tax?

[newguy55]

When purchasing from an ering retailer out of state is sales tax collected at the point of sale or is the buyer responsible for paying the tax themselves?

 

[pqcollectibles]

If you deal with an out-of-state Vendor, the Vendor won't charge sales tax on the transaction. It's up to the customer, depending on state law, to declare the sale and pay any appropriate sales tax due.

 

[Nicrez]

PQ is right (nice new icon!). Just like anything online, I believe they only charge you tax if they are shipping from the same state you are receiving the package.

Lots of places have locations in major cities, and will ship from Oklahoma or Idaho just to save you tax, even if you are a CT person, and they are based out of CT too...Gotta love online!

 

[weemodin]

I even know some B&M stores that will sell a ring to your out-of-state parents for you to help you avoid the tax thing. Not sure how legal it is, but hey, sales tax is a real pain -- it's 8.25% here. Ug.

 

[someguy]

You think that 8% is bad... If you're from Canada, you would have to pay 10% excise tax (if buying something from the states). On top of that you have another 8% PST and 7% GST. OUCH!

 

[Kay]

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On 2/9/2004 3:52:30 PM Nicrez wrote:

PQ is right (nice new icon!). Just like anything online, I believe they only charge you tax if they are shipping from the same state you are receiving the package.

Lots of places have locations in major cities, and will ship from Oklahoma or Idaho just to save you tax, even if you are a CT person, and they are based out of CT too...Gotta love online!

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Actually, if the seller has the requisite "contacts" with the state they are shipping into (such as a store or business offices), they should be collecting sales tax for that state even if they ship from a different out-of-state affiliate store. For example, if you buy from Sharper Image online, they will charge sales tax if they have a store in your state, even if they are shipping from a warehouse in a different part of the country.

If the company is truly out-of-state (i.e., they only have a store in Florida and the buyer lives in California), then the store does not have a duty to collect sales tax at the time of sale. In certain states, such as California, the buyer has a duty to report the purchase and pay a "use" tax, which I believe is done on the individual's state income tax return for the year of purchase. It is up to the buyer to decide whether he or she will self report and the likelihood of being caught not reporting.

 

[Rook]

Kay is correct. And I would suggest anyone buying online to declare and pay the "use" tax if their state has a use tax, which just about all states do. The use tax is simply a sales tax created solely for this purpose of taxing out of state sales where no sales tax is paid. If you decide to risk not being caught, remember that the State has forever to find out about you not paying the tax and could discover it on a random audit years later, and impose hefty fines and interest.

It is not that much to warrant the risk, IMO.

 

[pqcollectibles]

I forgot the "if the Vendor has a location in your state" part. Thanks guys. And, Rook is right. You can run the risk of getting caught if you don't declare the purchase.