Sales tax on Heritage invoice?

[steve B]

Mcaps link spells it out pretty clearly. Texas seems to tax mail order and internet transactions as though they were local.

The laws have been changing, 40 states have setup to require sales tax on all sales even if the seller has no physical presence there.

Amazon has been fighting it, likely at great expense.

Personally I'd ask them to fix their policy page and pay the tax.

Unless you want to get into fighting Texas over the tax......And if you've got that sort of money ther are better things to do with it.

Steve B

[jimross]

This sales tax thing got to be something new and everyone should be watched out for. People should add that "sales tax" factor on top of those already super high "buyer's penalty" before they place their bids.

I won something from HA last yr and they didn't charged me sales tax.

[Exhibitman]

HA has long had a Beverly Hills office so I've been used to factoring in the sales tax on their auctions. It did deter me from making a bid on an item this time as it would have boosted the cost of an item by $245 for me above the bid + vig.

[sycks22]

I just got that too with the sales tax and live in NC, nowhere near Texas or NY.

[jimross]

By the way, (kind of off topic) watch out for HA shipping fee charge back. They might send u another invoice later on for additional shipping fee since whatever amount they are charging u now might be less than the actual shipping fee.

[scooter729]

I'm not looking for a legal battle with Texas or anything like that; I just want to know what my final price is that I'll pay when I make a bid.

I know that if I make a $1,000 bid, I would have to pay $1,195 (their 19.5% juice) + some postage / insurance. So I make my decision on whether I want to make a bid which amounts to $1,225-ish.

But little did I know (nor is it ANYWHERE in their terms) that I would be paying an additional 8.25% sales tax. Had I known that, I could have factored that extra $100 expense into my bidding decision.

Next time, I will know and can bid accordingly. But when it explicitly states in their terms that Massachusetts does NOT pay sales tax unless the Heritage auction is held in Massachusetts, then I don't want to pay the extra 8.25%.

Link to Heritage sales tax terms, with state-by-state info:
http://sports.ha.com/c/ref/sales-tax.zx

[Runscott]

The complaint we have is that it was something new, and I doubt any of us factored this additional cost into our bids.

My invoice is for 30.42% above the hammer price - that is a significant surprise.