My husband runs a solo guitar repair shop out of our home. In the beginning it was a hobby, and he was buying parts at the same prices any guitarist would pay: retail, plus sales tax. Once his side-gig got more serious I dug into his orders, and I had a feeling the suppliers he ordered from regularly might have dealer programs open to shops exactly like his, and they did.
Two reasons this matters
You stop paying sales tax twice
When you buy parts to use in a repair, you're going to collect sales tax from your customer on the finished job. If you also paid sales tax when you purchased those parts, tax got paid twice on the same transaction: once by you as a buyer, once by your customer. Your resale certificate exempts parts purchases because you're the middleman, not the end consumer. The state gets their tax once, from your customer, where it belongs.
Better pricing means a real margin on parts
Dealer pricing varies by supplier but it's consistently better than retail, sometimes significantly. On parts you mark up and resell, that spread is your margin. Across a year of parts, it adds up.
The Florida Annual Resale Certificate
If you're registered to collect and remit sales tax in Florida, the Department of Revenue automatically issues you an Annual Resale Certificate (Form DR-13) every year. You don't apply for it separately. It comes with being a registered dealer. This is what you give suppliers to make purchases tax-exempt.
Log in to the Florida DOR portal
Go to floridarevenue.com/taxes/printcertificate. Log in with your User ID and password, or use your certificate number and business partner number from your registration paperwork.
Download and save your DR-13
Print or download the PDF. Keep it somewhere you can find quickly. You'll be emailing it to supplier reps when you apply for dealer accounts.
Submit it when applying for dealer accounts
Most suppliers ask for it by email when you contact their rep or fill out their dealer application. Some have signup pages where you upload it directly.
Re-download it every November
The certificate expires December 31 each year and renews automatically. New ones are available in November. Set a reminder so you're never handing a supplier an expired cert in January.
Not registered yet?
The resale certificate comes with sales tax registration. You need that first. In Florida, if you're doing taxable repair work (and you probably are) you should already be registered. If you're not sure where you stand, that's a conversation worth having before anything else.
What qualifies in Florida and what doesn't
The test is simple: does it leave your shop on the customer's guitar? Per FL DOR Publication GT-800067, materials that become part of the property being repaired qualify. Materials consumed in the process that don't transfer are taxable to you as overhead.
Resale certificate applies
Becomes part of the instrument. Solder, paint, fretboard oil absorbed into the wood, finishing compounds that become part of the surface, nuts, saddles, fretwire, pickups, hardware. Anything incorporated into and transferred with the repaired item qualifies.
Taxable to you on purchase
Stays behind in your shop. Sandpaper, steel wool, abrasive pads, flux, detergents, cleaning solvents. These are consumed in the repair but not transferred to the customer. Tools and equipment are always taxable.
When in doubt, pay the tax
Using the certificate for non-qualifying items is resale fraud under Florida law, with civil and criminal penalties. The savings on a pack of sandpaper are not worth it. If a purchase sits on the line, pay the tax and move on.
Source: FL DOR GT-800067 · floridarevenue.com/forms_library/current/gt800067.pdf
Some suppliers we have accounts with
These are the accounts we use at our shop. Not an exhaustive list. Most major suppliers have a dealer program of some kind, and this is just where we happened to start.
In practice
Most major suppliers have a dealer program. If you order from someone regularly and you're not on theirs, email their sales contact and ask. The worst they say is no.
How to actually get set up
The process varies slightly by supplier but follows one of two paths. Neither requires much.
Path A
Email a rep
Most suppliers list a sales or dealer contact on their website. Send a short email introducing your shop, ask if you qualify to open a dealer account, attach your resale certificate. Most respond within a few business days. This is how the majority of our accounts started.
Path B
Dedicated signup page
Some suppliers have a dealer application form on their site. Fill it out, upload your resale certificate when prompted, wait for approval. Usually straightforward. They're confirming you're a legitimate business, not someone arbitraging their pricing.
What you'll typically need
- Your Florida Annual Resale Certificate (Form DR-13) as a PDF
- Business name and address
- EIN, or SSN if you're a sole proprietor
- Brief description of your shop: repair focus, volume, instrument types
- Website or social media, if you have one (helps establish legitimacy)
Need help applying this to your shop?
I can help you set things up correctly, whether that's your chart of accounts, your sales tax compliance, or your bookkeeping workflow.