Before you hire a photographer for any reason, please do this!!

Posted on August 15, 2011

I want to ask all of you as my friends to do me a favor before you hire a photographer. I may not be your photographer of choice for a variety of reasons but before you PAY any photographer anything or hire them to photograph for you, you should do 2 things!  One of them in my opinion falls in the optional at your own risk category.  The other is my soapbox for today and should NOT be optional!  If your photographer does not charge you Texas state sales tax on your session, digital files or prints and you live in the state of Texas and they are based in the state of Texas, then that photographer is operating ILLEGALLY in the state.  They can be shut down, face fees and major repercussions for not having a Texas state sales tax permit.  Any legally operating photography business in the state of Texas should have one if you charge clients for your services and provide photographs in any format, digital or print. Ask them to provide their permit number.  The permit is supposed to be on display or available at all times. Or you can search for their name or business name at https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/staxpayersearch/SlsTxpyrSearch.jsp and see for yourself if they are paying their quarterly taxes. The search does require correct spelling and punctuation so if you are uncertain ask for their permit number.  This is a MAJOR problem in the industry of so called professional photographers who want to be paid to take pretty pictures but don’t want to run a business according to the rules. You don’t have to have this permit to make a website, to get photographs printed, to have pretty business cards or to advertise in magazines, but it is ILLEGAL not to have it the first time you charge a photography client for images!

If you think it’s okay to avoid paying sales tax by working with those businesses, then you are foremost disregarding God’s laws. Secondly you are doing Texas, your local community and schools a disservice as well by denying them the money they make from sales tax. These photographers are operating under unfair business practices which put those of us who follow the rules at a disadvantage! And yet, I routinely look up photographers I see here in College Station who are operating without collecting or paying sales tax to Texas or did for their first few years of business.  Unfortunately for our industry, to be a professional photographer, all you really have to do is call yourself one.

The second thing I ask is more of the “in my personal opinion category”, but if your photographer is not a member of PPA (Professional Photographers of America) or some other organization that provides liability insurance for the photographer while they are photographing you, your kids, or your event, you are taking an unneccessary risk! Not only do these organizations educate their member routinely on important issues, but they provide this insurance coverage which in the event of a memory card failure with all of your wedding photos or last family photos of grandma are destroyed, they will compensate you. These organizations make sure members know how to keep your babies safe…for example, many of the cute baby poses shown in magazines these days are photoshop composites and to position a live baby like that is actually dangerous for the baby.

 I operate Rosalee’s Custom Photography and have had a TX sales tax license since day 1 of my business. I’m also a member of PPA, TPPA and the local Brazos Valley PPA guild. If you have questions about any of this, please feel free to ask! This is not intended as business advice for any businesses other than photographers…rules for other businesses vary.




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