode Island to shoot, please follow the questions below to find out if you need to charge sales tax in Rhode Island.
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 Rhode Island and you are shooting in Rhode Island, you have nexus in Rhode Island.
If you are traveling from out of state to shoot in Rhode Island, you have nexus in Rhode Island. (See Traveling to Rhode Island to Shoot? section below)
The following items address sales tax where everything is happening in Rhode Island. 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.
Rhode Island taxes sales of tangible personal property and "specified digital products" unless an exemption applies. Specified digital products are defined as digital audio-visual works, digital audio works, and digital books”. Electronically delivered photographs are neither tangible personal property nor are they defined as "specified digital products." Therefore, they are not taxable.
This covers anything physical you can touch, such as physical prints, albums, etc.