Taxes are complicated

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I'm learning more and more that taxes are complicated. As a small business owner now it's even more obvious. We're trying to do what's right in paying our sales tax on a monthly basis, but I'm having a hard time figuring out for sure what all needs to be included in our reported income. 

Do we pay our sales tax on our full gross number? That's what I've been told. But then we have cleaning fees, linens, etc. that our guests currently aren't paying sales tax on through VRBO. Then the service fee that we pay to VRBO do we pay sales tax on that as well? When I look at the numbers for VRBO it seems like our guests are paying sales tax only on their nightly stay number. There's no tax collected on cleaning or service fees. Airbnb pays the sales tax on our behalf so we don't have to do anything for that service. Then we have our private bookings that I have similar questions to VRBO except we don't have the service fees.

I thought I had it all figured out and then depending on who I've talked to at the state or a tax accountant or family I've flip-flopped. Hopefully, I'll get it figured out today. This post today is more of a rant than anything else. If anyone tells you doing taxes is easy they're probably doing it wrong unless it's what they do for a living or they never report anything.

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