California State Board of Equalization targeting breeders - Page 2

Ya know, even with all the BS, I want to go home. Its worse here in PA. I just haven't been found yet because I hardly breed or sell any dogs. Only 5 on the proeprty at this time, all quiet.

As an accountant in California, I believe that the State Board of Equaliztion is the WORST!!!!

I have had far less trouble with IRS and FTB (California Income Tax).  I am very good at providing worksheets and documentation that could withstand an audit.

The SBOE (sales tax in CA) people are just vicious bullies and have no qualms about using intimidation and threats (agree to this or will will audit your last 5 years and will want to see all the cash register tapes!!!!).  If you ever run into trouble with them and they come out to your business and reach and agreement, get it in writing before they leave.

I had one agree that my client had complied with the law and the jerk went back to his office and CHANGED HIS MIND!!!!

It took hours of heated conversation, going up the command structure, to get it resolved.  I could not in good conscience charge the client for all that time.

Here's the lesson I learned, no more clients who are subject to sales tax.

Michele

I got audited twice by IRS. Passed both times with flying colors. Both times, I had to justify my losses, then taken against my paycheck / career income. But I stopped trying to do dogs as a business. It is not a business. At least, it didn't work for me. For most, you cannot make money at it, unless you are a crook. There are some things I will not do for money.. Quite a few things, actually. Pimping dogs is one of them. Screwing people (or being screwed by people) is another.
The people who really make money with dogs import them, mark them up, and flip them to the top buyers, police departments, etc. These people rarely breed their own dogs, and there is a reason for that. It's not profitable!
Of course, sales tax money is due, regardless of whether you make a profit or not.
But, like I said, the worst part of this is the reciprocity... The almost certainty that it will result in a call from your city and a requirement to get a business license and permits. That may be the death knell for many people. 95% of people will not be able to get this business license.
I am not going to register any more litters with AKC. I think their days may be numbered, anyway. I don't want my name and information on a list that ends up given over to the state for collections of sales taxes or investigation.
There is a new thing, in City of Los Angeles, tightening requirements on people who have breeders' licenses. Aside from the $200 per dog per year for an intact dog / bitch, the dogs must be registered by an "approved" registry, and to be approved, that registry must comply with certain requirements, including mandatory OFA, CERF, and anything else pertaining to genetic health disorders, and they must also stand behind the pups with guarantees!!!! I think that the goal is to put someone on the hook for veterinary costs, as well!!! How can a registry do this? In fact, most good breeders already do health certs, voluntarily, and have done so in increasing numbers, for many years. That's not good enough. The gov't bullies now want to FORCE your ethics on you! I'm not sure that this is final, yet (changes to LA City mandatory S/N and breeder license law), but these are the things that are being put on the table by the animal rights / anti breeding activists who are calling the shots. . A very credible sporting dog association just broke with this development.

1doggie2,
there is apparently a difference between food animals and non-food animals. I assume that they will lump "pets" in with luxuries. 

 DDR-DSH,
I don't understand how the City can charge us $150 EVERY YEAR  to license an unaltered dog, AND charge taxes on puppies. I mean, isn't that $150 a year basically a pet tax? So now they want to tax people for buying AND keeping? I just don't understand how they can keep piling different taxes on the same freaking dog. I buy a bitch and pay sales tax to the State. If my bitch lives to be 10, that $1500 in licenses, and if she has babies, she's supporting the government yet again. Goddam it. Arnie finds yet another way to tax the helpless while he gives glass statues of testicles to his rich politician buddies. Nice place to live.

Gov Schwarzenegger came out strong against additional taxes and the excesses demanded by the public employees' unions, a long time ago. He had to eat dirt for it. They (unions) were far too powerful for him to deal with. Also, you've got to figure that in a state where a very large percentage of the population is dependant on public programs, entitlements (dole) and so on, either as dependants, employees, administrators, contractors, that it's going to be very difficult to rein these things in.

You can't put all this on Schwarzenegger. He's the only one fighting a lot of this, now. He is protecting businesses and taxpayers, or trying to. But, politics is deal-making, so he's had to make some deals to get some things he needed done.

The sales taxes were technically always due, as are "use taxes" on items bought out of state (online and catalogue sales).. No one ever paid them, but that law's been in place since approx 1935.

No wonder  it cost so flippen much to buy a dog in this state, and the breeders can not make any money!

I'm glad I don't live in California.  But for those who do, and even those of us living in other states that will try it, too, I have to say, it's about time we all stood up and told them where to go and what to do when they get there.  The only way they can "enforce" these laws that they've made is if we give them the power to do so.

They demand to see your last however many years tax returns, along with your cash register receipts and everything else.  I'd just tell them no.  What are they going to do?  Fine you?  Steal your property?  They already own it all, apparently.  Just try driving without a license on your car, or not paying your prop. taxes and see how long you "own" it.

No, I think it's time that the American people,  Californians included, said a big, collective NO to big government and the unions and all the rest of the beauracracy.  The buck needs to stop somewhere.  Blind obedience to unlawful laws is foolish, and shows a lack of critical thinking skills and will.  We have done fairly well for more than two hundred years, and only recently have we begun to slide into the muck....Something's changed, and I think it needs to be stopped, while it still can be, if it still can be.

Every one of these laws has some dirty little agenda hidden at its core, regardless of what it claims.  While ethics and cruelty are issues that exist, they cannot be legislated.  Laws are not set in stone; they are open to interpretation and reinterpretation, which ends up causing more problems. And at the heart of these animal laws are a few simple concepts.  Profit for the state, and ultimately, the eventual acceptance of the AR movement's founding principal, that animals do not belong with man, and that it is better that they all be destroyed than to continue to exist.  AR freaks don't care about some guy who starves his dogs to death in a kennel.  They don't care about dogs, cats, fur-producing animals, chickens, any of that, living in horrible conditions.  PETA kills thousands of animals in its shelter every year, rather than adopting them out.  It's about stopping the domestication of animals, entirely.

Some day in the future, if someone doesn't step up and refuse to tolerate any more of this garbage, we may find that they achieve their goals.  I hope I do not live to see that day, because it will tell me that my fellow humans have lost their superior intelligence, their will to live, and their freedom, and become nothing more than another class of animals, living out their lives waiting to become extinct.

Crys

What are they going to do?

They will impound the money you have in banks, take whatever they can get their hooks into and maybe, throw you in jail.

They can and they do.  Especially now.  I wish Tom Mc Clintock was governor.  Sigh......

Michele
(California, SF Bay Area since 1973)