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But you don't. If I am from South Africa and I buy a US product from a smaller website I don't pay South Africa sales taxes. If I buy from Amazon I would beca

by wolco 7y ago

But you don't. If I am from South Africa and I buy a US product from a smaller website I don't pay South Africa sales taxes. If I buy from Amazon I would because they have offices or a physical presence. When you buy a product from a website hosted/incorporated in a different country you are literally going into another country and buying a product under their laws. Your local taxes (national/stat wide/city wide) shouldn't matter and don't. The same should apply for eu privacy law.

noodlesUK 7y ago
If this is your experience buying things internationally from smaller websites, that surprises me greatly. When I purchase items from US retailers in European countries, before the item arrives, I get a little slip to pay the duties on the item. If I don’t pay, the item doesn’t arrive.
- wolco 7y ago
  Duty is imposed at the country level. In my country things we make have additional duty but products we don't are not. I would assume importing milk might trigger 50% duty but receiving a dnakit from 23andme wouldn't.
  - noodlesUK 7y ago
    My experience has been that I need to pay VAT, as well as any specific duties for the category of item I’m bringing in. This can be a lot, as VAT is currently 20%. I’m okay with it though. Any item I buy locally have VAT, and I think it’s unfair if you don’t charge that on imports. It’s the beauty of a VAT that it won’t hurt production if you’re reselling the goods anyway.
  - diffeomorphism 7y ago
    No, you and the sellers are just committing tax fraud at a small enough level that nobody cares: https://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Customs-Excise/DutiesTaxes/Pages/Duties-and-Taxes-for-Importers-.aspx https://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Customs-Excise/Duties... Amazon is too large to get away with that and hence charges you sales tax. The "small shops" can get away with it, but it is still illegal.
ubercow13 7y ago
You don’t pay US sales tax, though. You should probably be paying South Africa sales tax? You would have to if importing into the U.K. at least
- tempestn 7y ago
  But the point is, it's not the US company's responsibility to deduct your country's sales tax for them. Some companies do as a courtesy to their customers, but they're not required to do so. It's your responsibility when importing the item into your country to pay your local sales tax. The US company can treat you like any other local customer.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Faark 7y ago
> The same should apply for eu privacy law. Isn't there kind of an opt-out? Whenever I use a US VPN to read some non GDPR compliant website blocking EU users, I can hardly expect that law to protect me. Thing is whatever is necessary to "literally going into another country" cannot be easy & automatically done to everyone and thus effectively allow companies to circumvent the law.
ohduran 7y ago
That's unfortunately not the case. You might be abstracted from all the things Amazon or a small website should do in order to get you your stuff where you are. That's why there are Incoterms in order to agree who pays what. Take for instance the issue with tariffs and China: if you were right, someone might say "Ha, I'll buy it on Amazon/AliBaba and I'll go around your unfair tariffs". If only!
lagadu 7y ago
I've no idea how it works in SA but if I buy anything outside my market, I'll be paying customs for importing it. So yes, my local taxes still matter.

by wolco 7y ago

noodlesUK 7y ago

If this is your experience buying things internationally from smaller websites, that surprises me greatly. When I purchase items from US retailers in European countries, before the item arrives, I get a little slip to pay the duties on the item. If I don’t pay, the item doesn’t arrive.

wolco 7y ago
Duty is imposed at the country level. In my country things we make have additional duty but products we don't are not. I would assume importing milk might trigger 50% duty but receiving a dnakit from 23andme wouldn't.
- noodlesUK 7y ago
  My experience has been that I need to pay VAT, as well as any specific duties for the category of item I’m bringing in. This can be a lot, as VAT is currently 20%. I’m okay with it though. Any item I buy locally have VAT, and I think it’s unfair if you don’t charge that on imports. It’s the beauty of a VAT that it won’t hurt production if you’re reselling the goods anyway.
- diffeomorphism 7y ago
  No, you and the sellers are just committing tax fraud at a small enough level that nobody cares: https://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Customs-Excise/DutiesTaxes/Pages/Duties-and-Taxes-for-Importers-.aspx https://www.sars.gov.za/ClientSegments/Customs-Excise/Duties... Amazon is too large to get away with that and hence charges you sales tax. The "small shops" can get away with it, but it is still illegal.

ubercow13 7y ago

You don’t pay US sales tax, though. You should probably be paying South Africa sales tax? You would have to if importing into the U.K. at least

tempestn 7y ago
But the point is, it's not the US company's responsibility to deduct your country's sales tax for them. Some companies do as a courtesy to their customers, but they're not required to do so. It's your responsibility when importing the item into your country to pay your local sales tax. The US company can treat you like any other local customer.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Faark 7y ago

> The same should apply for eu privacy law. Isn't there kind of an opt-out? Whenever I use a US VPN to read some non GDPR compliant website blocking EU users, I can hardly expect that law to protect me. Thing is whatever is necessary to "literally going into another country" cannot be easy & automatically done to everyone and thus effectively allow companies to circumvent the law.

ohduran 7y ago

That's unfortunately not the case. You might be abstracted from all the things Amazon or a small website should do in order to get you your stuff where you are. That's why there are Incoterms in order to agree who pays what. Take for instance the issue with tariffs and China: if you were right, someone might say "Ha, I'll buy it on Amazon/AliBaba and I'll go around your unfair tariffs". If only!

lagadu 7y ago

I've no idea how it works in SA but if I buy anything outside my market, I'll be paying customs for importing it. So yes, my local taxes still matter.