http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18171
WTF, can this be real? A lot of guys here are sweating this. A LOT of stuff has been purchased via Amazon over the last 7 years.
I wasn’t even aware you were supposed to claim it on your tax return. Anyone else heard of this?
You didn’t even know you were supposed to claim it? Heh. Were you the guy that posted that thread about not know about the little lever on your car’s rearview window at nighttime? I find it fascinating when people don’t know things I always considered common knowledge.
A couple of years ago I bought a new window air conditioner, but couldn’t put it in my window by law due to a fire escape outside. Stupid move on my part, but whatever, not the point of the story.
So anyway, it’s hot as hell in the summer, and I’m telling my coworker about this, and he goes “Dude, just prop it up on a chair in your apartment and turn it on.” I just stare at him for a good 10 seconds, then explain how there’s no way to “create cold”, and how air conditioners actually work, and the inevitable consequences if he ever tried to do anything so stupid.
You didn’t even know you were supposed to claim it?
Nope. A bunch of other guys here didn’t either. Amazon doesn’t tell you when you make a purchase and it’s not really the sort of information I’m bound to run into during my daily internet reading. Was there a brochure I was supposed to receive when I moved here or something?
No, everybody is supposed to pay sales tax on internet purchases.
No, everybody is supposed to pay sales tax on internet purchases.
Does anybody? :)
No.
45
It’s not an Amazon thing, it’s an out-of-state purchasing thing. When you’re filling out your state income tax, there’s a section that asks you if you’ve made any out-of-state purchases that weren’t taxed or whatever. You have seen this on your form, and you have put $0 every single time, you tax cheat.
Going for the records is pretty ballsy. But in a down economy, sometimes desperate people turn to theft!
So I owe like… 30 cents in back taxes to NC.
I’m pretty sure I haven’t see this when using tax programs. Either that, or its so poorly worded that I’m unaware that I’ve seen it.
It’s called “Use Tax” and there’s been a line for it on nearly all state tax return forms for many years now. You buy something tax free off the internet, you’re supposed to record the amount and then report the total for the year as Use Tax on the state return.
Of course, many people don’t keep accurate records of what they purchase online, and many online retailers already include state tax at checkout, so it’s not “all online purchases” that get dinged for Use Tax. Amazon is the largest online retailer that doesn’t collect state taxes (I’m not sure of the reasoning behind why they don’t if smaller online retailers like NewEgg seem to be able to do it just fine)so they’re the obvious target for legislation like this.
Does that make it right for NC to go after it’s own taxpayers? No. Does it make it right that those same taxpayers should be claiming nothing in Use Tax every year while purchasing millions of dollars of Amazon.com merchandise. Also No.
What people should really be looking at is the fact that by the time you add up all the costs to NC to pursue this legal action, then the costs (provided they win) to obtain the records, then the costs to develop a system to check the records against reported tax numbers, then the costs to process all that information and the costs to go after people who owe anywhere from $5 to $500 each in unreported Use Tax, the state is likely to have spent more than it will make off the deal.
Turbotax definitely asks when I’m doing the CA section.
It may be that Georgia doesn’t ask for this.
You have seen this on your form, and you have put $0 every single time, you tax cheat.
No, I haven’t. I get my taxes prepared for me and have never been asked about this. Ever.
Warren, go ahead and turn this into a poll to ask if anyone else knew this, since it’s such common knowledge.
Then quite frankly your accountant isn’t very good. My 85 year old grandfather gets asked this by his accountant every year even though she knows he barely knows what the internet is. The H. R. Block peon we used last year asked us and the Turbotax program we used this year asked us. It is a standard question/box to fill out.
Also the way you quote things is annoying.
I never knew this either. Did this recently change?
We go to H&R Block … never been asked.
I think he has always quoted that way.
I would also like to add that I have had my taxes done for me forever, and I never get asked.
This brings up an interesting problem then. There’s records of HRB filing for you, so I wonder if the government came after you for back taxes you could claim that it’s actually HRB’s problem.