Not sure about contractors, but when I worked for a company that built refrigerated wine rooms, if we didn’t pay sales tax on the items used to build the wine room when we bought them, then we needed to pass the tax owed to the consumer for those materials. But if we did pay sales tax for the materials at purchase time, then the customer was not required to be charged that sales tax.
Below is a direct copy/paste from http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/taxes/sales_tax.html#tab1**
Use Tax**
Use tax is due on the use or consumption of taxable goods or services when sales tax was not paid at the time of purchase. For example:
- If you buy a taxable item in Florida and didn’t pay sales tax, you owe use tax.
- If you buy an item tax-exempt intending to resell it and then use the item in your business or for personal use, you owe use tax.
I totally agree about home inspection being a service based business, but so are maids, and they are required to charge sales tax because of a minute amount of product left behind during their service.
An invoice is much different than an inspection report.
An inspection report might be considered a tangible good in the eyes of the Fl DOR, and tangible goods are subject to sales tax unless otherwise deemed as exempt.
What I’m looking for is official proof that our reports are in fact exempt.