I don't buy the "can't make money on their population" excuse. One - I doubt it's true, but even if it is - their "cost" isn't just the initial purchase cost, it's also the intangible costs of staff time to order, manage, sell - even the accounting staff that must process the order to the vendor and the incoming payments from parents.

Buy they time they calculate "real" cost, they can easily mark up the uniforms and justify it as break-even.

Next, if you sell these, yes- you probably need to collect sales tax and remit it to the appropriate state agency. You'll need to check the rules in your state. (Here in Texas, we would have to charge sales tax.)

Thats an easy answer - the district is government funded - thus cannot make money on its population. PTO is not government funded - it is non profit - and therefore, can make money, which is one of the purposes of a PTO.
My issue is #1 - making money on something that is mandatory
#2 - do we need to tax an item, as we are not tax exempt
and then there is the whole community support issue. We have purchased our uniforms through a local business in town for the past 10years, this is one of the same businesses that has support school referendums, and given donations to our school - now what - we tell them we don't need them anymore?
It is so much more ..

Why can't the district do a fundraisers? If it's against the law, then you'd be putting yourself in quite a pickle by helping them violate it.

Our PE department has asked the PTO if they could funnel funds collected from the sales of required gym uniforms thru the PTO, as they are doing it as a fundraiser ($4.00 per uniform), and the district cannot do a fundraiser.
Do we need to collect sales tax?
We are not tax exempt nor are we sales tax exempt - can we even do this?

-Val Kearns
-MMS PTO