Hey Fellas,
Had a high end residential that I charged 1500.00 for by credit card (american express) thru an internet gateway, there was a total of 52.62 that was deducted from the transaction. Thats 3.5% just for the transaction fee. Do you guys charge sales tax? Here in san diego it is 8.750% which would put their total at 1631.25.
That would cover the fee, but I would still be short on the tax to pay the city wouldn’t I? So do I add the transaction fee as well? Any input would be appreciated… Larry, I know you know this one…
Hey bro. First 3.5% can be lowered if you get a swiper that connects to your smartphone, if you have one. My fees are closer to 2.5% if I swipe and 3.5% if I key it in. I use intuit gopayments. The swiper is free and it works great.
About your question. It stinks but you end up paying a little more than that 3.5% because you’re paying 3.5% of the sales tax too. I don’t see an easy way around it.
I have that same issue, “To Fee or Not to Fee?”. Around here, if you use your debit card for anything (gas, convenience stores, etc) there’s always a surcharge of $0.45+.
The easiest way to prepare them is to let them know in advance. People seem to be pretty aware of surcharges (especially with CC and Paypal); they often “inform” me of it when we are discussing the payment options saying, “Let’s avoid PP so you don’t have to pay the processing fee.” If you let them know up front, no biggie. If I landed a $1,500 job, and tax is already assumed, I’d take the hit, unless you can put it in the fine print
MY CC PAYMENT OF CHOICE:
www.squareup.com - Square works great with the iPhone, no fees, it’s all free with a 2.5% swipe and 3.5% keyed payment.
Ive only ran credit one time and that was so that she could get frequent flyer miles. I did flat fee for running card of 2% and swallowed the .5%
If it’s govt job and you know your gonna be getting paid by credit card you can always engineer the fee into the price. But I think with resi it’s the right thing to do by telling them.
squareup.com is what I used and it worked great. No monthly or annual fees. I think they are going to shake up the processing industry once it catches on more.
you can charge tax or creation of things such as websites etc, but never on services. $1,500.00 is pretty good for residential window cleaning in San Diego or anywhere! Good job Tory!
I say you guys are lucky. one less thing to worry about. unfortunately in ohio I have to charge taxes and keep track of the county because they all have different tax rates. (roll eyes)
That is a very true statement. Here in P.A., any service that uses the verbiage of cleaning or washing has a state sales tax applied. Also, because our business is located in Washington County where the sales tax is 6% that’s what we must charge for all Counties we service even though the sales tax may vary from County to County.
Window caulking and gutter guard are tax exempt here under home improvement.
