Quote:
Originally Posted by steve B
Import duty and sales/use tax are different things. I believe technically in my state, it's sales AND use tax, so it applies to all purchases that aren't exempt. But paying it is a nuisance, I think there's forms to fill out. Like I bought a $10 wrench at home depot in NH where there's no sales tax, and brought it home, so here's the 62.5 Cents I owe. I haven't met anyone who does that.
It does make me wonder though...
If a state calls it a use tax......Can I buy something like a coffee maker, leave it in the package unopened and then ask for a refund since I never used it?
If my state didn't call it both, I might just try it to be a nuisance.
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In pretty much every state it is sales and use taxes, not just sales tax. The term "use" is just a name tag more or less for the part of the law applicable to when the buyer/consumer did not get charged sales tax by the seller. It is deemed that if you bought it, you are going to use/consume the item you purchased, and the "use" tax applies whether you actually leave it in the box or not! For all the states care, they'll just assume you left the item in the box to use as a door stop or whatever.
And as for the comment about driving over to New Hampshire, where you then buy a hammer because there is no sales tax in that state, before then driving back to your home state that does have sales/use tax laws in effect and where you actually live and will use the hammer, you don't need to worry about reporting and paying a use tax on that purchase to your home state. That is because you actually completed the sales transaction yourself, in person, in New Hampshire. When the purchaser/consumer actually goes to a seller's location/store to buy something and takes it with them, that seller's location/store is considered the point of sale and the sales tax charged is based on whatever applicable sales/use tax laws and rates are in effect for that store location.
Think about the opposite side of your scenario. What if you lived in sales tax free New Hampshire and traveled to another state that did have sales tax to purchase that same hammer before then going home to New Hampshire to actually use it? Because you physically went to the store in another state, the sale was completed in that state at that store's location. The sale is deemed completed at that location and you will be charged the applicable sales tax on on the hammer. If you try telling the store clerk that you live in New Hampshire and and are planning to drive home right away to use it so they shouldn't be charging you any sales tax, they will tell you it doesn't matter because you're buying the hammer in their state and therefore they have to charge you the applicable sales tax on it (or at least they should).
Plus, if states tried to monitor and enforce their sales and use tax laws on purchases like that, it is virtually impossible. Think about it, you throw away the receipt for the hammer right after you bought it for cash, so how could someone then prove you bought it in a sales tax free state? And what state is going to waste the time, effort and cost in going after someone for sales tax on a hammer.....they aren't. And that is also why virtually no individual person in any state that has a use tax voluntarily reports and pays it to their state. They know the state isn't going to come after them as an individual because of the time, cost and effort it would take to enforce the use tax laws on them. Also it would be political suicide for legislators in any state that started trying to enforce it. So many people buy so much stuff online any more that they didn't previously get charged sales tax on, if a particular state started trying to target its residents for use taxes, I can only imagine the political implications and speed at which elected officials would be voted out of office that pushed for the enforcement.
And that is also why in most states with use tax laws, they really only go after larger companies and businesses that may be buying things from out of state without having paid the sales/use tax on it. States don't have the resources to go after small amounts from individuals. They go after the bigger companies and businesses where they may find some significant dollars that are owed them for use taxes. Or they find out about specific situations and circumstances where they become aware of sales/use tax abuse and go after that sector. For example, I'm in Ohio and a few years back the Ohio sales tax department started looking specifically at Ohio dentists for sales/use taxes. Turns out someone at the Ohio Department of Taxation figured out that most dentists that did implants and provided dentures for their patients were all acquiring them from just a couple of companies that produced them here in the U.S., but because none of them were located in Ohio, they didn't have to charge sales tax to any of the dentists. And in turn, the dentists weren't treating the dentures and implants as sales of taxable, tangible property to their patients and collecting the sales tax on it like they probably should have. So the state deemed that the dentists were then the users of these items and went after them for the sales/use taxes. They knew who these several companies were that provided the dentures and implants and just started asking dentists for those invoices, and bingo......they had them!!!!!
08-06-2019, 02:38 PM
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