State sales tax?

[tlippy]

Just wondering how online eBike sellers are not required to charge state sales tax?

 

[Beast]

As I understand it if the business or any of its affiliates aren't based in your state or have stores or a warehouse in your state then it's not up to them to collect the sales tax.

 

[tlippy]

As I understand it if the business or any of its affiliates aren't based in your state or have stores or a warehouse in your state then it's not up to them to collect the sales tax.

Interesting. Even Aliexpress charges sales tax.

 

[WinterKill]

Depends on State, Minnesota requires all out of State vendors over a certain size to collect state sales tax. I believe there was a Supreme Court ruling a few years ago allowing States to require this.

 

[Beast]

Gotta love Minnesota, politicians promise not to raise taxes but then they just rename a tax and call it a FEE.

 

[6zfshdb]

This policy varies by state and the merchant. Where I live, if the seller doesn't charge sales tax, you are required to declare it on your state income tax. There is no easy way for the state to check so it's pretty much an honor system. I suspect the tax revenue from this is pretty small.

I found that if you buy and pick up a bike from an out of state dealer or LBS, often they will write up the order as "delivered out of state" to avoid the sales tax. Technically, this isn't legal but violations are hard to detect.

 

[harryS]

All online merchants like Walmart, Kohls, Penneys, charge sales tax. Aliexpress and Ebay also charge me tax now, although I wonder if my state (Illinois) actually sees it. I think Amazon is catching up, now forcing a sales tax on their associate sellers.

I see that RAD charges sales tax. I would expect all the bigger sellers have the mechanism in place. They probably use a web template that figures shipping and sales tax.