The world might implode! I'm mad at Amazon!

[itsheresomewhere]

I haven't gotten a statement like that but I do get a thanks for doing business with us every year.

[Mom in High Heels]

I haven't gotten a statement like that but I do get a thanks for doing business with us every year.

 

 

I got a note from Jeff Boaz a while back thanking me for being a loyal customer from the beginning. It was not an email, but a handwritten note (or at least it looked handwritten, probably by someone lowly). You'd think they would give me something special, wouldn't you?

[LucyStoner]

I live in Seattle. I have always paid sales tax (and one of the highest rates of sales tax in the nation) on anything I bought from them except groceries which are non-taxable in my state.

 

Avoiding sales tax by ordering from out of state companies and then breaking the law by not paying the tax to your state (which few people do) really does hurt local businesses. I don't really care if people do it, but don't complain with local retailers close and people lose their local jobs. Avoiding sales tax contributes to this. States are reasonable to press for collection IMO.

[LucyStoner]

 

I got a note from Jeff Boaz a while back thanking me for being a loyal customer from the beginning. It was not an email, but a handwritten note (or at least it looked handwritten, probably by someone lowly). You'd think they would give me something special, wouldn't you?

 

 

Jeff Bezos literally does not sleep. Maybe it was real!

[QueenCat]

Well, Amazon does not send me any statement. I have to sit there and add them all up, and then take the percentage myself. There is a line on my state tax return for tax owed on out-of-state purchases. You are supposed to included things bought from outside the country, including things brought back from trips abroad. I do.

 

 

Sales tax on things purchased in your state, which includes Amazon if they have a physical presence, is one thing. Not sure how you can be expected to pay sales tax on things bought when you were elsewhere. That seems like double taxation to me. We don't have state income taxes so for sales tax owed that is not collected by the business, we have a form to fill out & mail in.

[stripe]

Sales tax on things purchased in your state, which includes Amazon if they have a physical presence, is one thing. Not sure how you can be expected to pay sales tax on things bought when you were elsewhere. That seems like double taxation to me. We don't have state income taxes so for sales tax owed that is not collected by the business, we have a form to fill out & mail in.

Well, that's what the directions to my tax forms say. If you pay state sales tax equal to or more than my home state's sales taxes, I think you don't have to pay. I think there are states whose neighbors have no sales tax, where some people who live on the border go there to buy things. I don't actually do this, myself, not being right by the border of a state with no income tax. (I live in a state with both state tax and sales tax.)

 

But I suspect the law is really targeting purchases from out-of-state of items via the internet or catalogs where the shopper stays put at home -- because that IS a purchase made in the home state where no tax was collected.

 

When I am overseas, yes, I do pay tax on them, but not to the US government, and then I declare them when I enter the country, and am not made to pay duties on them. But apparently I am supposed to pay state tax on them. Since I fill out a form with my name on it listing the value of what I'm bringing in, I prefer to pay the tax rather than get in any sort of trouble. It's not *that* much money.

(As an example: http://chicago.cbslo...-bought-abroad/ )

 

Needless to say, it's kind of a hassle to figure out how much I owe. There is an estimation tool based on income if you really have no idea, but I know it's too low for me. I just have to sit there with my records and add it all up. So I like businesses that collect the dang tax for me.

[Mom0012]

What I find odd with the add-on program, is that they still wind up shipping most of my stuff separately. Four days ago, I ordered a T square, a bottle of children's cold medicine, and a facial cleaning thing. Oh, and a bottle of vitamins. I received the t-square right away (and I'm sure shipping was more than I paid for the item), the cold medicine today, and the other two items haven't even shipped and may not ship until Monday. I don't know how they can make money that way.

[somo_chickenlady]

I refuse to use Amazon for anything other than Kindle books b/c of the stupid add-on program.