Supreme Court Rules States Can Force Online Retailers to Collect Sales Tax

lcpiper said:
Wait, the business doesn't pay the sales tax, they collect it from the customers and pass it on to the State. If you live in a city that borders another state, you cross the border and buy something in the neighboring state, you don't pay sales tax to your own state. The store collects it for the State you are making the purchase in, not the one you call home.
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Good luck figuring out how much to collect when states like California have dozens of different tax rates.
Also, have fun trying to setup accounts with each state, some that require large fees or deposits to open a sales tax account.
You don't just shove the money you collect in an envelope and drop it on the mail.

I work for a small company that sells software not just in different states, but in other countries.
We had to pay for additional software that integrates into our accounting system to track the sales tax in each state, and it's a mess dealing with all the different rules in each state.
 
Wiffle said:
If you think corporate interests are shady, try being a small time successful business in California that just so happens to be in violation of a tiny CalOSHA standard... fines usually range from 50k to 250k depending on the severity, how many times you've been fined for it before, and if the inspector is in a bad mood that day. Most business can't afford the "acceptable" equipment to be compliant 100% of the time so are either going broke trying to stay compliant with the law or going broke paying fines... Either way it pushes smaller businesses towards closing out being bought out by larger corporate interests that can afford to be 100% compliant and can afford fight the state on equal terms in a legal battle.
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Yep, it sucks having a business out here in California.

One of employee in my office got a doctor's note that they needed certain ergonomic additions to their computer.
Even though they picked out stuff that cost several hundred dollars, it was not worth suggesting something different/cheaper, and end up with a complaint filed or a lawsuit (guilty unless you can prove you are innocent).
Now a 2nd employee is requesting one of the same devices.

I'll probably have to lug the stuff to storage by the end of the year since these type of trendy devices tend to fall out of favor quickly.
Guess it's cheaper than having the state fine us.
 
lucidrenegade said:
The only brick and mortar shops I visit anymore outside a grocery store are MicroCenter and Home Depot. If B&M shops think this is going to bring customers back in, I think they're sorely mistaken.
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This more about collecting the tax than about saving local stores. That said, I've been going to Best Buy lately to get steelcase UHD releases. I sometimes go to Bed Bath And Beyond too. With that 20% off, they're often less than Amazon.
 
Could we all agree not to argue one issue. This is unlikely to help brick and mortar stores. Just go on the internet today and look up the price (before sales tax) of products and then compare to brick and mortar like best buy. The local BM stores are almost always more expensive sales tax is not the problem. The big issue is that states have realized so much of what we buy is online now and they have no access to it. Like true politicians instead of solving the problem in a sensible way they went to war. But lets think about it for a bit. How possible is it going to be for a state like South Dakota to enforce the thousands of internet retailers? How many laws will they need to put in place to get that enforcement? next up they will require UPS Fedex and USPS to log where everything is coming from. Or maybe even say all sale items need to come in certain colored boxes? Its all a mess, I have no problem paying sales tax on all items. I think that is fair. My problem is the major loss of efficiency. 1 the government just made their own jobs harder by now needing to enforce laws on people who can be half way across the country. 2 they made it hell on small businesses most of which will simply ignore the laws cause its too much work and cost to remain compliant with 50 states.

What they could have done is just accepted that times are changing and increase the property taxes. This can be done with no increase in work or costs since they already have all the data and are charging it anyway, so its very efficient. It is very resilient to economic cycles. They could even get rid of sales tax entirely and make the whole states treasury more efficient. And ultimately property tax is the best way to get people to pay for what they use in an area because mostly they will use things near or around their homes.

https://taxfoundation.org/state-sales-tax-collections-per-capita-2017/

This infographic tells us how much the average person pays in sales tax, its not by family so that's an issue but lets say that the average person is 2 people, 2 adults. IMO adding $1500- 2000 in property taxes per year would be a good trade off to never have to pay sales tax, not have to think about it at all in purchasing decisions and to reduce and entire department out of government.
 
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rudy said:
Could we all agree not to argue one issue. This is unlikely to help brick and mortar stores. Just go on the internet today and look up the price (before sales tax) of products and then compare to brick and mortar like best buy.
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Best Buy is competitive on price these days. I went into a BB over Memorial Day weekend and hadn't been in a while. A TON of PC accessories there, checked Amazon and a couple of other online retailers and found the K95 Platinum was selling for the same price there as at the BB I was in.

Sales tax is a big deal, not the only one, but one presses the checkout button and ZERO sales tax, DUH.
 
Funny seeing all the people act like this is something new. You have always been required to pay sales tax on your taxes, people just avoiding doing so. Now you just can't cheat on your taxes anymore.
 
Wiffle said:
This won't help small town brick and mortar stores in the slightest, they still can't pay employee wages and they can't offer the same variety that online and large corporate retailers do. If anything this issue has been pushed by large corporate interests like Wal-Mart and Amazon to hamper up and coming online retailers. If things were really about "leveling" the playing field, then this would have been done years ago when online retailers were just gaining traction, and the huge draw to purchasing online that everyone was chanting was "no taxes"... this should have been nipped in the butt waaaay back then. It wasn't resolved because waaaay back then the same corporate interests that are pushing for the collection of taxes now are the same ones that had everyone chanting against them in the past...

Now that everyone has to collect a tax, suddenly selling your goods through Amazon and letting them deal with 50 different versions of sales tax, labor, and legal laws and paying their "small fee" is a lot easier. Convenient how this works in favor of large corporate interest regardless of the verdict... one way they don't allocate resources to the collection of sales tax, the other people pay them because they can't afford or don't want to deal with all the legal crap. Amazon and like minded interests win regardless.

If you think corporate interests are shady, try being a small time successful business in California that just so happens to be in violation of a tiny CalOSHA standard... fines usually range from 50k to 250k depending on the severity, how many times you've been fined for it before, and if the inspector is in a bad mood that day. Most business can't afford the "acceptable" equipment to be compliant 100% of the time so are either going broke trying to stay compliant with the law or going broke paying fines... Either way it pushes smaller businesses towards closing out being bought out by larger corporate interests that can afford to be 100% compliant and can afford fight the state on equal terms in a legal battle.

Edit: I should also add, its usually corporate interests that push for the new standards, usually to sell a product they make or a service, and states are usually more than happy to agree because its more fine money for them and promotes the ideology of a "Safer Working Environment".
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This sounds like it comes from a place of experience.
 
Sales tax here is 27% and is / was imposed on everything, online sales no exception. Better yet, if you buy from overseas, the sales tax as applied to not just to the value of the goods, but any shipping, and duty fees as well.

So you still have it pretty good I think.
 
heatlesssun said:
Best Buy is competitive on price these days. I went into a BB over Memorial Day weekend and hadn't been in a while. A TON of PC accessories there, checked Amazon and a couple of other online retailers and found the K95 Platinum was selling for the same price there as at the BB I was in.

Sales tax is a big deal, not the only one, but one presses the checkout button and ZERO sales tax, DUH.
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Yes sales tax in a way sucks. Extra cost but I can’t say I am unhappy about this decision either.

Things I don’t think will change is the lack of selection in B&M stores. I can’t remember the last time I purchased any computer related things in a store. They just don’t carry anything I want. They aren’t losing money in that respect.

Things that have cost local businesses are things like bicycle parts and other things. Where the local store has it for upwards of 70% more than online. Even with tax I would save online. So while the local shop loses the tax argument on some things do as well.

If your state is like most it’s broke. So taxes help fund those things. I am for it. I just wish we could reform a whole bunch of other shit. I still hate giving them money because they are wasteful bastards.. but I still agree with it on principle
 
Gavv said:
Things I don’t think will change is the lack of selection in B&M stores. I can’t remember the last time I purchased any computer related things in a store. They just don’t carry anything I want.
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B&M stores will never have the on premises selection of an online store, that's just not possible. But I have been surprised by Best Buy and even Walmart these days. They are carrying items that even higher end PC gamers would have interest in. I got my K95 Platinum keyboard, Void Pro headset and ST100 stand at Best Buy over the last month. I did get the Void and ST100 because of some birthday gift cards. Still the pricing on all of this was right in line with Amazon. Of course I'll probably not by much else from BB this year and tons more from Amazon, but it is nice to be able to see stuff in the flesh and actually by in a store now and then.
 
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heatlesssun said:
B&M stores will never have the on premises selection of an online store, that's just not possible. But I have been surprised by Best Buy and even Walmart these days. They are carrying items that even higher end PC gamers would have interest in. I got my K95 Platinum keyboard, Void Pro headset and ST100 stand at Best Buy over the last month. I did get the Void and ST100 because of some birthday gift cards. Still the pricing on all of this was right in line with Amazon. Of course I'll probably not by much else from BB this year and tons more from Amazon, but it is nice to be able to see stuff in the flesh and actually by in a store now and then.
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I agree it for cities that don’t have a bestbuy or micro center.... no brainer
 
LuxTerra said:
In my experience, Amazon hasn't been the same ever since they opened up to third party sellers. I've repeated had to return items because they're counterfeit or gray market. Amazon's random store and inventory mixing allows a third party seller to inject fake goods into the market without any real recourse. Electronic components are the worst, but I've seen it with multiple higher end products.
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So grey market is bad?
 
Good. This levels the playing field. I enjoyed not having to pay tax on several online retailers but it was only a matter of time.
 
Staples said:
Good. This levels the playing field. I enjoyed not having to pay tax on several online retailers but it was only a matter of time.
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If you are OK with paying any and all taxes that already exceed 50% of your yearly income, you lost the war, they have you, you are drinking the coolaid.

This will definitely kill so many small businesses that I hope you all love being fart metered and taxed into 1984 (the book read it and see your future). I'm planning to move to the country to try to avoid all the insane realities of modern society. Enjoy your slavery.

So when a state asks you to pay taxes where you bought the item, and also in the state you live in, how does that pass the insane test?
 
triwolf said:
If you are OK with paying any and all taxes that already exceed 50% of your yearly income, you lost the war, they have you, you are drinking the coolaid.

This will definitely kill so many small businesses that I hope you all love being fart metered and taxed into 1984 (the book read it and see your future). I'm planning to move to the country to try to avoid all the insane realities of modern society. Enjoy your slavery.
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I am not OK with paying any taxes but I am OK with paying government bodies enough to run. There are ridiculous people who seem to have no idea what taxes are used for. They seem to think they all go into a black hole and paying zero taxes would be fine because there would be zero consequence.
I don't always agree where money will be spent but the majority of it goes to good use. Cutting off the money supply doesn't work because good uses get cut too. I'd love if only the waste got cut but we've seen how government cuts work and they have always and will always work the same.
I wouldn't agree with paying state sales tax in two states for a purchase but I don't believe this allows for that. If so, people may be going back to B&M in droves.
I don't see how this can affect small businesses if everyone has to pay the same taxes no matter where they buy the product.
 
If you don't like paying sales tax then how about holding your local governments more accountable at being efficient? Actually doing crap that needs to be done by the government?

Everybody loves free crap - until they have to pay for it :wacky:
 
Staples said:
I am not OK with paying any taxes but I am OK with paying government bodies enough to run. There are ridiculous people who seem to have no idea what taxes are used for. They seem to think they all go into a black hole and paying zero taxes would be fine because there would be zero consequence.
I don't always agree where money will be spent but the majority of it goes to good use. Cutting off the money supply doesn't work because good uses get cut too. I'd love if only the waste got cut but we've seen how government cuts work and they have always and will always work the same.
I wouldn't agree with paying state sales tax in two states for a purchase but I don't believe this allows for that. If so, people may be going back to B&M in droves.
I don't see how this can affect small businesses if everyone has to pay the same taxes no matter where they buy the product.
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Taxes should be about 10% total, any more than that is burdensome.

The problem is that companies that make over $100,000 in a state have to pay local taxes, and there are 100,000 or so jurisdictions to figure this out. It's obviously meant to kill small business by making the figuring of the taxes take more time and money than they could ever have to comply.

It's basically the fruition of the movie Idiocracy, and we get to live it. It's completely nuts.

If I sell in a place where I do not live, it should be up to the buyer to pay the sales tax. It actually goes against law to require this, but don't ever ask even the Supreme Court to research and try to make laws compatible. Politicians like to have several laws on the books so they can choose which one to enforce. Basically the definition of sneaky, evil, whatever you want to call it.
 
Buying from out of state, I pay sales tax, but I can file for a refund. Will I be able to file for a refund online? Doubt it. The footing is not equal.
 
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nutzo said:
Yep, it sucks having a business out here in California.

One of employee in my office got a doctor's note that they needed certain ergonomic additions to their computer.
Even though they picked out stuff that cost several hundred dollars, it was not worth suggesting something different/cheaper, and end up with a complaint filed or a lawsuit (guilty unless you can prove you are innocent).
Now a 2nd employee is requesting one of the same devices.

I'll probably have to lug the stuff to storage by the end of the year since these type of trendy devices tend to fall out of favor quickly.
Guess it's cheaper than having the state fine us.
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Give them something to cry about.
 
M76 said:
Sales tax here is 27% and is / was imposed on everything, online sales no exception. Better yet, if you buy from overseas, the sales tax as applied to not just to the value of the goods, but any shipping, and duty fees as well.

So you still have it pretty good I think.
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Land of the free. If I recall, you wanted to be notified to not come try it out.
 
nutzo said:
Good luck figuring out how much to collect when states like California have dozens of different tax rates.
Also, have fun trying to setup accounts with each state, some that require large fees or deposits to open a sales tax account.
You don't just shove the money you collect in an envelope and drop it on the mail.

I work for a small company that sells software not just in different states, but in other countries.
We had to pay for additional software that integrates into our accounting system to track the sales tax in each state, and it's a mess dealing with all the different rules in each state.
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I have no idea what you are trying to say but you are taking my comments out of context or something.

The only thing I was addressing was the idea that sales tax comes out of a retailer's revenue which is what someone else was saying.

The logistics and mechanics of how retailers have to deal with the requirements of collecting the taxes was not part of the discussion.

It's interesting information, in fact, it's very interesting as it highlights a legitimate concern for any online retailers as they are now incurring costs in order to meet tax levy requirements imposed by states all across the country. I can see that it could be a serious burden.

Looks to me that if the Federal Government is going to make this a reality, then the Fed should pony up on a centralized Data Base that retailer systems can query against for appropriate tax rates, then all software developers can have a centralized and standardized system to code against.
 
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rudy said:
Could we all agree not to argue one issue. This is unlikely to help brick and mortar stores. Just go on the internet today and look up the price (before sales tax) of products and then compare to brick and mortar like best buy. The local BM stores are almost always more expensive sales tax is not the problem. The big issue is that states have realized so much of what we buy is online now and they have no access to it. Like true politicians instead of solving the problem in a sensible way they went to war. But lets think about it for a bit. How possible is it going to be for a state like South Dakota to enforce the thousands of internet retailers? How many laws will they need to put in place to get that enforcement? next up they will require UPS Fedex and USPS to log where everything is coming from. Or maybe even say all sale items need to come in certain colored boxes? Its all a mess, I have no problem paying sales tax on all items. I think that is fair. My problem is the major loss of efficiency. 1 the government just made their own jobs harder by now needing to enforce laws on people who can be half way across the country. 2 they made it hell on small businesses most of which will simply ignore the laws cause its too much work and cost to remain compliant with 50 states.

What they could have done is just accepted that times are changing and increase the property taxes. This can be done with no increase in work or costs since they already have all the data and are charging it anyway, so its very efficient. It is very resilient to economic cycles. They could even get rid of sales tax entirely and make the whole states treasury more efficient. And ultimately property tax is the best way to get people to pay for what they use in an area because mostly they will use things near or around their homes.

https://taxfoundation.org/state-sales-tax-collections-per-capita-2017/

This infographic tells us how much the average person pays in sales tax, its not by family so that's an issue but lets say that the average person is 2 people, 2 adults. IMO adding $1500- 2000 in property taxes per year would be a good trade off to never have to pay sales tax, not have to think about it at all in purchasing decisions and to reduce and entire department out of government.
Click to expand...


Instead, these companies will move their web based "front end" to another country and just put their warehouses here in the states. How is Texas going to tax a business in Dubai ?
 
Cyraxx said:
Wrong. You're just too inept to understand the concept that the customer has the choice of saying "Hmmm, I can buy this at Target instore for $99.99 + $10 in tax, or I can buy it online from Amazon for $99.99 with no tax applied". Which one do you think the customer is more likely to choose? That is the problem, it DOES have a bearing on what customers decide to purchase - and thus it affects the profits of the corporation AND the amount tax collected by the state.



Uhhh... Wut? I work in sales tax - the destination in which you are shipping a product to is the point of taxation (general rule - certain states base it on other factors such as TX and IL). Billing address generally has no affect.
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I'm inept and can't understand?

I know full fucking well what choices all customers have.

The discussion was not what choices the customers have, or whether the situation creates an unfair advantage for B&M stores.

The discussion was as follows;
brucethemoose said:"Whether the sales tax is good or not, they shouldn't be excluded from paying sales tax when B&M stores have to."

To which, I pointed out;
"Wait, the business doesn't pay the sales tax, they collect it from the customers and pass it on to the State."

Which was followed by:
"Technically true, but thats not the point. The State is still getting a cut of the business' revenue."

To which I responded;
"Regards State Sales tax, the State levies a tax against an individual's purchases, not against the business."

Do you more clearly see what the discussion between brucethemoose and myself was?

It doesn't matter if a retailer, whether B&M or e-commerce, collects and transfers tax revenues for the states, in both situations, the State does NOT get a cut of the business's revenue for sales taxes. The businesses do still pay their other taxes. But businesses do not tax sales taxes for the customer out of their own revenues, they just pass on what they have collected from the customer for the State.

Now I want to hear back from you about my ineptness and inability to understand...........
 
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Cyraxx said:
.................Uhhh... Wut? I work in sales tax - the destination in which you are shipping a product to is the point of taxation (general rule - certain states base it on other factors such as TX and IL). Billing address generally has no affect.
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I tested that out and you are correct: I went through the process of buying a TV, changed the shipping address to Donald Trump's White House address in DC and the sales tax dropped from $88 to $63. That guy really get's over.
 
heatlesssun said:
Best Buy is competitive on price these days. I went into a BB over Memorial Day weekend and hadn't been in a while. A TON of PC accessories there, checked Amazon and a couple of other online retailers and found the K95 Platinum was selling for the same price there as at the BB I was in.

Sales tax is a big deal, not the only one, but one presses the checkout button and ZERO sales tax, DUH.
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First it hasn't been my experience that they are competitive, sure sometimes they are cheaper, sometimes the same price, but mostly they are more expensive cost me almost $80 for some cables and adapters I could buy for $30 at amazon, and yes I have to pay tax at amazon. As for the PC accessories, yes it is good they finally pulled their head out of their asses but its still not like they are serving PC builders really. I went in the other day I needed a screw for M.2, they said we don't sell any screws like that, its not like I asked for some obsolete weird product, its a basic screw for a current and growing segment of product and they literally had nothing, no screws at all. I thought funny your a computer store. Also needed a chair, nope they didn't have any. The reality is best buy threw out their entire PC gaming and components area for the most part and only brought it back because Esports has gotten SO big. But they are still failing in the same way they always did. They have a whole aisle of PC gaming stuff right? What is in it? The same redundant competing products from 5 different brands. Want a cherry red mechanical keyboard with RGB? No problem they have 4 different ones to choose from. But actual real selection? Nope just lots of the same over and over. Same problem I always had with their monitor selection. How many 24 inch 1080p monitors can you have? Less selection higher prices. And now that so many of us have to pay sales tax at Amazon the excuses are running out. Shipping plus sales tax and Amazon is still competitive. Now maybe I can get knowledgeable help at brick and mortar, maybe, but not at best buy.
 
lcpiper said:
Instead, these companies will move their web based "front end" to another country and just put their warehouses here in the states. How is Texas going to tax a business in Dubai ?
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Ya this is why I think people would do themselves a favor if they just push state and local governments to flip all revenue that was brought in through sales tax to property tax and get rid of sales tax completely. If you want to live somewhere pay based on where you live. Sales tax is so volitale, economic cycles, buying out of state, etc...
 
rudy said:
Ya this is why I think people would do themselves a favor if they just push state and local governments to flip all revenue that was brought in through sales tax to property tax and get rid of sales tax completely. If you want to live somewhere pay based on where you live. Sales tax is so volitale, economic cycles, buying out of state, etc...
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I do agree to a degree. I get taxes at the pump as long as the money is going towards maintaining the state's roads, etc.

I mean really, the Fed and in my case, AZ. taxes my money when I make it. They tax it when I use it. They tax it when my money makes money and if I die they tax it before my beneficiaries receive it. And if I buy anything nice with my money, then they tax it every year I own it.

Really, they have a budget, why don't they just do the freakin math and send me a bill for my share?
 
rudy said:
Ya this is why I think people would do themselves a favor if they just push state and local governments to flip all revenue that was brought in through sales tax to property tax and get rid of sales tax completely. If you want to live somewhere pay based on where you live. Sales tax is so volitale, economic cycles, buying out of state, etc...
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You must not live in CA. Our property taxes are already ridiculously high and end up being like 1/3-1/2 of your monthly mortgage payment...... That on top of also stupid high sales tax at almost 10%..... Yet the twits here can't seem to vote no on any tax increase/bond measure that shows up on the ballet.
 
rudy said:
Could we all agree not to argue one issue. This is unlikely to help brick and mortar stores. Just go on the internet today and look up the price (before sales tax) of products and then compare to brick and mortar like best buy. The local BM stores are almost always more expensive sales tax is not the problem. The big issue is that states have realized so much of what we buy is online now and they have no access to it. Like true politicians instead of solving the problem in a sensible way they went to war. But lets think about it for a bit. How possible is it going to be for a state like South Dakota to enforce the thousands of internet retailers? How many laws will they need to put in place to get that enforcement? next up they will require UPS Fedex and USPS to log where everything is coming from. Or maybe even say all sale items need to come in certain colored boxes? Its all a mess, I have no problem paying sales tax on all items. I think that is fair. My problem is the major loss of efficiency. 1 the government just made their own jobs harder by now needing to enforce laws on people who can be half way across the country. 2 they made it hell on small businesses most of which will simply ignore the laws cause its too much work and cost to remain compliant with 50 states.

What they could have done is just accepted that times are changing and increase the property taxes. This can be done with no increase in work or costs since they already have all the data and are charging it anyway, so its very efficient. It is very resilient to economic cycles. They could even get rid of sales tax entirely and make the whole states treasury more efficient. And ultimately property tax is the best way to get people to pay for what they use in an area because mostly they will use things near or around their homes.

https://taxfoundation.org/state-sales-tax-collections-per-capita-2017/

This infographic tells us how much the average person pays in sales tax, its not by family so that's an issue but lets say that the average person is 2 people, 2 adults. IMO adding $1500- 2000 in property taxes per year would be a good trade off to never have to pay sales tax, not have to think about it at all in purchasing decisions and to reduce and entire department out of government.
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No. My property tax is about 3% of my home & if the Chicago Fed has it's way, it'll be 4%. Yearly.
 
Biznatch said:
You must not live in CA. Our property taxes are already ridiculously high and end up being like 1/3-1/2 of your monthly mortgage payment...... That on top of also stupid high sales tax at almost 10%..... Yet the twits here can't seem to vote no on any tax increase/bond measure that shows up on the ballet.
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My property tax will most likely exceed my mortgage payment in the next 5-10 years...
 
One2Zero said:
So grey market is bad?
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Yes. Those "cheap" parts off of eBay are either fake or "fell off the truck." It's impossible to know if they are 100% qualified parts and will work or there was something wrong with the batch. It might be a minor issue or you might get a non-working/quick failing/flaky part (again, batch testing is common place not 100% unit testing). On Amazon, unlike eBay, you typically end up paying near enough the going price, but could get a marginal part. That sucks.

Typically grey market stuff was "officially" destroyed as bad product as far as the manufacturer is concerned. Then someone, often in China, steals it and reintroduces it to the supply channel as the real thing.

The last time I tried ordering PC parts (Intel x550 NIC) from Amazon it was Amazon's listing, but was grey market. It was missing the hologram validation along with several other indicators. It may or may not have worked fine, but I wasn't paying full price for might be ok. Someone mixed up a grey market part in Amazon's stock and that's what I got even though I ordered it from Amazon's listing.
 
lcpiper said:
I need to find the State with the lowest internet sales tax rate and become a digital resident of that State.
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I assume that you are referring to being a buyer of products.
DE has no sales tax
NH has no sales tax on some items that might be of interest. I know that TVs are one thing that there is no sales tax on.
I think US territories tend to have favorable tax treatment, though it may not show up in the sales tax. But, retailers might hit you on shipping so that's not always going to be better.
As an aside, income tax can often be a more important factor than sales tax. I remember reading a while back that FL has no state personal income tax.
 
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lcpiper said:
Wait, the business doesn't pay the sales tax, they collect it from the customers and pass it on to the State. If you live in a city that borders another state, you cross the border and buy something in the neighboring state, you don't pay sales tax to your own state. The store collects it for the State you are making the purchase in, not the one you call home.
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jpm100 said:
Buying from out of state, I pay sales tax, but I can file for a refund. Will I be able to file for a refund online? Doubt it. The footing is not equal.
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Can you please restate your post in different words. I don't understand?
Are you saying that when you buy from a retailer in state A, and you live in state B, that state A is collecting or will collect sales tax, and then you can file for a refund from state A, and then you pay state B instead?
 
they start paying sales tax so they raise the prices of their items and suddenly local B&M stores are doing well again and no UPS/FedEx shipping crap to over-pay for ... I like the sound of that and I hope it goes that road
 
LuxTerra said:
Yes. Those "cheap" parts off of eBay are either fake or "fell off the truck." It's impossible to know if they are 100% qualified parts and will work or there was something wrong with the batch. It might be a minor issue or you might get a non-working/quick failing/flaky part (again, batch testing is common place not 100% unit testing). On Amazon, unlike eBay, you typically end up paying near enough the going price, but could get a marginal part. That sucks.

Typically grey market stuff was "officially" destroyed as bad product as far as the manufacturer is concerned. Then someone, often in China, steals it and reintroduces it to the supply channel as the real thing.

The last time I tried ordering PC parts (Intel x550 NIC) from Amazon it was Amazon's listing, but was grey market. It was missing the hologram validation along with several other indicators. It may or may not have worked fine, but I wasn't paying full price for might be ok. Someone mixed up a grey market part in Amazon's stock and that's what I got even though I ordered it from Amazon's listing.
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What you've described is more akin to counterfeit than grey market. It's likely that in the past few years I've purchased on average $5MM annually of "grey-market" goods. In the circles that I travel its either product that was destined for another locale (i.e product with a destination in LATAM, but is sold to an entity in NA) or a company chopping up their allocation on a SPA/DPA specifically for resale. Seldom do I have any issues with quality or qualification as the individuals and sources that I procure from are trustworthy and deal with genuine product. Quite often the delta from distribution vs grey can be anywhere from 25% to 40%, and sometimes more. So the cost benefit makes this worth it for those that are moving volume. Would I be worried as Joe Average consumer making a purchase on AZ or EB and getting some shit part? Of course, but that's because most of those are just that, shit parts. B2C grey market and B2B grey market are two completely different stories with different goals in mind. B2C is a sale today and a "F-ck you" tomorrow, B2B is all about relationships and keeping the wheel moving.
 
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