If your product or service is taxable in the Telephone Number List municipalities in which you sell it, you may need to register with your state or local tax office in order to collect and remit sales & use tax on the goods and services you sell. Here in New York, they let you keep a tiny percentage of the sales tax you collect, to compensate you for the paperwork and recordkeeping incurred.
If you perform value-add services on someone Telephone Number List else's taxable goods, such as finishing and reselling unfinished birdhouses, you can get a "resale" certificate to provide to your vendors so that you won't be charged sales tax on the intermediary Telephone Number List goods you purchase for resale. When you buy an unfinished Telephone Number List birdhouse for $10, you won't pay sales tax on it, but when you resell it for $20 you'll collect and remit sales tax on that amount from the consumer.
Remember that you are the consumer of the paintbrushes you use to paint or stain those birdhouses; you can deduct their cost from Telephone Number List your profit for income tax purposes, but you're still required to pay sales tax on them. There are a few Telephone Number List varieties of ways to form a sole proprietorship; as mentioned