"A federal court has thrown out a 2010 Colorado law meant to spur online retailers like Amazon to collect state sales tax. The law had already been temporarily blocked in federal court last year, but U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn's ruling Friday permanently handcuffs it."
Federal court tosses Colorado's Amazon tax - The Denver Post
"Robert Green" wrote in news:jljffe$t6h$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
The article said that on-line purchases still had to have the tax paid. Does anyone know how it's done ?
Most states have a "use tax" for such purchases. In CT and MA, when you do the state income tax return you are asked if any purchases are made that were not taxed. You just fill in the amount and pay the tax. There may also be a form you can get from the DOR, but I never checked into it.
In MI, it's similar, but we get credit for any lesser amount of tax (i.e., less than Michigan's 6%) that was paid in another state. We can enter the amount if we have records, or we can let them estimate an amount based on our income; TurboTax figures it all out for us.
BTW, many retailers here are saying that the absence of sales tax on Internet purchases is hurting them, but many items I buy online are still far cheaper than local retail even after paying the "use tax." I might even get them more quickly than waiting for a local retailer to order them if they are not in stock. One local store I went to recently to buy an item they showed on their Web page, but they said neither they nor "head office" kept it on stock: I would have to order it online and pay shipping costs and tax; Yeah, right!
Perce
Depends on your state. Some ask you to tabulate your out-of-state purchases on your state income tax. For states without an income tax, there's a form you can get from your state comptroller.
The state relies on voluntary compliance inasmuch as finding and collecting the tax would be an expensive and logistical nightmare - even for a government - for the state to take the initative.
FUN WITH TAXES, #37
What you could do is send the comptroller a note along the lines (write in crayon so it will be noticed):
"Hello dear tax people. While on a recent trip to the Dry Tortugas, I bought a pack of gum. I brought this pack of gum, unopened, back to my hometown of Left Elbow, (fill in state). I am enclosing the three cents in state sales and use tax below. Sorry for the oversight."
Tape three pennies to the letter and mail away. Wait two weeks. Send another letter.
"Dear tax people: In my original remittance of two weeks ago, I miscalculated. My tax obligation was really TWO cents instead of the three originally specified. Please refund the overpayment at your earliest convenience."
On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:29:57 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy" wrote Re Re: Colorado buyers saved from Amazon tax:
That old retailer's argument has not been true for a long time. As you observe, Internet merchant prices are so competitive, that even with sales tax, they are still cheaper delivered to your door than a trip to the local store; which probably doesn't have what you want anyway.
IOW, I would pay them full price, plus shipping and tax, and it would be shipped to me directly from the manufacturer or distributor. The "retailer" would collect a profit (an undeserved profit) on an item on which they had never even set eyes.
Perce
The guns near schools business was struck down by the Supreme Court. Mandatory health care is in the pressure cooker. The heat is on.
Why is the profit undeserved? They placed the item for sale, hosted the web site, paid for the database work, promoted it, handled the paperwork, charged your credit cart, and passed it in bulk to the manufacturer or his warehouse. Most middlemen perform a needed service.
Next time you need a roll of toilet paper, call Proctor & Gamble and see if you can buy direct.
They don't want a penny from those stores. They are not asking Amazon to give them a penny. They want YOUR money. They just want Amazon, et al, to act as the collector for them.
In addition to collecting sales tax, the B & M stores do pay local real estate taxes, inventory taxes, personal property taxes on machines and fixture, etc. The Internet sellers are paying those taxes in the states and towns where they have facilities. They may be paying more taxes to another town three states away and covering their local police costs.
If you avoid the use or sales tax, that revenue will be made up in other ways. The state has a budget and will do whatever they have to in order to bring in that money. You avoid $1 in sales tax, they raise the restaurant tax. You buy a new TV on line, they tax haircuts. If you avoid paying your share, your neighbor gets whacked for more to make up for it.
No free lunch, The states get the money one way or another.
No sales tax here in Delaware but on some internet orders I see a line item for tax, if any.
I always assumed that mail or phone orders were taxed. Why not internet?
I believe there is another problem with states like California that wants to collect sales tax from places like Amazon if sales come from California even though going to a state like Delaware with no tax. Might be why Amazon located one of their first centers in Delaware to avoid such BS.
A long time is right! It even predates the Internet. I was buying from the likes of 47th St. Photo forty years ago.
Years ago, the sales tax situation was the same as now, most mail-order companies did not collect it. Before the Internet, that was a tiny portion of the overall sales so the states did little to enforce the laws or force collection. Internet sales are becoming a large portion of overall sales and for big ticket items.
If in 1975 you ordered a new album from Columbia House, the tax was maybe 30¢ or $1 on that nice pen and pencil set, but today, the tax on an Amazon appliance can be $50 or $100 or more times many more orders. How about that tax on a Dell laptop?
If you live in CA, you owe the tax. Same with other states with sales taxes.
On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:22:07 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote Re Re: Colorado buyers saved from Amazon tax:
Only true where tax payers do not demand that government cut programs until it can stay within budget. If a taxpayer demands that, but his neighbor doesn't, then let the neighbor pay the taxes.
A retailer earns its profit by having the item in stock (taking up space) and on display for examination and perhaps even demonstration. Amazon and many other online "sellers," for far less than the retailer's typical markup, collect my payment and forward my order to Ingram Micro or some other distributor who ships it to me.
Perce
That is why Amazon can sell cheaper. They still offer you goods and perform a service and are entitled to be paid for that service. They have costs in making the transaction possible for you.
But the retailer in the case I mentioned was only going to do the same thing: take my order and forward it to the distributor or manufacturer but collect a far larger markup than Amazon does.
I do not begrudge Amazon its small markup, but I do begrudge a "retailer" its large markup for doing the same thing.
BTW, as I mentioned here a while back, "trade" ("buy low, sell high") was considered unethical until comparatively recently.
Perce
Not only live there but if visiting and you buy something there you also pay tax. But if I buy mail order from California and Delaware has no tax then no tax is paid. I heard that California wanted to collect tax from anything sold there even if mailed out of state.
In our small state of Delaware, shopping center parking lots are full of out of state cars. Matter of fact state has highway signs as you drive in:
Caesar,
There are a variety of reasons I shop online instead of local retailers.
I needed a new corded drill with low speed and high torque to use with large self-feeding auger bits. Everything sold in local stores was the typical high speed, low power drill. I ordered a Dewalt model from Amazon.com and had it in three days.
I recently did some electrical work at my in-laws. The inspector said I needed lockout devices on a few of the breakers. Despite being a national code requirement since 2008, not a single home center or local electrical supply stocked them. Ordered online and they showed up a couple days later.
The best exceptions are retail stores with the local inventory listed online. For example, I can research the product I want online, then check HomeDepot.com, Walmart.com, etc. to see if the local retail store has that item in stock. If they do, I am more likely to drive down and pick it up that day than wait for the item to be shipped, even if it costs a little more.
Anthony
Keep in mind that the online inventory display is not always up to date. Some stores do updates only overnight. Sometimes an item that is shown as in stock walked out of the door without saying "Goodbye."
Perce
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