Toward the end of 2024 my gallery host started with updates that would, will, and do affect my clients. These changes come with law changes for things that are no longer escapable to creative businesses. Yes those things are pretty much taxes— photography sold online is no longer a grey area in the sales tax landscape.
So for my clients in PA in 2024 in November and December were the first to discover the gallery update that automatically applies sale tax to orders whether for prints or digital images. This cost became an automatic thing that looked to raise the prices I was charging but is not actually something I ever have access too.
These sale taxes are automatically calculated, collected and remitted by my gallery host. These sales taxes are based on the shipping addresses entered by my customers and are not something that can be opted out of.
For a long time photography could operate in a grey area where sale tax only need collected on physical prints that the photographer produced and delivered not prints through a third party printer. But as the rise of digital products started to over take physical prints it is no surprise that taxing laws would change.
In 2024, they had just started implementing the sales taxes. Starting now in 2025, sales taxes are atomically being calculated and collected based off state where the client is receiving the images.
So while taxes are an evil that seems to hit everything we make and spend money on. Please do not yell at your photographers when you see sales tax applied at the cart, it is unfortunately out of our hands and we are just trying to be compliant with new laws and regulations.