"You're going to be paying more after........." Topic

the US Supreme Court over-turned a 1993 decision and will now allow States to charge sales tax on all online purchases. The 5 to 4 decision with Justice Kennedy casting the deciding vote changes the online world for small retailers.

I haven't seen the whole decision yet, so I am unaware of how it may impact individuals selling on ebay and such. It could be ebay, etsy, etc. will automatically charge sales tax since most sellers don't have a retail sales tax license.

Dave

Some will use this as an excuse to raise their prices many times what their local sales tax is.

Dan

It won't be an excuse. They will simply collect sales taxes from the customer just like in a brick and mortar store.

An excuse to raise prices?
How can they get away with that when wargamers are already the cheapest, tightest skinflints on the planet?

I will be contacting my tax attorney before I make any changes. There may be many state ordinances that must be enacted before any tax is collected. This is certainly no opportunity to raise prices. taxes must be coded, collected and submitted separately. One cannot "hide" them in a price increase.

Winston

Are they really that cheap?

Don't tell GW and others who charge an arm and leg for a plastic 32mm statue (or whatever 28mm is nowadays). Or the ones who make the plastic Star Trek and Walking Dead figures.

Dan

I'm talking historical gamers. GW gamers are a lost cause.
As said above, you can't just "hide" the sales tax. It's a separate line item on your bill.

Just as an example.
If I buy $100 USD of Old Glory, I pay the exact same price as anyone else from the site.
My bill lists $100 USD, with a separate $6.00 USD for Pennsylvania sales tax.
That's how it works.
I'm not paying a list price of $106. USD

Hmmmm…

Since there maybe a threshold level or limit involved to trigger the tax collection, whats to stop a company creating LLC or other sub companies / business entities to "transfer" the goods from one to another "company" in a series once the threshold amount is reached. Thereby continue being a "small business" and not a larger business which is forced to collect taxes…. A accountant wet dream job…. always employed. The fun and games begin.

Example…. Old Glory creates company names A1 miniatures…then A2,,,,then A3 to infinity as needed. The miniatures are "electronic inventoried" at cost between the parent to smaller companies which sell to the public. International business does it all the time for taxes….. profits to lowest tax country….. costs to the country tax bill needing the write off.

@ Winston, I imagine collecting, tracking, paperwork and all the headaches that attend such for a truly small business (not the type TMPWargamerrabbit is talking about) will indeed force a price increase to cover the additional time and effort. So in your example you might indeed see a list a price of $106 USD + $6.36 USD tax so your purchase has changed from $100 USD to $112.36 USD.

About to be implemented in Australia as well.

Honestly, it's about time. Nobody is making out on sales tax. The only one making out is the government. And frankly, if I spend 100.00 and I have to add another 9.00 for tax, is it really going to break my wallet?

They are going after big retailers. Amazon charges tax already not sure what the point of this is really.

Well, I'm glad that I bought my Nikon D500 for nearly 1900.00 before this happened. Still I have to wonder, if I buy the item from another state/city/county why do I have to pay MY state/city/county for the privilege? When I buy out of say NYC (as I do with photo equipment) will I have to pay their sales tax in addition to mine? Will a company in the UK where I have been buying most of my minis be forced to collect taxes for the State of Texas? Or will I have to pay the tax to have it released by customs? And this with Independence day right around the corner, thanks for nothing SCOTUS

Yup NZ as well but as noted above they are after the amazons etc. there will be a threshold with companies selling x required to collect sales tax and pass to our government.

It probably won't affect wagames companies, can't imagine massive sales into our country.

And one minor point – Taxes buy you civilisation, not the board game thankfully, but police, healthcare, fire service, etc. feel free to give it a go without…….

whats to stop a company creating LLC or other sub companies / business entities to "transfer" the goods from one to another "company" in a series once the threshold amount is reached.

As LLC's are disregarded entities, the gross revenue of the parent is still the qualifier. I'm guessing that on a gross revenue basis, the threshold in most states should be higher than all but the largest wargame companies. Since sales tax is a pass through and the only cost is compliance (which can be brutal for a small firm), no largeish firm is going to create a complex structure incurring more costs for complying with all the other taxes just to avoid something that they can pass through to the consumer.

I believe for international purchases, the liability will still remain for the consumer to self-report as a use tax which of course, will get ignored as always.

> When I buy out of say NYC (as I do with photo equipment) will I have to pay their sales tax in addition to mine?

No. Sales tax is levied at the spot where the item is purchased.

"Since there maybe a threshold level or limit involved to trigger the tax collection"

I've never heard of any U.S. location where there was a minimum trigger. You see it regularly on $0.25 USD items.

As for breaking up into smaller orders, some tax laws may have anti-avoidance clauses. The former Speaker of the House recently went to prison for breaking up payments to just under the $10,000 USD financial reporting limit. And the payments themselves were perfectly legal--just incredibly embarrassing.

Sales taxes support local and state government, funding things like roads, schools, police, parks, etc. The inability to collect sales taxes has been an unfair subsidy of internet retailing against brick and mortar stores for a long time, so it is about time this is corrected. Some will argue shipping costs offset this but shipping is a trade off to real estate costs for a retail store, not an excuse to avoid taxes.

It's un-American to NOT avoid taxes!

Locally, sales tax does not support schools. That's a horrendous real estate tax that really clobbers elderly and those on fixed incomes.
Guess who is most opposed to eliminating local property taxes? Teachers unions.

I've never heard of any U.S. location where there was a minimum trigger.

The minimum refers to the retailer. Gross revenues under X dollars would not require the retailer to collect and remit but that in itself would be an annual filing, likely tied to the business license.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out across the different states. I suspect that many will not really see the windfall for which they are hoping. It will also be interesting to see just how it affects online commerce as opposed to store fronts. I will certainly be looking into doing any large electronic purchases prior to it's implementation in my state.

I already pay tax on a big chunk of my gaming stuff as I try to support my local game store.

The way I read this one, oddly enough, the so-called "liberal" justices voted in favor of the small internet businesses (like my own, The Viking Forge) and the "conservative" justices sided with the mega-merchandisers like Walmart and against the small internet guys like myself.

Why am I not surprised?

By the way; what happened to the Blue Fez? it has been "ausgespiel" for weeks.

The vote was split Tumbleweed. While Conservative Justices Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas voted for they were joined by Justice Kennedy, a swing voter, and perhaps the most liberal Justice Ginsburg. On the no side you find Liberal Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan you also find Conservative Justice Roberts.

And what you see as "against" small internet firms is also being hailed as helping traditional brick and mortar stores to include mom and pop type stores (maybe like the rapidly vanishing brick and mortar mom and pop hobby and wargame stores).

One sides gains, unfortunately, usually come at the expense of other groups.

So what if you just phone your order in instead of using the internet?

I've been charging sales tax on PA customers for years.

I'm hip about the vote split, Marc. I just don't understand your point.

My point is that if I ever have to collect sales taxes from the customers in the many different states I do business in, I might just chuck the whole thing because it won't be worth the aggravation.

Ebay feels the same way and has started a petition:

link

The ruling basically says states have the right to collect sale tax on on line sales. It doesn't say they must. This case is a state's rights issue. It will be up to the state to pass laws to collect the tax. Some will. Some may not. This may help brick and mortar businesses, but I am thinking not much. Whether you pay tax to an online business or a brick and mortar business you still pay tax. The key is going to be the shipping. You'll see some business eat shipping costs. Others may include the tax in their prices.

As Tumblweed, above, suggests the difficulty will be for small operations to become conversant with and to apply the sales tax regulations of 50 jurisdictions. Hopefully remittances will not be monthly.

Precisely.