Photographers sometimes charge a separate sitting fee to their customers. This fee may also be referred to as a session fee, shooting fee, etc. For purposes of this guide we will use the term “sitting fee” when referring to these charges.
Photographers who take portraits and sell the photos to their customers are generally required to collect sales tax from the customer on all charges, including sitting fees, travel reimbursements, touch up fees, and any other cost passed on to the customer. This is true whether the portraits are delivered as finished prints, are made available for download from a server, or are delivered to the customer on a CD or other tangible medium.
A photographer may contract with a third party to provide prints or image files to the customer. Two common arrangements are as follows:
Event photographers are contracted to take photographs by the event, such as weddings, birthday parties, etc. A typical contract might include:
Business and Occupation Tax: Event photographers report their gross income under the Retailing B&O classification when selling photographs to the end user.
The licensing of a photograph occurs when a photographer sells the intangible right to use their photograph to a customer for further commercial display, while retaining ownership of the photo. This is sometimes referred to as commercial photography. Thus the photographer’s income arises not from the sale of photographs, but from licensing the use of their intangible property. Typical rights granted to customers include the right to publicly display, exhibit, publish, copy and sell the image.
When a photograph is made for hire, the photographer contractually agrees that all rights to the photograph they have taken will belong to the customer. Photography for hire is distinguished from other types of photography in that the photographer for hire is selling his or her services to create the photograph, but never owns the intangible rights to the photograph they have created.
Business and Occupation Tax: Income earned from producing photographs for hire is subject to B&O tax under the Service and Other Activities classification.
Business and Occupation Tax: Photographers selling prints, albums and related materials to students or parents are subject to B&O tax under the Retailing classification on their gross proceeds of sale.
If your business duplicates prints for customers, please refer to WAC 458-20-141 for more information.
Certain B&O tax classifications common to photographers are apportionable classifications; notably the Service and Other Activities and Royalties classifications. If you are “taxable” in another state or country, you may be able to apportion some of your income to that state or country, reducing the amount of income that is subject to Washington’s B&O tax.
If your prepared food sales are greater than 75 percent of your total food sales, then you are required to collect sales tax on all of your food sales, with the exception of sales of packages containing four or more servings.
Please note that you can choose to collect sales tax on all your food sales, then you are not required to perform the following calculations.
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