- Posts
- 7,682
- Likes
- 14,207
Evitzee
·Seems to be a confusion on how taxes work in the USA. There is NO federal VAT like there is in much of the world which is built in to the price already. All that the MSRP (Manufacturers suggested retail price) includes is the small import duty that is paid by the importer. Forty Five states have a state sales tax and five states have NO Sales Tax. Each of the 45 states sets their own rate, and each county/city can add their own tax on top of the state tax. So within each state the rates can vary between cities. The average total sales tax is about 8.25% which is paid on the sales price, although the actual rate depends on where you buy.
Some years ago the US Supreme Court ruled that if someone bought merchandise in one state and had it shipped to another state there would be NO sales tax due on the transaction as long as the selling company did not have a physical presence in the buyer's state. That ruling was made before the internet took off so brick and mortar retailers were losing internet sales to people who would buy out of state and avoid the sales tax. Last year the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled states could require the distant seller to collect sales tax on the purchase and then forward that sales tax to the buyers state treasury, so the opportunity to avoid the sales tax is going away unless you have the goods delivered to one of the five states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, Oregon or New Hampshire).
It's not that confusing, but you will most likely get hit with sales tax on US sales delivered to US locations although some small time sellers seem to ignore this at this point. The reason that taxes are not included in the MSRP is that the decision was made long ago not to hide sales taxes in the price of the goods, they must be added separately so the buyer knows what the tax load is for clarity's sake.
Some years ago the US Supreme Court ruled that if someone bought merchandise in one state and had it shipped to another state there would be NO sales tax due on the transaction as long as the selling company did not have a physical presence in the buyer's state. That ruling was made before the internet took off so brick and mortar retailers were losing internet sales to people who would buy out of state and avoid the sales tax. Last year the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled states could require the distant seller to collect sales tax on the purchase and then forward that sales tax to the buyers state treasury, so the opportunity to avoid the sales tax is going away unless you have the goods delivered to one of the five states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, Oregon or New Hampshire).
It's not that confusing, but you will most likely get hit with sales tax on US sales delivered to US locations although some small time sellers seem to ignore this at this point. The reason that taxes are not included in the MSRP is that the decision was made long ago not to hide sales taxes in the price of the goods, they must be added separately so the buyer knows what the tax load is for clarity's sake.
