[Hidden-tech] IT Sales tax on writing a website vs writing a program?

[Bobbi Melville]

If I use Dreamweaver to write a website "from scratch", I am using
Dreamweaver as a tool, not customizing it. Therefore, no tax. But wait!, as
the admen on tv say. If I use a Dreamweaver template, then I am, indeed,
customizing existing software. If I don't use a template, but write all the
code myself (using Dreamweaver), but add a snippet of code written by
someone else - perhaps to add a slideshow to the site - ....

I see lawyers in the picture.

In a way, this is akin to laws about creatives. Artists must charge tax on
a painting when they sell it because the painting is a product made for
sale. On the other hand, an artist hired to restore an existing painting
does not charge sales tax because she is not selling a product.  She is
performing a service.

Therefore, perhaps the question is when is an IT job creating a product
that didn't exist before and can be sold to a client, thus generating a
sales tax.

But things start to get dicey here.
Authors who sell their own books directly to readers must charge sales tax
because they are selling a product. The book, pamphlet, etc. is a product
made specifically to sell to someone.

Using this logic, is the website I make with Dreamweaver a product to sell,
or is it a service I provide? One could say that since I am giving the
client something that he did not have before, it is a product. OK. If the
client has Wordpress installed on his computer and owns a domain name and I
customize a Wordpress template, is that a product or a service job on
something the client already has?

Ultimately it may not matter. Connecticut already taxes some computer
services, including digital downloads, at 1%. This is from the CT Dept. of
Revenue Services:

Computer and data processing services, including but not limited to,
charges for on-line access to computer services, providing computer time,
storing and filing of information, retrieving or providing access to
information, designing, implementing or converting systems, providing
consulting services, and conducting feasibility studies, programming, code
writing, modification of existing programs, and installation and
implementation of software programs and systems even where such services
are rendered in connection with the development, creation or production of
canned or custom software or the license of custom software. Computer and
data processing services are taxed at 1%.(services rendered in connection
with the creation, development, hosting or maintenance of all or part of a
Web site which is part of the Internet, commonly referred to as the World
Wide Web are not taxable)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20130817/048f6206/attachment.html