Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay Sales Tax

Re:Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay S... by BoorishBears on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @10:24AM (#16474112)

I got the same letter for about 3k of purchases for an old PC I built almost exclusively from Newegg parts.

The fact is Newegg tried to fight it and got strong armed. No idea why we expect Newegg to fight a legal request from a government agency for rightful tax collection.

We all knew the gig, no tax professional, or even tax software, didn’t ask about purchases subject to the use tax.

People still comment about tax killing good deals, the fact is the tax is always there, whether you report it is sometimes up to you.

I’m probably paying the amount (want to verify the amount doesn’t include one returned item), we always knew this might happen.

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Re:Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay S... by FussyZeus on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @10:30AM (#16474179)

My question though is why is it up to customers to report sales tax? I've literally never done this, every retailer I've bought from has included sales tax in the purchase price, collected it, and paid it. Why was Newegg not doing this?

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Re:Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay S... by BoorishBears on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @10:35AM (#16474237)

All explained very nicely here:

http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?A=1510&Q=270228

It’s technically not sales tax, but “use tax” in this case.

For years tons of online retailers didn’t charge sales tax with purchases, all of those purchases were subject to use tax. Even Amazon (or was it eBay?) wasn’t charging tax in CT a few years back iirc.

There are lots of various reasonings in why they don’t collect depending on how charitable you are to the retailers, ranging from “We get to advertise cheaper prices” to “We didn’t want to manage taxes in 50 states”

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Re:Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay S... by FussyZeus on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @10:40AM (#16474295)

Huh, weird. Glad I don't live there. Thanks for the clarification.

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Re:Connecticut Hunting Down Online Shoppers Who Didn't Pay S... by BoorishBears on Tuesday February 27, 2018 @10:50AM (#16474440)

> When the states first enacted their sales taxes, the tax was imposed only on in-state sales. There was no use tax. As businesses began to offer delivery services and customers realized they could avoid sales taxes by ordering products from businesses in a different state, the complimentary use tax was enacted. Currently, every state that imposes a general sales tax also imposes a use tax.

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