Quote:
Originally Posted by Lorewalker
Hey Bob,
Just thinking out loud but while there is no law that says that everything we buy has to be sent and kept in our homes, it is clear most, some, many of the purchases that are going to vaults are not necessarily staying at the vaults. The vaults are a brief stopping point for the purchase which the buyer has every intention of taking physical possession of as soon as possible. I think that is where the gray area may not be so gray.
How that could be enforced, I dunno and since the vault concept is relatively new and I have no statistics on what percentage of the items that are shipped to them stay with them. It is entirely possible the tax evasion practice is not material enough to be worth the effort. I also think it would would be complex to track purchases (entering and leaving the vaults) even if that was the burden of each vault to do on a quarterly basis.
Chase
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Hi Chase,
And exactly why I'm saying it isn't so easy and clear. For now, probably not enough dollars to make it worthwhile for states to try going after these vaults. The states are still basking in the glow and sales tax windfall created with the SCOTUS decision in the South Dakota vs, Wayfair case from back in 2018. And remember, the vaults aren't doing anything wrong. It is the individuals that own the cards who are responsible and potentially liable in these cases. And whereas states don't mind pushing against big companies, like Wayfair and Amazon, when it comes to sales tax law changes like in that 2018 SCOTUS decision, this issue would be pushing against individuals and going after use tax they owe. States don't have the time and resources to go after all those people for the somewhat nominal amounts each of them would potentially owe. And for the states to change sales tax laws to somehow make vaults, AHs, or other online sellers responsible in this particular case would entail some rather profound changes to sales tax laws in general, and could even lead to issues and conflicts between states. Also, big companies don't vote, people do. Tax authorities potentially going after all the individuals in a state (who can vote) usually doesn't make them very happy with elected officials who let those tax authorities come after them. The SCOTUS decision didn't really change any sales tax laws. All it did was redefine the definition of when a seller was responsible to collect and remit sales tax on sales to customers in a particular state, which is known as "nexus".