Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome to the clear impact podcast brought to you by P G T I university. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor and I am your host.
Speaker 2 00:00:15 Inflation has been very high the last couple years. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So when one of those inputs that affects the cost to the end consumer can be reduced in today's day and age and in this inflationary, um, environment. That's great. You know, again, we're able to pass on to our customers and the dealers are able to pass on to their customers a six to 7% discount to help customers to harden their homes effectively.
Speaker 1 00:00:45 Good morning, we are here on the clear impact podcast today, and we're doing something a little different. This is a special episode, and we're calling this, your someday is right now, and this is regarding the sales tax holiday for Florida. So if you're outside of Florida, you can just skip this episode entirely because it won't help you one single bit. But for those dealers and homeowners in the state of Florida, this is for you as of July 1st, 2022. So just a couple of weeks ago, there is a new two year program sponsored by governor Ron DeSantis that basically eliminates the sales tax for Florida, homeowners who purchase impact windows, doors, and garage doors. I mean, there are some other things that it affects as well, but as far as we are concerned, that's what we're gonna be talking about. So this tax holiday runs now through June 30th, 2024, and this covers products manufactured by P G T CGI echo window systems. And also WinDor. So this is gonna affect a lot of people in the state of Florida and joining us today, Kevin Huber. So welcome.
Speaker 2 00:01:52 Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1 00:01:53 Oh, I'm glad you could squeeze it in. I know you're a busy guy and you've got a lot of numbers to play with and things like that, but Kevin, can you just briefly introduce yourself, give us your title, your areas of responsibility, and maybe how long you've been around these parts.
Speaker 2 00:02:05 Absolutely. And again, thank you very much for inviting me to the, uh, podcast. This is my first time doing something like this. Welcome. So very exciting as you said, my name is Kevin Huber. I'm the, uh, vice president corporate controller for PGT innovations. This means I have responsibility for making sure the finances are accurately stated and the financial processes and the accounting for the company are correct. I started with PGT actually in January of 2014 and have been with the company for over eight years and in multiple different roles.
Speaker 1 00:02:33 Okay. Wow. So you know your stuff,
Speaker 2 00:02:35 I've been around a little while.
Speaker 1 00:02:36 All right. So you can add podcasting to your resume.
Speaker 2 00:02:39 Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:02:40 <laugh>. So one of the reasons that I wanted you to be the one to address this is because this is not necessarily about selling more product. It's more about the strategy around leveraging this 7% in some cases break mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, because you're a numbers guy, can you help our dealers understand how this can impact their business over the next two
Speaker 2 00:03:01 Years? Absolutely. So, as we, you talked about the Florida legislation recently passed, what's called the Florida's home hardening tax exemption. And the point of this is that, you know, here in Florida, we have to deal with hurricanes, right? It happens a lot. And unfortunately it causes a lot of damage every year when, when we do have a hurricane. So what they're trying to do is harden the homes to lessen the impact of those damages by putting impact windows and doors into people's houses, as well as the garage doors. And as you stated, it covers, uh, the sales tax exemption, which is typically somewhere between six to 7%, depending on your location, on impact windows, doors, and garage doors.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 Okay. So what steps can a dealer take now to fully leverage this tax holiday?
Speaker 2 00:03:45 So for our dealer network, for most dealers that do this, they have what's called a resale exemption form, which means that they are exempt from paying us taxes and they fully remit their sales taxes on their side. Now, there are a few of our dealers who have not, or do not have that exemption form. I would encourage them to go out and get the exemption form as a reseller. If they're eligible, you go to the Florida department of revenue and apply for those mm-hmm <affirmative> for our dealers though, who are, and for those who are not, we've already taken care of everything in the system on our side that we need to do to make sure that the products that we sell that are impact windows and doors and garage doors, they will not be charged a sales tax on them already from their side when they sell.
Speaker 2 00:04:27 And this is important, whether it's to a retail customer or even a commercial customer, as long as it's an impact window or door, product, or garage door, they are able to not charge sales tax. And when they fill out the form, it goes in the exemption form. Most of the people who are filling out a sales tax form, they know where the exemption piece is, and they know where that goes. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so there's nothing you have to do. You don't have to apply any special permits. You don't have to fill out any kind of applications, nothing like that. This is a natural exemption that you just have to document and have when they're remitting their sales tax on a monthly basis, they just include the sales to the, um, impact products include that in their exempts in line.
Speaker 1 00:05:05 Nice. And so that's a nice little incentive for the homeowners. And I know our marketing team has been working hard to provide some clings and stickers and things like that to really promote that in the showrooms. And when people walk into dealerships, they know, Hey, this is an impact product. You don't have to pay sales tax on this.
Speaker 2 00:05:24 And that's exactly it, to be honest with you. If I was visiting one of our locations, our echo manufacturing company last week, and I was talking to some of the people that take the orders, and they mentioned that many of the dealers didn't even know about this yet. So, you know, two pieces to this, uh, that I'll kind of address. The first part is that it is brand new. There is still some ambiguity, you know, there's some obscure things in here that we're still trying to hammer out and trying to make sure that we completely understand everything with the law. But the second thing is, is that we definitely need to get this out there to not only our dealer network, but to the customers, because this is a six to 7% savings on, on their
Speaker 1 00:06:01 Purchase, right? And just a little disclaimer, we are not tax attorneys. We don't work for the Florida state revenue department, but you have done some due diligence. And so I did wanna just touch base on that. What steps have we made to get some clarity around things that are a little fuzzy, be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the Fest industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics, you can find out more about
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Speaker 2 00:06:38 Man. I'm glad you brought this up. So we reached out to a local CPA firm and spoke to one of their attorneys on staff who specializes in sales tax in taxes in general. My specialty is certainly not taxes. You know, we reached out to them. We had a list of questions. They have actually called and spoke to the Florida department of revenue and found most of the answers out that we needed to get clarity on. However, there are a couple of things that are still in the industry. We're still not sure of mm-hmm <affirmative> and next steps on that is we might even ask for an official ruling mm-hmm <affirmative> on a couple of obscure pieces to make sure everybody in the industry is correct and knows what we're doing and how we're doing it, and to do this law correctly.
Speaker 1 00:07:19 Right. And, you know, even if you're charged tax now on something that you shouldn't be charged on, you'll get credited back. And if you don't pay tax on something that you should have paid tax on, you'll get billed later. Like it'll all work out. There's a little fuzziness around order date and delivery, date and invoice date and all of that. But the big thing is how do you really take advantage of this amazing time? I mean, everyone's busy. There's no shortage of work, but how can you really leverage, Hey, this is already on sale. Thank you, governor DeSantis, but it's just a smart thing to do anyway.
Speaker 2 00:07:47 Absolutely. And I mean, right now we know cuz we're feeling it at PGT. You know, inflation has been very high the last couple years mm-hmm <affirmative>. So when one of those inputs that affects the cost to the end consumer can be reduced in today's day and age and in this inflationary, um, environment. That's great. You know, again, we're able to pass on to our customers and the dealers are able to pass on to their customers a six to 7% discount to help customers, to harden their homes effectively, to not have to go out there and put up shutters or do this, you know, spend six hours putting up shutters. And then you drive around, you see people are living in like Dungeons for hurricane season, right. You know, it's nice to have those beautiful impact windows and doors, right? And this is a huge help to
Speaker 1 00:08:32 Them. Right? Well, and even if you're planning on putting in windows, there is a cost difference between impact and non impact. So maybe you're gonna redo your windows anyway. And you've been sitting on that fence. Also, you get a discount on your insurance because it's not just for hurricane protection, it's also for security. So there are some different things out there that will help incentivize that. And we have people here that can answer those questions if you're not sure. And we can write letters to your insurance company and things like that.
Speaker 2 00:08:57 Absolutely. And one thing I'll add to is, you know, if you have questions, you're always welcome to reach out to us, but the best person to talk to is your sales team. Dealers have questions. We are working directly with the sales team. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and we're accumulating questions from them. Obscure questions, things we didn't think about. And we're sending 'em off to the experts to be answered if we cannot address 'em ourselves. So if, as we go through this and again, this is two years mm-hmm <affirmative> so this can be a long program. It's gonna be around for a while. If we have, uh, questions or if the dealer network or the customers have questions, we highly encourage you to talk to the sales team, ask your questions and we'll do the best we can to help answer those questions.
Speaker 1 00:09:35 Right? Okay. So for parts, if you replace your handle, that's not gonna be tax exempt. You've already got an impact product in your house. Sorry, you want a new handle. You're gonna pay sales tax on that handle if you wanted to change your handle. So it's not pieces, it's the whole component
Speaker 2 00:09:48 That is correct. We spoke to the Florida department of revenue and they were very clear. This is on the whole unit, just because you're getting a new handle that goes to an impact door or something that goes with an impact window that is not excluded from sales tax. The sales tax exemption is related to the entire product. Mm.
Speaker 1 00:10:07 Got it. Okay. Anything else that would be helpful for our dealers and or homeowners, whoever might be listening, anything else that they would want to know?
Speaker 2 00:10:16 Yeah. The only thing I would add to this is, again, you know, the sales tax percentage fluctuate from county to county. There are certain counties and other places that have special sales taxes that they may impose. Like I believe Panama city has a 1% merchant lease fee. Again, this, as long as it is related to the purchase of your impact products, that's an example of something that may be tax exempt as well. So again, we're not trying to be experts here today, but there is some ambiguity on some of these things, but there's also some things that are pretty clear. And as we've seen right now, this is an example of something that is exempt. So as you go through your counties and you deal with different sales tax and different counties, if you have questions, you're always welcome to ask your sales team and we can do the best we can to help answer those questions.
Speaker 1 00:11:01 Right. Okay. All right. So we have a website set up to help address some of these areas that are a little confusing and that website is PGT innovations.com/tax holiday. And for any homeowners that might be hearing this, there's also a grant that's available for certain Florida homeowners. Again, this is just Florida and that is called the, my safe Florida home program. It applies to homes receiving their building permit before 2008. And it basically provides for a free mitigation inspection if you meet certain criteria. And that is a completely separate thing, but I felt like it was worth mentioning the website to learn more about that is my Florida c.com/my safe FL home. So I think that covers everything. Kevin, thanks so much for taking a few minutes today, getting away from the screen and away from Excel spreadsheets and whatever else you have in your world. And just taking a few minutes to chat with me today. Thank
Speaker 2 00:11:56 You, Sherry. This was a lot of fun. I appreciate
Speaker 1 00:11:58 It. All right, thanks. Have a good day.
Speaker 1 00:12:02 PG T I university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original easy breeze porch enclosure line then became PG T America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI C G I C window, Western windows, new south windows, echo windows and doors, and our latest acquisition and Lynn windows and doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure, and prepared. Our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. P G T I university is here to educate you our listener so that you can be more informed about window and door products.
