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This came from an era when online purchases did not have sales tax

by madrox 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
FireBeyond 3y ago
And yet even Amazon complied and now computes tax based on where the buyer is. As does B&H. Years ago (approaching, if not a decade ago).
- lotsofpulp 3y ago
  So does Apple, for even longer than Amazon and B&H since Apple has had physical locations in most states for longer than Amazon and B&H, so they always had to remit sales tax to most states.
  - FireBeyond 3y ago
    Uh, no? This entire article is how Apple declares all online sales to have happened in Cupertino, regardless of where the buyer is. Amazon doesn't do that, they say the sale happened where the buyer is. B&H does the same. Apple says "it happened in Cupertino, so we'll pay taxes related to Cupertino and our special tax agreement with Cupertino".
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      That is a California specific situation that applies to California taxes and California’s local governments’ portion of those taxes. If you are in any state, Apple still collects and remits sales tax for that state. Amazon/B&H example was that they were not collecting sales taxes in states they did not have a physical presence in, until the South Dakota Wayfair ruling.
tzs 3y ago
Technically correct, but in practice if you bought something online from out of state it was subject to your state's use tax, which had the same rate as your state's sales tax. But your state could not make the seller collect the use tax for the state so instead consumers were required to report those purchases to their state and pay the tax. Almost no consumer did that, except for items that had to be registered like cars where the state would not allow registration if the use tax was not paid, and so the use tax was widely openly evaded. For online purchases where the buyer and seller were in the same state the state did have the power to make the seller collect sales tax and I believe most states did. It was pretty common though for the tax to be the sales tax at the seller's location, not the buyer's location. And not just in the US--prior to 2015 a seller in an EU country selling online to a buyer in another EU country collected their own country's VAT not the buyer's country's VAT. A few years ago the Supreme Court in the US decided that states could make online sellers in other states collect for them. I believe it is technically use tax that is collected in this case, not sales tax, but since the rates are the same and most consumers weren't even aware of use taxes, so everybody just calls it sales tax.

This came from an era when online purchases did not have sales tax

by madrox 3y ago

This came from an era when online purchases did not have sales tax

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

FireBeyond 3y ago

And yet even Amazon complied and now computes tax based on where the buyer is. As does B&H. Years ago (approaching, if not a decade ago).

lotsofpulp 3y ago
So does Apple, for even longer than Amazon and B&H since Apple has had physical locations in most states for longer than Amazon and B&H, so they always had to remit sales tax to most states.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  Uh, no? This entire article is how Apple declares all online sales to have happened in Cupertino, regardless of where the buyer is. Amazon doesn't do that, they say the sale happened where the buyer is. B&H does the same. Apple says "it happened in Cupertino, so we'll pay taxes related to Cupertino and our special tax agreement with Cupertino".
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    That is a California specific situation that applies to California taxes and California’s local governments’ portion of those taxes. If you are in any state, Apple still collects and remits sales tax for that state. Amazon/B&H example was that they were not collecting sales taxes in states they did not have a physical presence in, until the South Dakota Wayfair ruling.

tzs 3y ago

Technically correct, but in practice if you bought something online from out of state it was subject to your state's use tax, which had the same rate as your state's sales tax. But your state could not make the seller collect the use tax for the state so instead consumers were required to report those purchases to their state and pay the tax. Almost no consumer did that, except for items that had to be registered like cars where the state would not allow registration if the use tax was not paid, and so the use tax was widely openly evaded. For online purchases where the buyer and seller were in the same state the state did have the power to make the seller collect sales tax and I believe most states did. It was pretty common though for the tax to be the sales tax at the seller's location, not the buyer's location. And not just in the US--prior to 2015 a seller in an EU country selling online to a buyer in another EU country collected their own country's VAT not the buyer's country's VAT. A few years ago the Supreme Court in the US decided that states could make online sellers in other states collect for them. I believe it is technically use tax that is collected in this case, not sales tax, but since the rates are the same and most consumers weren't even aware of use taxes, so everybody just calls it sales tax.