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What does one need to do to get a wholesale ID number in order to buy items wholesale?

Specifically, the items are materials (metals, gems, etc.) that will be fashioned into jewelry for resale, but on an extremely small scale.

If possible, it would be preferable to avoid creating an entity (LLC, etc.), but I'm not looking for legal workarounds here - I want to know the easiest way to legally get a wholesaler ID.

Jaydles
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This is a state by state thing, and I'm cheating because I know you are in New York State:

  1. You need a Federal Tax ID number. You don't have to incorporate (LLC, etc) for this, but it is not your SSN.
  2. You need to get a Certificate of Authority for the state.
  3. When you purchase items for resale in NY State, you can give them a resale certificate to prove you are tax-exempt.
  4. When you sell your items, you need to charge sales tax to residents of NY. (This is wildly complicated because the rates change for EVERY county, and sometimes even sub counties, in NY - use their NY sales tax calculator).
Michael Pryor
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Seems like it's more dependent on who you want to be your supplier. The times I've been involved in requesting this, each company had its own application form. They usually need proof of business activity, which gets back to SpecKK's answer.

mbhunter
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Small businesses are often governed by local regulations and state law. In a low liability small quantity arena, you should be able to get away with a DBA (doing business as) arrangement, such as DBA "Jay's Gem's". A small business license may come with a state Tax ID and satisfy your supplier, but a Federal EIN can be obtained from the IRS, and may be necessary to apply for the business license. It wouldn't hurt to talk to the local chamber of commerce or state small business agencies if you have questions about local requirements.

SpecKK
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