|
|
Posted by Doc Dave on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 19:02:37 :
In Reply to: memphis equiptment taxes on mail order posted by bb on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 18:44:12 :
Thanks for the heads up.
I have ordered from Memphis Equip in the past and not been charged tax. I live in Maryland.
Traditionally, most companies that I know of have only had to charge sales tax to the out of state ordering purchaser when the company has an office/facility in the state of the purchaser. So, for example, people in Pennsylvania might have to pay it since there is a Memphis equip branch there.
However, now many states are getting down right aggressive/unethical in their desire to extract taxes from people. I ran into this last year, when I purchased an expensive piece of equipment for my business over the phone from out of state. I was informed I had to pay sales tax and when I questioned it, even talking to their accounting department, I was told that they had to NOW charge sales tax because the company has sales staff passing through my state on a regular basis and calling on customers. There was NO physical address for the company in my state. The tax people equated the above sales visits to having an "office" in my state so they could nail me for sales tax.
Other states are performing similar shenanigans. So your state might have seen this as a way to get more tax revenue.
I don't think it is coming from M.E., as collecting and accounting for sales tax is a time consuming thing that costs businesses money.
It is only going to get worse with all the states in these tough economic times.
Follow Ups: