Einstein T-shirt design?

I can see them. Thank you.

Update on 'I'm gonna have to really drill down on tax aspects': After rather more research I have discovered that sales tax/GST/VAT is somewhat more complex than I first thought. My first impression was wrong, alas, in that I assumed it was my physical location that primarily determined the tax rate ( GST of 10% in AUD ). That is not true^*.

The drop-shipper will pay the tax for their end of the deal ( based on their 'wholesale' price ) depending on where they fulfil the order as a physical presence and/or a given customer's location that they ship to. That amount is thus charged as a component of the price to the vendor ( me ). The drop-shipper then reconciles that with whomsoever collects such sales tax. So I need not worry about that. Now there may be further taxes to pay depending on any 'retail' markup though, with the onus being upon the vendor to correctly collect, report and remit this to potentially very many taxing entities.

The bad news is that the likely biggest market ( USA ) is an absolute minefield with variations across most states, and in some states it even depends on which county you are in ( it makes GST/VAT look real easy ). Indeed a neighbour over your back fence in an adjacent street may even pay a different rate for the same item ! It is almost always activity based ( the concept of economic nexus holds here ) ie. total sales to a given tax jurisdiction and/or number of sales. My impression is that many fairly local entities have sales tax as a big ticket item in their fundraising. It is the case that many online sellers don't disclose, charge, with-hold or reconcile this component at all ! I guess they're hoping no-one notices them or pursues them. They probably have simply given up on tracking this tax liability, more so because it is too complex rather than holding any intent to avoid tax ( after all that would be charged to the consumer at point of sale ). Anyway this is one reason why online stores are cheaper than physical ones - it is harder to tax and/or audit them across boundaries. Or maybe they figure that if the likes of Amazon can avoid paying taxes, then so can they.

However the good news is that this compliance burden is readily offset by software, relatively cheap, that can calculate and reconcile this for you while also integrating with the e-commerce site you are selling from ....

.... at least until the next SCOTUS or other ruling and so you need software that is updated to track changes for you, worldwide. There are several products that do this for my situation eg. Taxify ( for ~ $50 AUD ).

So the take home message is that it's not a deal breaker. Which is a relief ! ;-)

Cheers, Mike.

* Except if the customer is in Australia.

( edit ) So one other upside is that there may be no sales tax at all, at least until the vendor hits a per fiscal annum activity threshold eg. 200 items or $50K USD for a given tax jurisdiction. 

If you need or want a donation to offset your costs, I'll be happy to oblige!  Or just add a small $$ amount to whatever the costs are to you to send the t-shirts to us BOINC Einstein crunchers.  I'm sure that they (we?) won't mind.  :*)

George

Proud member of the Old Farts Association

Last I knew there are exceptions that you can drive a truckload through for those rate rules in the USA.  However usually just one truckload per year.  The tax collectors don't really want to set up an account for a merchant who is only going to sell $100 worth of stuff in their area.  Costs them more than they will collect.

Now if you say fulfill with Amazon, their software automatically does the calculations and charges correctly.  (They send more and one truckload to everywhere)

Just don't forget customs duties when stuff crosses international borders.