In case you are looking to hire a photographer… this might help you save some money.
When I was wedding planning, I did some research, learned the laws for Massachusetts, asked my photographer about it, and saved a nice chunk of change. Basically, depending on how your photographer charges/writes up your bill and/or whether the photos are delivered to you on a tangible medium, you may or may not have to pay sales tax on the entire package, which could be a lot given the cost of wedding photography these days!
From Massachusetts Directive 11-4:
Charges of a professional photographer are generally subject to Massachusetts sales tax where the final product is delivered to the purchaser in a tangible medium, regardless of whether those service charges are separately stated from the charge for the tangible item. Separately stated charges for services, such as “sitting fees”, provided to a customer who is obligated to pay for those services but not obligated to purchase any tangible personal property as part of the transaction will not be subject to Massachusetts sales tax.
The provided examples are quite helpful:
Example 2: A wedding photographer charges $3500 for services to photograph a client’s wedding day. The photographer also gives the client the option of acquiring the images taken at the wedding via digital download from the photographer’s File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”) site or a DVD of the images captured that day for a fee of $500. The customer opts to receive the images via digital download. Since there has been no transfer of tangible personal property, the entire transaction would not be subject to Massachusetts sales tax.
Example 3: A wedding photographer charges $4000 for a package that includes photography services for the wedding, and also a DVD of the images taken that day provided to client on a disc. The invoice to the customer does not separately state the charges for the wedding photography services and the DVD of wedding images. The total amount of $4000 is subject to Massachusetts sales tax.
Example 5: A portrait photographer charges a $200 sitting fee for a photography session of up to 1 hour, and $300 for the DVD of 40 images taken during that session. The customer is not obligated to purchase the DVD or any other tangible personal property, but elects to buy the DVD. The invoice to the customer separately states the charges for the sitting fee and the DVD. Sales tax is due on the $300 for the DVD, with the $200 paid for the sitting fee not subject to tax under the Miller Studios decision.
