I recently sent my Speedmaster back to the US mothership in NJ to get serviced. They came back with an estimate of $700 for the work. In all fairness the watch needs to be serviced and the gasket around the crown failed so there was a little water damage.

What I am interested in is the "Sales Tax" line item. I am in New Orleans and they are charging me a sales tax for the service. They tried to tell me it was because they have a presence in LA *they do not) and that they charge LA sales tax. I told them to ship it to an address in New Hampshire (no sales tax in NH) and they claimed that there was a sales tax assessed there too. At about $63 in added cost that should not be assessed on my already pricey service I calmly tried to explain that they were erroneously charging me but I could get them no further than refunding the $25 shipping charge.

I am interested in other experiences with this and if you argued with them about the tax. Any insight is appreciated. I really do not want to pay a tax that should not be levied. Thank you.

 

They have retail outlets in Baton Rouge and Metairie, so they are required to collect sales tax.

 

I don't think it works that way because those are just jewelers not Omega branded boutiques. I could/would understand if they had a physical presence and not a distribution channel through an authorized retailed. Regardless, they should not have charged when I gave them the NH address.

Thoughts?

 

Thanks for your input. it's wrong but I appreciate the time you took. A company has to have a physical presence in the state and an authorized retailer is not considered a physical presence, it is just a reseller. New Hampshire has no sales tax so Omega should not charge on an address in NH.

 

An independent retailer fails to qualify as a presence. There are no Swatch or Omega boutiques in LA.

Even if you were correct and authorized retailers qualified, NH has no sales tax so no sales tax should be charged.

Please prove me wrong on this.

Burton Snowboards... Physical presence in a few states, authorized retailers in many states - only charges sales tax in the states they have physical presence. This is the correct way that it should be done.

 

https://www.burton.com/on/demandwar...lt/CustomerService-Show?cid=faqs-onlineorders

Do I have to pay sales tax?


Only residents in NY, VT, WA, MA, IL, OH, CT, NV, FL, CO and CA are required to pay sales tax. We are required by law to issue a sales tax to all residents in states where we have physical business locations.

 

who else do you guys use to service watches?

 

Sorry, but I believe they are right about collecting tax. I live in NJ and sent a couple watches to JLC in Texas, who in turn shipped it to Le Sentier. I paid sales tax both times.

Even if you don't pay sales tax up front, I'd bet there's a line on your state tax return for you to show the amount and pay it to your state.

 

Did you pay TX or NJ sales tax on that?

From what I can see, JLC should not have charged you tax on those services as they do not have a physical presence in NJ. There is a nice little flow chart for NJ: http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/taxation/pdf/pubs/sales/anj10.pdf for me to say with any certainty I would have to know if JLC is "registered in NJ" I don't think they are because I see some resellers but no boutiques.

Think of buying something from Amazon. You don't pay sales tax unless you live in a state that has an Amazon physical presence in it, or you live in one of the few states that have mandated it because they are evil.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468512

About Sales Tax on Items Sold by Amazon.com

Items shipped to certain states are subject to tax.
Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the following states are subject to tax:

• Arizona
• California
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• New York
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Washington

 

I can't speak for the US, but here in Canada I have to collect and remit to the government the taxes that apply to whatever region the owner of the watch lives in. So if in Alberta, they only have GST of 5%. If here in Ontario, it's HST of 13%. I don't have to have a physical presence in any of these jurisdictions to have to collect the taxes.

I think the issue with you suggesting NH after the fact is that they know you are trying to evade taxes, and likely don't want to get involved in that. In that case I don't blame them.

Cheers, Al

 

Why are they charging a sales tax for a service? Has anyone else had this happen?

 

They charge sales tax on prepared food. Preparing it is a service. If you went to a grocery store and bought the items it's considered a necessity and then there's no sales tax. Having it cooked for you is a luxury service so the state collects tax. That's how it is in NJ.