Student stores operated by the school

The school is considered the consumer of all goods that pass through a student store operated by the school. Therefore, the school is not eligible to use a reseller permit and must pay retail sales tax at the time of purchase on all taxable goods sold at student stores, such as student supplies, soft drinks, etc.

The school does not report the sales from the student store as these sales are not taxable and retail sales tax is not collected from students.

If the student store is operated by the ASB, PTA, or some other organization, see our discussion for sales by those groups.


School purchases of student photographs, class rings, and yearbooks

When the school is responsible for making payment to the vendor, it must pay sales tax. This is true regardless of how and when funds are collected from students.

As in the case of student stores, the school considered the consumer and is not purchasing then reselling the items, but recouping its cost. Therefore, the amounts received by the school are not taxable and retail sales tax is not collected from the students.