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how does USA sales tax work on online purchases?

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hi i am not a US citizen so i don't know US tax tax laws.

But just wondering, is the price quoted on the Amazon.com website the price you pay or do you have to pay any additional tax to the price quoted on the main screen, when you receive the goods according to your state? and if so how is this collected

for example

i have seen an Apple iMac MC508LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop for 1,164.99

(
Code:
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-iMac-MC508LL-21-5-Inch-Desktop/dp/B002QQ8IO6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

so is this the price i would pay?


its just all the mac products seem ridiculously cheap on the Amazon USA site compared to the UK. so i am wondering why this is.
thanks
 

bobtomay

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If you are in the state where one of their shipping facilities is located you'll pay sales tax, if not, you won't.
Sales tax is based on the tax rate of the shipping address.

For items that are shipped by Amazon and not a 3rd party - items shipping to the following states will pay sales tax at this time.

"Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax."

Ordering from 3rd parties, sales tax would be determined based on the state(s) where they have retail operations/storefronts.
Ex. I order from Apple in California and have them ship it to Texas - I'll pay sales tax because Apple has retail operations in Texas.

All that aside, put it in your cart, put in the shipping address and see what the total comes up to be. You can do this without placing the actual order.

The UK prices includes your ridiculously high VAT in the price, where here the sales tax is added after. Am sure if you try ordering from the U.S., you'll still end up having to pay the VAT.
 
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thanks.

yeah i put it in my cart and put New York as my state and it didn't add any other taxes.


The imacs are £300 ($471) cheaper in the USA than the UK. which is a lot of money.
 

pigoo3

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thanks.

yeah i put it in my cart and put New York as my state and it didn't add any other taxes.


The imacs are £300 ($471) cheaper in the USA than the UK. which is a lot of money.

I'm not exactly sure what your exact goal or plan is...but if you're somewhere in the UK...have you calculated what you're going to have to pay for:

- international shipping?
- import taxes?
- VAT?

If ordering from the United States Apple Store was this easy (to get cheaper computers)...everyone would be doing it!;)

- Nick
 

chscag

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I'm not even sure if Apple will allow you to order from their US on line Apple store unless you have a US address.
 
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chas_m

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To clarify Bob's answer a little bit, the law is actually that online entities must charge state sales tax (if any, not every state has it) for items shipped to any state that the company has a physical presence (even just a payroll office).
 
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if you have a friend in the US, you could ship it to them and then have them mail it to you. You might save (a little) money.
 
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Unfortunately New York is one of the few states that does charge tax for purchases from Amazon. Our wonderful governor put that in to effect several years ago. I still have not forgiven him.
 
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thanks.

yeah i put it in my cart and put New York as my state and it didn't add any other taxes.


The imacs are £300 ($471) cheaper in the USA than the UK. which is a lot of money.
You'll need to pay import duty and additional processing fees on packages sent from the US to the EU containing goods over a certain value.
 

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