Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

http://fortune.com/2016/08/25/online-sales-tax/

This will sting for those who buy their wine online and get it shipped across state borders

Probably won't affect me all that much since I'm already paying the CA taxes as I generally use Northern California vendors online.

I pay Texas sales tax on wines shipped to me from Oregon wineries. The irony is that Oregon does not have a sales tax and the wineries have absolutely no presence in Texas!

we have high sales taxes here in maine.
not paying sales tax on internet sales is what often closes the deal for me, when you factor in shipping.
the sales tax from k&L auctions is what often causes me to fold my cards.

What's scary is that US has not yet implemented a VAT type of system like what Europe mostly uses.

My belief is that will eventually be imposed.

Perhaps by 2030 or so, when the main entitlement programs are going to be severely distressed.

The fact that this is coming from the right side of the aisle suggests the idea has some legs.

The fact that this is coming from the right side of the aisle suggests the idea has some legs.

Yeah, I thought the same thing.
Boy, these pols are gonna screw up the internet yet, aren't they?

K&L auctions charge you sales tax? They haven't done that to Colorado buyers yet.

Yep. They charge sales tax, and now they charge 5% buyers premium, I don't have shipping costs because Michael-P is kind enough to pick them up for me.

You might be getting the sales tax imposed because they are being picked up at K&L, rather than shipped out of state.

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A very long time ago there was one auction house that used to notate orders for shipping out of state (and thus no tax due), and then quietly allow buyers to pick them up in person, leaving the invoice untouched.

Dennis Kowlzlowski of Tyco infamy was an art collector who used to have items putatively shipped to tax free New Hampshire, however the art seemed to end up in his NYC flat. Eventually that caught up with him when someone dropped a dime on this. Whistleblower laws make the incentives pretty good for employees to rat out their firms and clients.

You might be getting the sales tax imposed because they are being picked up at K&L, rather than shipped out of state.

Ah that is likely the case. They don't ship to the great state of Maine.

JimHow wrote:

You might be getting the sales tax imposed because they are being picked up at K&L, rather than shipped out of state.

Ah that is likely the case. They don't ship to the great state of Maine.

This makes sense.

Brentwood Auctions and Benchmark Wines annoyingly now charge sales tax in Colorado as they opened an office in Aspen or Vail to serve the "high end" market (serve in what way I do not know), even though no wine is ever bought or sold within the State.

"...whereby the seller’s state chooses what goods will be taxed, and the state where the buyer is located would set the tax rate."

This is a tempest in a teapot. What state would reasonably hamstring its businesses by choosing *anything * to be taxed by the receiving state?

Unless, of course, the states collude.

I think the idea is that a state would enforce one set of rules, for both in state and 'exports'.

Ironically I think the WalMarts and Amazon's of the world can live with this quite well...its all the small sellers on Ebay and Amazon Marketplace (who don't have to charge sales tax, although Amazon LLC does) who get hosed by this.

Crushing for all the little camera and wine sellers.

Time will tell, but I think something eventually happens with this. There are too many red states' Governors agitating for revenue too, and this is a way that they can get more tax money, while saying "Congress did it". Blue states like NY and CA already got aggressive early on with internet sellers so probably less impact for them.

The states haven't enforced one set of rules yet - if it's sold out of state, sales tax is not required and not collected. Why set it up so that the receiving state gets a windfall?

Because they want to collect something on their own residents buying stuff out of state too.

Some states have a 'use tax' where one is supposed to pay tax on goods purchased out of state, and brought/shipped in, but compliance/enforcement are difficult for that.

In ten years time, I doubt the concept of buying $300 bottles tax free and FedEx'ing them to ones house will be possible. Perhaps the higher end stuff will get self imported from London, while revenue authorities work on closing that "loophole".