This. It’s called “use tax” where I live. Most people ignore it, but it’s a ticking time bomb if you’re audited.
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Yeah I’m not sure how much enforcement there is.
But the vast majority of businesses actually do try to follow the law. I’d also think the bigger the business is then the more likely they are to not flagrantly break the law in plain sight.
Isn’t Use Tax a thing of yesterday? With 95% of stores charge tax now, it really makes no sense to figure out who is not paying use tax. And they were not figuring out the use tax issue before yesterday, either.
It’s self-reported but it’s still part of the Louisiana return.
I am sure it will be. My point was that no state govt would care any more.
One thing particular annoying to me is previous tax free stuff, such as prepaid phone card pin, download software, now requires sales tax. How can this make sense? I can just change my delivery address to NH.
California has had the Use Tax line on its tax return forms for many years. It also applies to purchases from other countries, whether in person or by mail/web orders. I remember years ago the state wanted Customs to forward customs declarations from people returning from overseas so that the Use Tax could be applied on their purchases.
NY has that line for decades, too. At some points they were collecting license plates in malls near the state line, to see who should have out of state purchases to claim. (Ok, I’m not sure if that was real, or just a widespread rumor at the time)
One time the state of Washington arrested someone coming from Idaho who had a bunch of cigarette cartons in their car which they’d bought in ID. Charged them with smuggling for evading the state sales tax on the smokes.
Cigarettes might have different legal treatment from typical sales taxes though, I’m not sure.
I dont think stories like that are particularly unusual, actually. NY has a cigarette “tax stamp” on every pack, applied at the distributor to represent the tax was collected from the retailer; and surprise audits to check a store’s inventory for ‘bootleg’ cigs. Especially in areas around Indian Reservations, who dont have to pay for the “stamp”. It’s taken quite seriously, with pretty serious penalties.
Same here in GA but I guarantee the use rate of declaring use tax is less than 1%. And you never hear any reports of GA revenuers caring.
But we’re taxed on all online sales now for the mainstream retailers incl. ebay so it’s not much of an issue anymore.
I’m in the 1% (finally!!!), I always made a good-faith effort to calculate use taxes on items I purchased online. It was still cheaper than paying sales tax, since it didn’t include local taxes (which pay for unimportant things like schools, anyway).
Same here in OH. But it was impossible to accurately report anyway. You’d have to tally all your internet purchases, figure out which you paid tax because the store has a physical presence in the state, and finally for those where you did not pay tax, figure out which were for food since that does not get taxed in OH (outside of dine-in restaurants). On mixed orders with some food items and non-food items and some coupon codes used, it’d have been even more fun.
Basically it was on the tax return just for some people to feel guilty about putting down $0 and have them guestimate how much they think they should pay in tax on online purchases. Nobody was gonna audit it for individual returns. Too much hassle and too low amounts to make it worth anyone’s time.
But now, they basically forced all major online retailers to collect tax so it’s still $0 on your tax return “use tax” line but the state gets more way more sales tax than before.
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I thought I might go for take home Panda Express Chinese today. Haven’t had any for 3-4 months, so should be a treat. Actually, I got an e-mail that they now do free home delivery. That doesn’t work for me because I’m in the country & giving directions would take more time than driving in.
So I know it isn’t authentic Chinese, but works for me on a Saturday nite. Beijing beef, & a cold beer, what could be better. 
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Yes, very different. @glitch99 is right about the tax stamp. Not only do the police in states with high taxes like NY and NJ go after the smugglers that buy in VA and bring them home to sell. VA police go after New Yorkers when they come down here and load up. And they go after the retailers selling too many cartons of cigarettes to people. It’s real organized crime. There isn’t anywhere near as much violence as the drug trade, but it exists. Back when I worked patrol, a convenience store owner was murdered in the next jurisdiction over his involvement in cigarette smuggling.
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Go down to one car? I imagine with many working from home and the shift to food delivery it could be an easy way to save $
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That’s definitely a possibility for those who are still working from home and not looking at commuting back to a workplace soon.
But then once things get back to normal, you might need to get a second car again. For folks like myself whose cars are paid in full, I’m not convince this is worth it unless this pandemic really last for very long. Basically, selling and re-buying usually incurs a loss. But if you have enough time between the two transactions, the missed depreciation on the car could make up for it.
But if you limit yourself to driving only one of your cars, you could drop insurance coverage to the minimum legal in your state. Obviously you should also be able to drop collision coverage on the car not being driven, and maybe also comprehensive if that car is safely parked in your garage.
I’m not following, why would number of cars driven affect what liability coverage you carry?
Some insurers allow you to separate liability coverage on each car. Or if you have two separate auto policies. For the car not being driven, you can drop liability to the minimum since you’re not going to hit someone with a car you’re not driving at all.
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I’d say the smarter move is to drop insurance and registration if you want to save money using this avenue. Then, just re-register the car and add insurance once you need the second car.
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Ah, gotcha.