Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yeah, Austin, Georgia has a basic sales tax, then the county gets their chunk, then Atlanta gets their piece of my wallet. As to paying sales tax, most states do in fact have a use tax that requires a resident to pay taxes on item purchased out of state and used in the residents state. No, they don't get a lot of mail order money, but when you register your car you get to pay the prize. Frequently, this makes sense as Georgia base sales tax is 3% and that is all you pay on an automobile purchased out of state instead of the 7% that you get hit with if you buy one in Atlanta. As to paying taxes on Internet sales, I suspect we have just a few years left of freedom. The software exists for merchants to know what the appropriate tax is for each zip code, and all it would take is a major state to require merchants to collect the tax on all items shipped to that state. If it was a big state like NY or CA then it would all be over. Not many merchants would refuse to sell to that many customers. I've been involved in sales tax audits and you can not win against the state unless you have all your documents in hand. You will not win when the state questions 10,000 transactions that you don't have the paperwork for, you just pay the tax plus penalties. ;) Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html