# (Anonymous Poll) Do you report unpaid sales taxes on goods purchased online? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389 "2010-03-22T21:06:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/21 "2010-03-23T12:56:36Z")
Excuse me but why on Earth would a **buyer** have to pay a **sales** tax? Wouldn’t that be the task of the seller? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Red\_Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/22 "2010-03-23T14:33:17Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Excuse me but why on Earth would a **buyer** have to pay a **sales** tax? Wouldn’t that be the task of the seller? Aren’t any fees of the seller passed on to the buyer regardless? ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/23 "2010-03-23T14:40:12Z")
I just filed my Virginia state taxes and I don’t recall a directive on the form to chip in $$ for online purchases. Did I miss something? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/24 "2010-03-23T14:41:33Z")
> [@Red\_Skeezix](#): > > Aren’t any fees of the seller passed on to the buyer regardless? Even if they are, a sales or value added tax or other fee is, as far as I’m concerned, a matter between somebody who sells something and the country, state or whatever where he resides. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/25 "2010-03-23T14:49:08Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > I just filed my Virginia state taxes and I don’t recall a directive on the form to chip in $$ for online purchases. Did I miss something? I was curious so I went looking. Line 21 on Schedule ADJ “Consumer’s Use Tax” is what would cover that. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/26 "2010-03-23T15:09:43Z")
Oh, OK. Thanks for the heads-up. Slipped by me. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/27 "2010-03-23T15:18:45Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > I just filed my Virginia state taxes and I don’t recall a directive on the form to chip in $$ for online purchases. Did I miss something? It’s not particularly for online purchases, it’s for out-of-state purchases, regardless of the means used to facilitate that purchase (e.g. phone, mail order, internet, carrier pidgeon). Michigan has it. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/28 "2010-03-23T15:25:00Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > The state of NC is nice enough to estimate for me based on my income. I run the numbers in my head and it usually seems that I come out ahead using their numbers. It isn’t all that much and I figure putting a zero in there probably increases your chances of an audit by some percentage. I do the same, although the percentage is WAY under what it would be if I actually ran the numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/29 "2010-03-23T15:30:23Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Excuse me but why on Earth would a **buyer** have to pay a **sales** tax? Wouldn’t that be the task of the seller? Not in this case. Sellers generally don’t collect state sales tax for items shipped (by the seller) out of state. As a seller, it would be a bit of a burden to keep track of your sales tallies to all fifty states, and remit sales tax payments to all of them. From [the Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax): > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Most sales taxes are collected from the buyer by the seller, who remits the tax to a government agency. The economic burden of the tax usually falls on the purchaser, but in some circumstances may fall on the seller. To use an extreme example, in 1999 I bought a motorcycle in Virginia, and rode it back to my home state of Michigan. I didn’t pay sales tax when I bought it, but I did when I registered it in Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/30 "2010-03-23T15:55:49Z")
I don’t live in a state (but my province has no sales tax). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/31 "2010-03-23T16:19:13Z")
I’m not sure how I would even if I wanted to. TN does not have an income tax, so I have not filled out a TN tax return since I moved here. My online purchases are minor, anyway - less than $100 a year I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/32 "2010-03-23T16:35:40Z")
I always forget about it. For a variety of reasons, I haven’t personally filled out the income tax forms in years. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure some online merchants already do … I think Amazon collects taxes here in OH? I’d fully support my state requiring online merchants to add in the tax and figure it out at the time of purchase. Maybe they already do for my state. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/33 "2010-03-23T19:37:33Z")
I don’t exactly see what my state has to do with purchases I make in other states. So no, I don’t declare all that. I have this idea of finding 2 adjacent states, one without sales tax and one without income tax, and living and working in the no income tax state and driving across the border to the no sales tax state to do my shopping. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/34 "2010-03-23T20:22:22Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Excuse me but why on Earth would a **buyer** have to pay a **sales** tax? Wouldn’t that be the task of the seller? The seller is not required to collect or pay sales tax in a state for which they have no nexus. Simply selling merchandise to a customer in a state is not sufficient to establish nexus with that state for sales tax purposes. As the buyer and a resident of your state, you are nevertheless required to pay sales tax on merchandise you purchase. Nobody does though, as this poll shows. Incidentally that’s why it’s common to see ecommerce sites state that sales tax is only collected for certain states. If you bought something from my company and you lived in Pennsylvania or Florida we would collect sales tax on your order and pay it for you because we have offices or warehouses in both states. If you live in any other state we don’t collect your tax because we have no nexus with any other state and don’t file sales tax returns for the other 48 states. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/35 "2010-03-23T20:29:01Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > So if you go to [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) and buy $50 worth of books, do you calculate what your state sales tax would be on that and pay it when you do your state income taxes? In most states you’re supposed to, but according to articles I’ve read if you don’t you’re in very good (or at least very big) company since between 90% and 98% (depending on the poll) don’t. > > So just curious- which of these best describes you? This is a really difficult issue to explain to a new customer service rep. Frankly it’s even difficult to explain to customers, and adding a layer between you and the customer makes it even harder. It seems like it would be simple, “We have no physical presence in your state and are not obligated to collect or pay sales tax to your state, so we don’t. Our lack of obligation has no bearing on your duty to pay sales tax, if any”. But that naturally leaves people unsure of whether they really have to pay it themselves or if nobody will check or that 90% of people don’t. Of course, we can’t tell them 90% of people don’t pay. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/36 "2010-03-23T20:33:58Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Wait. In Oregon they HAVE to have a guy come out and pump gas for me?! > > This sounds like paradise. Unless you have a nice car and don’t want a minimum wage dipshit pouring gas all over it and then scratching the paint with the nozzle, then it is a pain in the ass to not be able to pump your own. You have to get out of the car and watch. Most of the attendants will stand by and watch while a Harley owner puts his own gas in the motorcycle. I think this is an unwritten rule that helps prevent gas attendants from getting their ass kicked. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/37 "2010-03-23T20:43:24Z")
I’m guessing there will be a crackdown on this coming. Since it would be impossible to track down every “Myrtle Smith bought _Finding Out if Your Husband is Cheating_ for $12.00 from [BooksRUs.com](http://BooksRUs.com) on January 20, Breaking Bad Season 1 for $15 from Barnes and [Noble.com](http://Noble.com) on March 5, _How to Declare a Relative Dead Without a Body_ for $6.42 used on [Half.com](http://Half.com) on March 18, a XXXL plastic tub from [BigLots.com](http://BigLots.com) for $35 on March 21, and 10 liters of hydrofluoric acid from [ChemistryIzFun.com](http://ChemistryIzFun.com) for $1110 on March 22, she owes $82.32 in sales tax… okay, that’s state resident 3,249,202 down, 4,202,329 to go…”, it’ll probably be a crackdown on the online merchants by changing laws governing online sales. Personally I wouldn’t have a great problem with this so long as the percentage of sales tax is significantly less than buying from a local brick and mortar establishment. Charging 2% would still generate billions of dollars for the states and the product would remain cheaper even when you add in s&h cost. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/38 "2010-03-23T20:59:47Z")
I can’t imagine tracking which transaction was/was not taxed. It’s something I’ve always relied on the vendor to do. I’m not even sure how one would go about doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/39 "2010-03-23T21:02:41Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I’m not sure how I would even if I wanted to. TN does not have an income tax, so I have not filled out a TN tax return since I moved here. > > My online purchases are minor, anyway - less than $100 a year I’d say. here you go 😃 [http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/usetax/](http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/usetax/) ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389/40 "2010-03-23T21:03:56Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > I don’t exactly see what my state has to do with purchases I make in other states. So no, I don’t declare all that. > > I have this idea of finding 2 adjacent states, one without sales tax and one without income tax, and living and working in the no income tax state and driving across the border to the no sales tax state to do my shopping. you’ll see it a lot better if people stop using the misnomer “sales tax” they’re use taxes that the state charges based on your usage of the item within the state. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anonymous-poll-do-you-report-unpaid-sales-taxes-on-goods-purchased-online/533389.md?page=3)