Auction Houses and Sales Tax

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Leon

I had a sales tax certificate exemption for many years and never got audited. I suspect most others are the same way too.

And BobC above hits the nail on the head except for the reality that Sales TAX IS a cost (realized price or not) to everyone without an exemption and part of the equation of buying a card. If it isn't then where can I get my money back? It is a an increment of bidding, in essence. (at least to me)

Leon, I've heard your thoughts on sales taxes before and don't disagree with you. i wasn't saying and never said sales taxes aren't an actual component cost to be factored into any purchase decision, I was merely stating that from a sales tax perspective they are not technically part of the "realized price" of an item because the final "realized price" is what the sales tax is computed and collected on.

You want to separately list and state the sales tax apart from the "realized price", otherwise a state could try to charge you sales tax on the sales tax. For example, if you went into a store and they simply charged you $1.00 for an item without showing a separate amount for sales tax, which they then reported to the state as a $0.93 sale with the remaining $0.07 for the sales tax, the state could technically come back and say the seller owes sales tax on the entire $1.00 "realized price", not just the $0.93 they reported as the sales amount. Because in that case the seller didn't separately break out the sales tax from the "realized price" of $1.00. That was the distinction I was tying to make for everyone so they don't keep saying the sales tax is part of the "realized price", as that implies that sales tax should be charged and collected on the sales tax they are saying is included in the "realized price".

You also noted that you were eligible for a sales tax exemption for many years and never got audited, which as I said is pretty much the norm. Glad to hear someone else chime in that having given someone a sales tax exemption certificate is not a guarantee they will get audited.