Labor for replacing a windshield is not taxed in Texas. Not sure about the rest of the country.
It's kinda funny that as soon as we finally git a little bump from the insurance industry and their networks for labor that all of a sudden the price we are offered for glass takes a nose dive. Glass has to be the only commodity that has gone down in price due to high energy costs. Looks to me like it's just one more way to steal money from every citizen in the country.

The good ole lone star state, L.W. so lets make sure I understand this,You think Rick Perry should start making us charge tax on our labor.which would mean we make less money than we already do and than we have to pay our techs less.What should they use the extra money on? to add on to 635 or to build that new super highway or maybe to add on to the north dallas tollway or maybe even the george bush hell if they start charging tax on labor I guess I should move back to OKC.

Many states do not consider labor a taxable sale item.

we never had to charge tax on labor before but who knows what will happen if someone gets a bright idea after a six pack than decides to start call the state reps and all that b.s.

No, thats not what I'm saying. Labor should never be taxed. Now I'm going to have to go back through my Lynx invoices to show you what I mean. Be back later.

I got it LW, and I agree.

In April 2004 I have a Lynx invoice for a generic PPG DW1341. The subtotal is 255.75 and the tax collected is 21.10. With the new offer the subtotal would be 280.31 and the tax collected would be 14.88. I only collect taxes for the state free of charge except for that .005% discount if I pay them on time. Whoever writes me the check pays them. That is $6.22 per DW1341 in sales tax that disappeared in a little over two years even though the subtotal of the invoice is $24.56 higher than in 2004. My question is. Did we get a pay raise through labor rates or were they just trying to pay less sales tax?

ok i got you now i must have been drinking.

L.W. I was getting ready to vote for Kinky and say screw Perry.

State Comptroller & Governer candidate Grandma Carol Keaton-Rylander-Strayhorn might be the best person to answer this question for me.

L.W. she really is a helpful person we have had to call her a few times to get an issue fixed .Good luck let us know what happens.Maybe I'll be sober enough to understand it better next time.

I understand the point you are making, but the way I view that is the old way was to charge for example:
$300.00 for the windshield
$15.00 or maybe $25.00 flat at best for labor
$0 or maybe $10 at best for adhesive

The profit was all in the taxable glass part, no one was making money or even covering cost on labor at those rates.

Anyway if you think about it the consumer has been overcharged sales tax for years based on that old pricing model, if that state does not charge tax on labor.
All of that shops profit was calculated into the GLASS, which is taxed eventhough the shop was providing a service(labor) and not just selling a product.

A whole different issue was if a shop charged more labor and less on taxable parts their total invoice price could be the same, but that shop could be clearing an additional few dollars on each invoice.

I don't think the consumer was overcharged for tax on any of my invoices. I think we were under paid for labor. That doesn't mean I like our sales tax rates it just seems to me that we are having creative accouting forced on us. Make it look like labor rates are finally going to improve so you can be more profitable. Then eventually rip any profit that was in the product you sell right out from under you and by doing so the only entities that have the power to pull something like this off are saving millions of dollars in sales tax. Mean while the taxing authorities have to find ways to replace lost revenue. I wonder who is gonna foot that bill? Probably the consumers (you & me) instead of whoever is behind this funny math. How can a commodity be worth x amount of dollars 2 years ago and be considered a fair market price by those who control the pricing structure and then today with all of the costs of doing business rising through the roof the commodity is worth 30% less to these same entities.

Call Wesley Snipes, he knows a lot of good tax lawyers.

I don't know if anybody has broken any laws. I wouldn't know who to point the finger at if they were. It would be nice to have a legal opinion about it though.

I think the legal opinion is defined in the tax statutes. Lawyers run legislatures, what difference would a "legal opinion" make? Just run your business according to the law, send in your taxes accordingly, and fuggetabutit.

I guess maybe I don't get this thread/post. If you install a windshield for $300.00 plus tax, you paid $100.00 plus &75.00 labor/accesories, profit around $125.00, what the hell is the difference what amount of taxes you pay in are? As a member of society I guess I can see why ya care, but business-wise you're profit remains unchanged, and send in taxes required by statute. Here, labor is taxable. There is no conspiracy going on!

It's not about the amount of sales taxes you or I pay. It is about the amount of sales tax we collect for our states. I don't like paying tax anymore than anyone else. I don't have the power to cut my sales tax expense by 30% and it hacks me off when big business does and gets away with it.
It just looks like to me that the big change in how we were being paid for labor through the networks was more of a ploy to save whoever writes the check millions of dollars in sales tax adding to the billions they make. I haven't gone back and looked at my glass invoices from 2 years ago but I'm pretty sure my costs to buy glass have not decreased by 30% like the last fair market value offered for glass from the networks has over the same time period. Somebody took away 30% of the documented value of the commodity we handle at the retail level and by doing so were able to keep that sales tax in their pocket. It was described to us as something completely different than what it actually seems to be. I love how it was drawn out over a couple years so it wouldn't look suspicious.

Have you checked to see if your competitors are reporting the taxes they collect? That'll make you mad.

So L.W. what you are saying is that basically the Ins. Co. are saving themselves about $4(?) extra per invoice by paying us more LABOR and less on the MATERIALS correct?

So the Ins. Co. have pulled the wool over the eyes of the State's by paying less tax per windshield installation?

Now maybe that might be where we can show a link or "price fixing" between the insurance companies and NAGS. What if NAGS and the Ins. Co. figured this out and "re-balanced" the system to save $4 on every windshield installed each day in this country? What do you think that might add up to each day? Maybe not $24 billion, but I bet it is still a lagre enough chunk of change to get a few people a NICE FAT BONUS !!! I wonder if any state's would want to look into that possibility??

I don't know how many states tax labor so it's not every windshield in the country. If benchmark list prices were the real deal I would not be suspicious. Since those initial prices are now worthless I question the motives. The value of our commodity has been eroded by outside sources. State revenue from sales tax in the states that don't tax labor has been reduced and pocketed by someone else. I feel as though I have been ripped off as a small business owner and a tax payer. I am not a lawyer so I don't know if any laws have been broken but I think it should at least be investigated.

I don't know Wesley Snipes either.