Fees when buying at an AH

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

In my experience, you do not pay sales tax (or use tax) if you are not in a state where the auction has a physical presence.

I am an accountant and if the auction house does not have what is known as a physical or business nexus in a particular state whereby they have to charge you sales tax, you as the buyer are generally required to still pay the applicable tax, except it is then referred to as a "use" tax. If you look up the laws in pretty much every state, it is not known as just a "sales" tax, it is mostly listed and known as "sales & use" taxes. The fact that the state doesn't come knocking on your door to collect the "use" tax doesn't mean you technically don't owe it.