Correct. And contrary to what is indicated by a couple of posts in this chain, most POS systems are perfectly capable of removing/ignoring sales tax; they have to be in order to support tax-free purchases by tax-exempt groups.
I think most people don’t bother to think of the sales tax because they know it’s there. I know I do. When I buy something, it’s not like I’m surprised that the price came out to more than the advertised price, it’s just that I didn’t bother to figure it out ahead of time. I usually have a good idea of how much something is going to cost. I don’t need to consciously think “okay, this iPod is $160. How much will that be with sales tax? Let me get out my calculator.” I just assume it’s going to be in the $180ish/$190ish range.
In Washington state, you don’t need to pay sales tax if you show a valid Oregon or Alaska driver’s license. This is supposed to encourage tourism and travel between the states, and keep border businesses from losing business to non-taxed competitors over the state line.
Again it depends on where you live. I live in a state that doesn’t have a sales tax on anything but meals. Because of this I do not pay sales tax when I order online, no matter where I’m ordering from.
People in Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, and (obviously) Washington state pay sales tax for goods bought on Amazon.
Chicago has a big box item tax. For things like refridgerators and sofas. If you purchase a sofa, for example, in the suburbs you’re suppose to pay the difference between the rate of tax in the suburbs and the rate in Chicago. Of course you can’t really enforce it.
(Chicago) Mayor Daley, wanted to try to force any delivery drivers or delivery companies to collect the extra tax but no one could ever find a way to do it correctly or efficiently so the idea was dropped.
Stores tend to overtax rather than undertax if they are unsure. In states I’ve worked in accounting like Florida, Illinois and Maryland, if you charge someone tax, it’s fine as long as you report that tax to the state government even if the tax rate is incorrect or if the tax shouldn’t be applied. You only get in trouble if you charge the tax and keep it. So there is no real punishment to get the taxes correct.
In otherwords if I charge someone 10% tax and report it to the state as 10%, and I later find out it should be 6% tax, there’s no issue. If I charge someone 10% tax and then report to the state only the lawful 6% and keep the 4% it’s a crime.
Ah, I forgot about the states that have specifically enacted legislation about internet orders. :smack:
I stand corrected.
Edit to add: Actually, it wouldn’t matter about where the company was located, physically, unless they have a retail facility. As far as I know, Amazon has no brick and mortar facility, so the fact that they’re located in Washington shouldn’t effect the sales tax status.
Adding onto this, there’s a small form we have to fill out that will get us out of paying sales tax, but we rarely use it unless it’s for big ticket items like cars or big screen TVs, etc. Normally it’s just a spreadsheet to fill in our name and DL #, address and such. Vancouver, WA is just across the river from Portland, and getting Portlanders to spend money there is a challenge. I normally just pay it, but it gets me every time. “what do you mean it’s $27.32? The tags add up to $23… oh yea sales tax.”
Another perk to living here is even for businesses that are based in Oregon we still pay no sales tax on internet orders 
amarone writes:
> And contrary to what is indicated by a couple of posts in this chain, most POS
> systems are perfectly capable of removing/ignoring sales tax; they have to be
> in order to support tax-free purchases by tax-exempt groups.
I didn’t say anything about whether the cash register was capable of removing sales tax. I said that sales tax is done automatically by the cash register. I presume that there is a button on the cash register to automatically remove the sales tax for tax-exempt groups when the cashier is handed the proper certification. Furthermore, I said that for most people in typical circumstances, they never think about the sales tax because it’s done automatically without their having to think about it. Most. Typical. O.K.?
It’s not just Alaska and Oregon. Residents of Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, about half the provinces of Canada, and overseas US-related places like the US Virgin Islands can also ask not to pay sales tax on tangible personal property purchases in Washington. There’s a Department of Revenue form that has to be filled out, whether you’re from that list or from Alaska/Oregon, and you have to have valid state/territory/province/what-have-you ID to get the tax-free price.
A presence of a retail facility is not the only thing that triggers sales tax. There are other types of business presence that do so as well.
While online shopping is an option for everyone, one thing to keep in mind is that for many people in the US, physically crossing state lines to shop would cost more in gas than it would save in tax. I love the saying “A European is someone who thinks 100 miles is a long distance, an American is someone who thinks 100 years is a long time.” Sometimes people unfamiliar with the US, or familiar only with the small eastern states, have difficulty really grasping the distances involved in much of the US.
In Missouri, auto dealers do not collect sales tax (automobiles/trucks are typically the largest purchase a consumer would pay sales tax on.) Instead, the buyer pays the sales tax when the car is registered (the state also collects whatever local sales tax may apply and refunds it to the local city.) There’s no way a buyer can avoid the sales tax by buying online, from a private party or in another state.
But theoretically someone from another state could purchase a car in Missouri and register it in their state, avoiding sales tax.
I do not know about other states, but this will not work in Georgia. When you register the car you have to provide the bill of sale. If it shows that you have bought the car from a corporation (it does not even have to be a car dealer) they will collect sales tax at time of registration.
Montgomery, AL has 10% tax on everything (groceries, electronics, clothing), which is one of the higher in the nation. On the bright side it’s super easy to do the math on what you’re going to pay.
I live in Vermont, which has sales tax, very near the border with New Hampshire, which has no sales tax. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the shopping outlets are located on the NH side of the border. We purchased a car in New Hampshire (not due to the tax thing - that’s just where we happened to find it) without paying any tax. However, I had to register it in Vermont, and they require proof of sales tax payment*. Since I hadn’t paid, I had a couple of thousand dollars thrown onto my registration fee, so I didn’t get away with anything. That said, it’s only major items like cars that the government will bother with, as has been noted.
*When I moved here from another sales tax-using state, I had to reregister my car here, but since I could prove I’d owned the car for at least three years, they took that as evidence that I must have paid whatever I’d owed.