I am having my 1930's home restored and remodeled. The contractor I have doing the main part of this project gave us a contract showing the cost of labor and tax on materials; Yet, My husband and I were told by a couple of the other contractors that we are useing for separate projects that we are not supposed to be charged tax on the materials!? Once and for all are we being ripped off and if so what can we do about it?

Maybe I am missing something but the only reason I know for not having to pay tax, would be if you are tax exempt. If you arent' exempt then you have to pay. I would ask the others why you shouldn't have to pay taxes on materials.

Hopefully someone else will jump in on this. Sorry I cannot be of more assistance to you.
Good luck with your project.

MiniFoxx
Moderator - Construction Project Blog
http://www.bobvila.com/BBS/Construction_Project_Blog/flat-page1.html

Some have better luck next time around,
some don't, and some don't even try.

As an electrical contractor in wisconsin we have to tax three different ways. If we contract with you to do a job we pay tax on the materials we buy and include it in the markup we charge you. It is not shown on our billing to you.
If we repair personal property like appliances or light fixtures we purchase the parts tax free but charge you tax on labor and material and then send that tax to the state. An example of this is if we are installing a new fluorescant fixture for you it is billed according to paragrah 1, if we are repairing the fixture, like changing the ballast, we bill according to paragraph 2.
If you own production machinery and we repair it and you have a manuf. tax exemption we purchase the repair materials tax free and bill you labor and material tax free.
This gets very confusing sometimes but the way your contractor is billing you is right according to wisconsin law but I feel he is unwise to show it on his billing as he did for obvious reasons.
Ron