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Archive | December, 2019

Small business sales tax update

Until a Wall Street Journal article today, we haven’t seen any interesting news on the plight of small businesses amid the state push for collection of sales taxes.

Consider how some business far larger than ours are struggling to adapt:

Nicole Snow, chief executive of Darn Good Yarn Inc. in Clifton Park, N.Y., hired a part-time chief financial officer and purchased new sales-tax software in response to the court ruling. Darn Good Yarn plans to spend about $25,000 this year to collect and remit about $90,000 in taxes on $5.4 million in sales to buyers in 34 states.

“It’s quite a big lift for us,” said Ms. Snow, whose company has 21 employees. “There is a lot of complexity for a small company.”

and

JM Bullion Inc., an online seller of precious-metal bars and coins, created a custom sales-tax collection system after determining the big tax-software vendors didn’t understand the intricacies of its industry. That turned out to be a three-month job for the company’s 10-person software-development team.

“It was a huge resource drain on our organization,” said Michael Wittmeyer, CEO of the 50-person company, which has about $600 million in revenue.

The complexity of the cutoff system causes problems too:

Still, business owners have struggled to determine whether they exceed the state cutoffs and how to comply. Joe Wood, owner of TechWholesale.com, which sells two-way radios in all 50 states, said it took more than a week to determine that his one-person company didn’t trip any state sales-tax requirements, though it came close in a handful of states.

“It’s the biggest single moment of anxiety I’ve had businesswise in the last 10 years,” said Mr. Wood, who runs his business from the bedroom of his Covington, Ky., home. “We would have had to bring on an accountant, and I can’t fit one in my bedroom.”

And here is the thing that really gives makes me nervous, states going after small sellers whether or not they are sure the businesses should be collecting taxes:

The growth of internet sales has created an additional tax challenge. The $6.5 million retailer is being audited by Washington state, which says it has a physical presence in the state because products the tape company shipped to an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey were then transshipped by Amazon to a fulfillment center in Washington state.

From our perspective, while the landscape has improved with some of the recent progress (read about them here, here, here, and here), it is still not safe for small businesses like ours.

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Thrift stores are alive and well part 2

Last week we visited Big Bear, CA, and found a thrift store there that had lots of Revere Ware lids.  This week, it was Santa Maria, CA and a thrift store that had a nice 12 inch vintage skillet with lid for a whopping $4.99.

Thrift store finds are great, because they are generally cheaper than eBay, there is no shipping cost, they typically help a good cause, and the include the fun of the hunt.

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Thrift stores are alive and well

On a recent trip to Big Bear, we happened to stop at one of the (surprisingly many) local thrift stores there.  They had quite a selection of Revere Ware lids.

Just a reminder that thrifts stores can still be a great option for replacing a damaged item

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Rare 3 quart kettle handle in eBay

We make replacement handles, caps, and triggers for the common 2 1/3 quart Revere Ware kettle.

The less common, but still iconic 3 quart kettle is harder to find parts for.

Our cap is said to work on this model by some customers, but we haven’t tried it.  The trigger can be replaced with a 3D printed version we designed.  But for the handle, you are out of luck.  Except a brand new, new-old-stock version just popped up on eBay.

Get it while you can; these are pretty rare.

 

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Stainless steel stains and spots

A customer asks:

One of the pans has black spots and fuzzy grey ones in the interior (silver toned) pan. What are those spots and how do I get rid of them?

Last year we wrote an article on removal of hard water stains; the grey spots are likely hard water stains.

The black spots are likely burnt on food that gets stuck in pits that are formed when cooking with acidic foods, like tomato sauce.  I’ve seen some cookware pieces with pretty prominent pits, and it isn’t hard to imaging food getting burn on in those pits and resisting removal by scrubbing.  Here is a picture we found from an article on stainless steel stains:

To remove the hard water stains, adding some vinegar and scrubbing with a Scotch-Brite pad, or balled up aluminum foil works quite well.

To remove the black spots, you can try adding vinegar and then some baking soda, and letting it soak, then scrubbing well with a Scotch-Brite pad.

In both cases, a good polish with Bar Keepers Friend will help get rid of any remaining residue.

The pits may not fully disappear, as that would require significant refinishing of the inside of the pan, but you can minimize the appearance by regularly cleaning in this way.

 

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