Missouri Consumer Use Tax form for businesses to file

I received a letter from the state of Missouri this week asking me to send in a form (53U-1) for my Consumer’s Use Tax for years 2007 and 2008.  I suspect I will get a similar request for such a form some day for years 2009 and 2010.  Getting letters like this always makes me a little nervous.  I wonder if I was not filing something I should have been filing and am about to be hit with huge penalties.

As it turns out, I don’t need to send in the form because I am exempt.  But I do need to send them a letter to let them know that I don’t need to send in the form.  So I made a copy of their letter, put my X in a few check boxes, and mailed it back to them.

Who should be filing this form?  It is for businesses that buy products wholesale (without paying sales tax) in order to resale them to other clients.  So if I purchased a new computer and used my Tax ID to excuse myself from paying sales tax, and then sold that computer to one of my clients, I should be filling out this form.  Even then, you only need to do this if you bought more than $2,000 worth of stuff in one year.