http://www.michigan.gov/treasury/0,1607,7-121-44402_44415_44416-7286--,00.html

Am I right to assume that in Michigan we do not charge sales tax? Scroll down to number 3.

sorry I can't help you out, just wanted to say your work is so incredibly nice! It is so neat and clean and sharp looking .... you have a lot of talent ... I was wondering where you get the tappit cutters for all of your "happy birthday .... " messages? I can never seem to find that style of tappits .. again, great work on everything!

hmmm, I am not sure where I purchased them. I ususally shop at into the oven, country kitchens or beryls though. I would check those places.

Otherwise, just google Fmm alphabet tappits

From reading that, I would assume we don't. I never have in 2 1/2 yrs, so if we do, woops!

Thanks! I assumed we don't either, but since I am just starting out I didn't want to make mistakes. I would hate to have to pay it all out of my pocket at the end of the year. Any other tips for a newbie in Michigan getting started? Any other things I need to touch base with that I might be forgetting? I havent had my inpection yet, but we are almost ready to go. thanks

Nothing more than what you're already doing I guess. I looked at your website, your work is great. You should do very well once you get started. If you have questions about anything specific, I will try to help you out. Good luck!

thanks, I appreciate that! I guess I am just worried about when/where/how to pay taxes and do write offs and stuff! We did see an accountant yesterday and I can't deduct anything this year since I havent actually started business yet. So the bad news is no deductions...good news is that I dont have to worry about all that stuff for another year!

Merissa, just so you know (and hopefully your tax guy does too), you can deduct up to $5,000 in start up expenses in the year you start your business, regardless of when you actually spent the money. So the money you spent in 2008 (up to $5,000) to get your kitchen ready, you can still deduct on your 2009 taxes.

thanks for the tip. Is that regardless of depreciation?

I'm pretty sure. But you wouldn't need to worry anyway, if you spent $9,000 on the kitchen, no matter what depreciation there was in one year, it would still not be under $5,000. Nothing in your kitchen would depreciate $4,000 in one year

so are you saying you can deduct the first 5000 and then the rest is depriciated over a period of time?

No, that's not what I meant. It is different when you deduct full value of something all in the same year, than when you just deduct depreciation over so many years. I was thinking you would just deduct it all the first year. Your tax guy would have to tell you the best way to do it, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that the money you spent could still be deducted next year even though you didn't have the business yet when you spent the money.

http://www.napiercpa.com/2004-newsletter-articles/new-law-provides-up-to-$5000-first-year-expensing-of-business-start-up-expenditures.html

I found this and I think it is pretty helpful. Thanks for your advice

That it explains it well. Thanks for looking it up. I didn't know much more than what I told you cause I didn't have any expenses with my business in any prior year like you will have.