*** Supreme Court rules online gun purchases are now taxable

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Eh, it depends.

The local selection of firearms is poor outside of the big brands, and I don't want to spend the whole day on the phone trying to track something down. If I want to buy something specific, interesting or niche, I will probably have to buy it online regardless.

From there, local prices are highly variable. Even well after the panic was over, one local gunshop had all kinds of great stuff at panic prices, several hundred dollars over MSRP. In that case, even with ~$50 shipping and transfer, I'd still save hundreds of dollars buying online. But that's an extreme case.

I think that, generally speaking, it doesn't level the playing field much. I'd probably have to order online anyways, and local prices+tax are still generally higher than online+$50 shipping&transfer+tax anyways.
 
I have read that this is for STATE sales tax collection and not for county, city collections of sales tax. Not sure, and have not seen any definite statement by someone who actually knows for sure.

If it is ONLY state sales tax then it is not that hard for any retailer to figure out the amount. However, if it includes the small local add on taxes, that is next to impossible.

Here's an example, that I had with a sales tax attached to a leased vehicle.
When I move to SE Utah, my mailing address was the nearest city. That city had an additional (approx.) 2% sale tax added to the state sales tax. However, I did NOT live in that city, I lived in the county, and was not subjected to that tax, unless I drove into the city to make a purchase.

However, GMAC, like most companies, based my sales tax on my mailing address. (I currently have a mailing address in ID that has a city that I don't live in so it is not uncommon.)

It took a few calls to GMAC to straighten it out and eventually they dropped the extra 2% on the lease payment. However, any item ordered via the internet was taxed at the rate of the city in my address; not actually where I lived. Usually it was a small amount now worth while calling about.

That is the problem, it is not state sales taxes, it is all the incidental add on taxes by all the different taxing authorities in a state.

It will be interesting to see how this works out.

This really needs to be addressed by our do-nothing congress but I'm sure they will do exactly what they are good at doing....NOTHING.
 
How about this.

Freedom Ammunitions/ X-Treme just filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. How is this development going to help them reorganize if they now have to add new employees or outside company to manage this tax collection effort? Raise the cost of the product to cover operating expense and then add on a sales tax? I'm sure that will boost their sales!
 
kmw,
Any small company that is required to collect sales tax (and not all necessarily will) will likely use a service that will manage that tax for them for a small fee I'm guessing OM 1%.
Effectively, the 5-8% bonus (less shipping costs) online buyers have been getting is likely going away, excepting companies that move to non taxing states.

As for Freedom, my understanding is Freedom started up during an Obama-induced panic buying boom and wasn't ready for the reduction in sales that followed with an ammo friendly president. Their expenses were likely higher than established competitors and couldn't stay in the black on lower volume and mounting pricing pressure ......

My guess is they're not going to survive another year with or without reorg, and it has nothing to do with tax collection.
 
TXAZ said:
excepting companies that move to non taxing states.
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It matters where the BUYER is, not the company. The company is expected to collect sales tax for the buyer's state.

In the short term, this particular law does only apply to larger retailers... but the Slippery Slope will apply and the states, especially NY, CA, NJ... and the other Tax and Spend states, will want every last penny. Sorry, I keep forgetting, Slippery Slope doesn't exist anymore... it's "Creeping Incrementalism" now.

TruthTellers said:
Anything else I ordered through Walmart or Amazon and they already collect sales tax.
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Unless you're in the same state as Amazon or one of their warehouses, they don't collect sales tax. Walmart does, because they're EVERYWHERE.
 
FFLs in Washington state have been uncompensated state employees for about ten years, required to collect taxes when they transfer guns purchased out of state.
I used to buy guns online to avoid the 10% tax, but now, it's worth it to me to handle a gun in advance, so I shop locally.
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Yes, in WA, we even get taxed on the shipping cost of a firearm, not just the item itself. That is the part that really gets under my skin. That being said and all expenses added up (FFL transfer, shipping, taxes), around me, it is still much cheaper to buy online than to go to a local gun shop. I can usually save $50-100 or more on a transaction, if you can even find what you are looking for. I live in an are where there is "limited" selection.

Where this will hurt us more now, is not the firearm, but all the accessories; magazines, ammo, sights, reloading equipment, etc that you can not find locally.
 
Unless you're in the same state as Amazon or one of their warehouses, they don't collect sales tax.
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That used to be the case. However, in the last year or so Amazon has entered into "voluntary" agreements with all 45 states which have sales tax. Amazon knew which way the wind was blowing and got a jump on complying.
 
I live in NH - no sales tax here, actually no income tax here either..

Next door we have MA - "Taxachusettes".

At one point they tried to collect their taxes from out of state sales to MA residents, and went as far as to request credit card sales records from some NH businesses near the borders. NH's response? Protected NH businesses by making a law, businesses are not required to provide such by law now :) (not that they were before but now it's explicit).

I don't know how they enforce this but I'm concerned it could negatively impact online businesses such as Amazon and Ebay where I do a lot of shopping. I wonder how it all plays out.
 
Doyle said:
That used to be the case. However, in the last year or so Amazon has entered into "voluntary" agreements with all 45 states which have sales tax. Amazon knew which way the wind was blowing and got a jump on complying.
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You made me go back and look.... oddly enough, I DO get charged tax by Amazon... sometimes.

I can't quite identify a pattern. I've been charged tax on things like diapers but not shampoo. I was taxed on a mattress, but not on bed sheets. Charged on shaving components but not on a dog bark collar.

Oh well, not really relevant to the topic at hand, but odd.
 
Brian, is there a pattern as to WHO fulfilled your orders? People tend to think of Amazon as a single entitiy when in reality it is comprised of one really big company plus a gazillion little "partner" companies. What I'm wondering is if the tax you got charged was on orders fulfilled by Amazon itself and the orders with no tax got fulfilled by partner companies.
 
I think you're right. Looks like any sub-retailers don't charge the tax. Only Amazon directly.

Oh well, it's still cheaper than shopping local, even WalMart.:D
 
Brian, I think the scenario you are describing is what the state of NY was going after. If I recall, they already had taxable nexus with Amazon itself but they were wanting to tie Amazon's NY nexus to the Amazon affiliates to require tax collection by them.
 
In Florida, most groceries are exempt from sales tax. Snack items are not exempt. If a person goes into a grocery store and buys a box of breakfast bars, that sale will be exempt. However, if that same person were to go into the convenience store next door and buy a single breakfast bar off the rack, that sale would be taxable. The exact same item can be either taxed or exempt simply depending on how it is packaged.
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Also in Florida, counties can enact local sales taxes. I think the cap is 1%, but I won't swear to that. In any case, it is remitted to the state and the state funnels the money back to the county.

For all the talk of software and services to manage sales tax for small businesses, those are going to be a cost that businesses bear and, in some form or another, pass on to customers. I am a small business owner, and the cost of compliance with various laws and regulations is significant; it is included in the prices of the goods and services that I provide. Personally, I do such a piddling amount of interstate shipments of items subject to sales tax that I will probably just start refusing that business if compliance involves any challenge or cost at all. The figure of 10K different taxing districts for sales tax is too daunting to contemplate for a firm of my size.
 
Increased regulation always benefits the larger companies because the increased overhead is a smaller percentage of revenues. That is why many new regulations are lobbied for by the big corps. I would not doubt that some big retailers were helping and encouraging the states that filed the case with the Courts.

It is never about govt versus business as the media lives to portray it. It is always BIG versus Little. Big govt and big biz versus small biz and individual. Guess who takes it in the shorts and who passes on the burden without a hiccup?
 
I live in NH - no sales tax here, actually no income tax here either.
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Me too.

The lack of sales tax here has spawned a huge number of shopping malls and other retail outlets just north of the MA-NH state line. We also have state liquor stores with very attractive pricing. Back in the 70s, MA tried to prevent their residents from driving up here to buy their booze by stationing "tax agents" in the liquor store parking lots to record MA plate numbers for followup action. Our Governor at the time (can't remember who it was) ordered the NH State Police to go out and arrest them for loitering. Those charges were eventually dropped, but the tax agents got the message and went home.

I love this place.
 
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