Wisconsin Temporary Events Law FAQ

Wisconsin law requires people who hold "temporary events" where merchandise is sold to retrieve several pieces of information from the sellers, and to report it to the Department of Revenue.

Wisconsin believes this is a way to ensure that those people who need to pay sales tax do so.

We don't know. That is between merchant X and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Our job is to collect the information.

It is our legal obligation to do so. Wisconsin could and probably will fine the SCA, as well as penalize the SCA in other ways.

The autocrat or his or her deputy needs to collect the information and report it to the group Exchequer. The group Exchequer needs to send the information to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and to the Kingdom Exchequer.

The autocrat needs the name, business name, address, and either the social security number or the federal tax id number of the business. The autocrat should also collect the phone number and email address of the seller.

There are two ways to report it:

Email: Use form S-240a (Excel spreadsheet). Fill in the information and email the spreadsheet to tempevtprg@dor.state.wi.us.

Mail: Use form S-240F (PDF). Print it, fill it in, and mail it to:

If the above links do not work, you can find the forms on the Wisconsin Department of Revenue website. Look for Sales and Use Tax form number S-240.

The information must be sent to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue within 10 days of the event.

Then they cannot sell.

If they want, they could apply for an federal tax id number, also known as an employer identification number, with the IRS. They should talk to their accountant or lawyer about this, and we cannot advise them to do it. If they want to do it, they can apply via telephone or online, or by mail.

They can find more info on the IRS website.

Taxpayers can obtain an EIN immediately by calling the Business & Specialty Tax Line (800-829-4933). The hours of operation are 7:00 am to 10:00 pm local time, Monday through Friday. An assistor takes the information, assigns the EIN, and provides the number to an authorized individual over the telephone.

If the group is having a lunch or feast that is provided or funded by any SCA branch, the form must include the "Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc." as seller, with the address to be the corporate address of:

Our Federal Tax ID number is 94-1698556.

If the lunch or feast is provided or funded by any other third party, that third party must be listed as a seller.