Well, in essence, this really was a serious question about something I had not heard about. For all I know me accountant has been paying this. I’m going to ask him tomorrow. But, yes, I did ask the question in the Pit, and yes, I did rant a little. Partially because I was surprised by it and partially because I’m sick and tired of paying as much tax as I do. So, I do not begrudge you spewing some shit my way. Especially since you offered some insight in the process.
I guess the one thing I don’t get is why, after I posted a question and openly admitted I knew NOTHING about this (i.e. that my ignorance on this topic was, on a scale of 1 - 10, an 110, why you felt the need to point to the very ignorance I announced with fireworks in the OP.
Like I said, I don’t mind your insulting me in the pit, it just seem odd that you would think that the thing I already admitted to would be so cutting.
Alaska = oil royalties galore plus being the 3rd highest state for federal funds received per dollar of federal tax paid (1.84 received per 1.00 submitted to federal coffers)
Delaware = Franchise taxes on businesses (most fortune 500 companies are HQed there) accounts for 1/5 of state revenue. They also have like 8 people in the entire state.
Montana = Ranked #11 in federal dollars received per dollar given. 7% income tax for every dollar above 17000 or so. Moderate, but still appreciable, Oil & Gas revenues.
New Hampshire = Let’s pretend they have no sales tax, even though there’s 9% tax on food. 1.5% transfer tax on real estate. 4th highest rate of property tax by % value in the US.
Oregon = the only one that I can’t really find any offsetting, obvious reason for being able to afford no sales tax.
this is an incomplete analysis, but as you can see, the states that survive with no state income tax are taxing their citizens heavily in other areas, are extremely small in population (4 of the 5 are in the bottom 20th percentile in terms of population) so there isn’t a large expenditure-side pressure, or have large sources of natural resource revenue. there’s one true outlier in Oregon.
also, states don’t impose use tax because they love tax grabs - their domestic businesses are at serious competitive disadvantages if use tax doesn’t exist. it’s not just a revenue thing, it’s a fostering in-state business thing. how do you think Mom & Pop’s Electronics MegaStore, Inc. of Methuen, MA likes it when all of his customers can drive 2 minutes into NH and get a 6.25% discount on goods in perpetuity?
Because States don’t answer to other States. As has been explained before, you get a credit for the tax you paid in the other state. If you have. If you haven’t, you’ll owe the whole hog for your tax that you didn’t have to pay by buying out of state.
I almost guarantee your accountant is making you pay jack shit. When I worked as a tax preparer in CA it wasn’t something they even suggested we ask, and accountants I know don’t ask. Besides, how would he know how much you should’ve paid at Amazon without asking. I am surprised in this thread that people actually report it, just as I am by your OP and the letter.
ISTR a couple of years ago hearing about a federal program that had the U.S. govt. making some sizeable annual contributions to Oregon’s general fund, to make up for revenues lost due to logging restrictions within the state.
So, before that program, royalties from the timber industry? And when the program sunsets, – fiscal apocalypse?
MY CPA has an entry for this on my tax organizer every year. I always put an entry there.
As far as why people report it, there is an old saying in California “You can fuck with the IRS, but do not fuck with the franchise tax board. Those guys are evil.”
And I first heard that long before prop 13, back when the state had money. Now that they are broke, FTB is EVIL.
If they’re curious (which i kind of doubt) they are welcome to ask. If they’re not raging, dishonest assholes i might favor them with an answer. You, on the other hand, can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut.
Relatively small population needing services, a very high business personal property tax in many counties, a midrange personal income tax, and relatively high property taxes. Plus, many services get bumped to counties, which have their own revenue generation capabilities. Compare and contrast with Washington state, which is the opposite: high sales tax, no personal income tax, and very tight state control.
But mostly it’s that Oregon’s legislative system makes it very, very hard to create or raise taxes – you basically need the population to agree to tax themselves more on the ballot. It’s unfortunate, really, since the population of the state increases by a third or so in the summer due to tourists – a sales tax would allow said tourists to pay the residents taxes for them. Oregon has been running at a level of services many other states would find inadequate for years (and ranks very low on state tax burden). However, I’ve never heard as much whining about taxes as I did when I lived there – there’s sort of a cultural level of resistance to taxation there that I’ve never seen elsewhere.
I still find it interesting- I mean, if you live in Washington State and go and visit Canada for the day, are you expected to cough up the sales taxes on the stuff you brought in Canada, duty free concession allowances notwithstanding?
I really don’t see why buying stuff in another state should be any different. You didn’t buy it in your home state, so you shouldn’t be paying “local” taxes on it.
Coming from Canada - You are actually importing goods, so technically you are required to pay an import tax. This happens to some people when they get off the plane (here in Ireland), after a shopping trip in New York, depending on the mood (I guess) of the custom officers.
As an EU citizen, purchasing online outside the EU, the parcel usually/sometimes gets stopped by custom. They contact me in writing and ask for an invoice for the incoming goods, which I then have to provide and I get taxed according to this invoice.
The tax is in Ireland 21%, meaning that I have to pay 21% Tax whether I paid any tax in the purchasing country or not.
You do technically owe use tax on purchases made in Canada. This time around, you don’t even get the offsetting credit. Duty-free has to do with Federal excise taxes and duties - has nothing to do with State taxation.
States have the right to tax whatever they want within their state (with certain exceptions for goods passing through their State in interstate commerce). The logical reason for the use tax has been repeatedly explained in this thread, and the reasoning for this tax is obvious, not ambiguous, and reasonable.
FWIW, I think you’re being purposefully dense (in that Oceanic “golly gee, what you Americans do is so incomprehensible and non-sensical to me!” moralizing way that seems to characterize every comment that every Kiwi or Kangaroo that posts on this board makes in relation to America). If not, apologies.
I don’t buy the notion that this is at all “reasonable”. Sorry, brick-and-mortar stores – you use a bunch of local services that online retailers physically located in some other state don’t, so it’s perfectly fair that you specifically get to pay for them.
The taxes we’re talking about here are taxes paid by the consumers, not by the retailers. And the states are trying to go after this money precisely because the people who avoid the taxes by purchasing from out-of-state retailers do, in fact, live in places where they are meant to be paying tax on their purchases.
