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On a much smaller scale, this is achieved in the US by going to a no sales tax state like Oregon or Delaware. With the sales tax in Los Angeles at 10.25%, I’ve
by acwan93 6y ago
On a much smaller scale, this is achieved in the US by going to a no sales tax state like Oregon or Delaware.
With the sales tax in Los Angeles at 10.25%, I’ve ended up queuing up large purchases together, buying a round trip ticket to Portland ($200-300) and hitting up the Apple Store, Target, Best Buy there. And get a free trip to Portland!
I’ve read the Christiana Mall in Delaware is especially popular for people living along the I-95 corridor for this very purpose.
- freebasenic 6y agoYou pay the tax during tax season though, _right_ ?
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoAt least a few years ago there was some bogus California tax thing where they added some money your tax bill assuming you were buying things online and other places without paying sales tax.
- gilrain 6y agoThat's just a convenient, estimated option for if you choose not to keep track of your untaxed purchases yourself.
- 0xfaded 6y agoHaha, I looked into doing this for an avionics upgrade for a light aircraft I used to have a share in. Apparently the taxman actually has time to chase down people who fly their aircraft around for tax reasons. To be clear, we wound up doing the upgrade in California where the aircraft was based.
- acwan93 6y agoI think state governments go after large purchases, like (pricy) wedding rings, aircraft, cars, or anything like that simply because that's where they'll get the biggest return. It might be an urban legend now, but I've heard of a soon-to-be-married couple purchasing a wedding ring in Portland, OR, and making several trips from SF to Portland. They took photos of the ring at typical Portland attractions (Mt. Hood, Multnomah Falls, food carts), and did that for several months. Doing that, after adding up all the flight/hotel tickets, was still cheaper than buying the ring straight up in California.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gilrain 6y agoHopefully your local civil services are not terribly affected by your dodging of taxes, in case you or someone you care about ever needs them.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoCalifornia gets plenty of tax revenue, trust us. We’re reminded of that every paycheck.
- gilrain 6y agoHow convenient that you're an expert on the resources required to govern one of the top economies in the world. I suppose California should adopt a pay-what-you-want model, given the prevalence of such experts.
- stinkyball 6y agoWhy so passive aggressive?
- speeder 6y agoHere in Brazil people think tax is theft, and that avoiding taxes is moral... Problem is, often they are not wrong, there is massive government corruption, and taxes are often used for unethical and wrong things, meanwhile actual services are often paid by the population themselves. For example: my family pay all our business and whatnot taxes correctly, because we don't want to get dragged into a crime spree (if you are avoiding taxes you open yourself to extortion, and from extortion to other crimes...), yet my parents paid my education until I was 18, I paid my own education after that, the street in front of our house, we bought it, literally (was crazy expensive too since our house is in a corner). The phone lines? We also paid for that, when we moved in there was no phone in the neighbourhood, but since we had a business we needed phone, so we paid people to install the cables for us. Deliveries? All done with private companies, the public service is crap. Police? We often pay private security, all times we had to call emergency, it didn't work (in one egregious case: we told the cop someone broken in violently in a neighbour house, the cop replied on the phone, literally: oh sorry, my shift today has few people, and we don't want to risk our lives, so we won't go), fire? Same shit, calling for the firefighters worked ONCE for me, and was because the road itself was on fire, all otehr attempts failed, many they didn't even picked up, my parents house did got damaged because of it (someone tried to burn trash in a field behind the house, it burned our backyard that was full of fruit trees, and burned a neighbour house down, and damaged a ton of other houses). Health? Well, that is one thing that works more or less right... still most of my healthcare I paid for it, the government healthcare is prone to make stupid mistakes and kill people for stupid reasons (for example the hospital nearest my house killed a guy by giving him insulin AFTER he warned them he was allergic, they didn't believed him and though he was some kind of conspiracy anti-vaccer nut and was using allergy as excuse). And the list goes on, and on, and on. Whenever I argue against taxes, people reply with a list of: "Oh, you don't use X?" and then I reply: "Yes, I use it, and pay it as a private service" the only thing I don't pay a private service for, is the military.
- quaffapint 6y agoPeople will actually fly in from China to go to that mall in Delaware and buy cases of phones. They used to pay local college kids to go get them (because there was a limit), but then the store just got rid of the middle man and allowed them to buy in bulk.
- ksec 6y agoYes. But Is this still happening though. Apple has lowered iPhone prices in China, so that if you exclude any sales tax and import tax, China now has the cheapest iPhone 12. ( Or Apple is making less money per iPhone sold in China ) Part of the reason why Apple is protecting its Services Revenue.
- Grimm665 6y agoThe Salem NH Apple store sees a lot of visitors from MA for the same reason.
- wtmt 6y agoDon't you have a "use tax" that you're legally obligated to pay sales tax locally as per the rates in force in Los Angeles even if you buy something from another location? I recognize that legal requirements and common practice are different.
- MrMorden 6y agoYes and yes.