[GNC] Automatic sales tax

[Adrien Monteleone]

The question is more likely one of 'when does the sale take place?' And 
for many jurisdictions, it takes place when 'good delivery has been 
made.' (when the revenue is earned, payment is irrelevant here)

1. So if you walk into a store, and walk out with goods, (paid or on 
credit) the point of 'written' sale is the same as 'delivered' sale. So 
the jurisdiction is the store, or seller's location.

2. If you walk into the same store, but order a certain type of good 
(based on local laws) for delivery to a different jurisdiction (say your 
home or business) then delivery jurisdiction is used as that is the 
'point of sale' where the seller has technically 'earned' the revenue. 
(until then, your payment constitutes a deposit - their liability.)

3. If you order online (or by 'mail' in the old days) for 'local pickup' 
then you most likely will be paying tax based on the seller's (or pickup 
location) jurisdiction, same as if you had walked in and out with the 
goods personally. (#1)

4. If you order online (or mail) for delivery, that's the same as #2 above.

Of course, laws vary widely, so those are general scenarios. They may 
not apply to you.

The recent change in the U.S. is that until a particular Court decision, 
online sales (as well as by mail) had no legal nexus as States couldn't 
tax 'out of state' sales. (at least not in the general case, there might 
have been some exceptions) One can argue the correctness of the 
decision, but it currently stands, so we have to deal with the aftermath.

I don't know the history of this in other countries.

Regards,
Adrien

On 2/28/22 8:34 AM, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
> I think that is perhaps confusion more than right/wrong.
> 
> In remote sales (internet, etc.)  it is the location of the buyer.
> 
> But if not a remote sale, if person living in state A buys something at 
> a seller in state B (and state B has sales tax) collected based on that. 
> Now the buyer might still owe sales tax to state A when bringing the 
> whatever home. When they pay that on their state return, they can claim 
> credit for the sales tax (if any) already paid for that thing to state B.
> 
> Living as I do in a state which has sales tax and has a neighboring 
> state that does not, I am of course very familiar with this. People 
> living in my state A close to the border often intentionally shop in 
> state B, especially for small things they can get away with not 
> reporting. It is also why state A has a special way of checking that 
> sales tax is paid on big ticket items like vehicles (proof of sales tax 
> needed for registering the vehicle).