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Now that makes sense. :) Well...as much as anything to do with taxes ever does.

E.g. think about this:

If you buy 10 items at $9.99 each, that is 10*9.99*0.0825=8.24175. Rounded off that is $8.24 in tax, right?

Nope.

9.99*0.0825=0.824175. Rounded off that is $0.82 in tax for each item. $0.82*10=$8.20 in tax for the total sale.

That is perfectly legal and is actually a good way to judge just how savvy a retailer is. By law retailers must hand over every penny they charge buyers under the headding "sales tax", so if the receipt shows ten $9.99 items and sales tax of $8.24 they are obligated to give $8.24 to the state. If the receipt shows sales tax of $8.20 for the same order, $8.20 goes to the state. Either way the state is happy. The only difference is that one has the consumer paying more tax than they truly owe.

From what I have seen Amazon pretty reliably calculates sales tax per item so would collect $8.20 for this hypothetical order. Not everyone gets this right though.

All of which is just more evidence that this is a way-too-complicated area for the average taxpayer to get right. Someone ordering a bunch of stuff from retailers without a local nexus could easily end up overpaying their use taxes by doing the obvious thing of adding up all the purchases and multiplying the sum by the tax rate.

What's the date on that invoice? Amazon began collecting Texas sales tax in July of 2012.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesste ... zon30.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I ordered $347.change worth of products from the amazon web page a week ago. They collected $12.70ish in tax, which is obviously not 8.25% of my whole order. Most of my order was sold by Amazon llc. One item at about $193 was from another company. The tax collected adds up correctly for the Amazon llc part of the order, meaning they didn't collect the sales tax on one item I bought through, but not from, Amazon. Confusing enough?

gljjt wrote: A good example is Amazon.com. They have a physical presence in Texas, therefore they are required by the TC to collect sales tax. I am pretty sure my Amazon purchases have not charged sales tax (I'll have to check).

Guarantee they have. Amazon lost a huge amount of business when they gave up the Texas Nexus fight and started collecting sales tax here.

You may be thinking of "Amazon Marketplace" items, which are not sold "by Amazon" but "through Amazon". E.g. you can buy an Aimpoint sight through Amazon, but the company actually selling you the product is Optics Planet. Optics Planet may not have a nexus in Texas...if they don't, no sales tax will be collected. This is legal...if it wasn't, Texas would be after them like they were after Amazon for having a distribution center in Fort Worth but claiming not to have a nexus here.

Two answers, one for the browsing question, one for the online side of the question.

First: I go into stores to browse all the time, and it has nothing to do with the internet. I was browsing before I had ever heard of the internet. I go into home depot to see if they have anything I can adapt to projects I am working on, to outdoor stores to see camping gear that might workfor upcoming trips, and so on. I definitely go to gun stores to see if they have anything I "absolutely need" ;). If approached by a store employee I will typically say, "Just browsing," which isn't code for, "I'm looking here but will buy online," but rather, "I don't need personal service at this time." When I find an item I am interested in I start making decisions about when and how to buy. At that point the store is definitely in the running to make a sale, but the sale was never guaranteed and I have no obligation to buy or buy from that store. I will find the best overall deal (taking into account cost, time, guarantees, and so on). I may go home to think about it and come back a week later to buy. I may find I can buy it online for a dramatically better price and buy that way. I think that is not only ethical, but good for the store.

Second answer: Regarding the specific case of seeing something online and wanting to touch/feel it before buying. I think this is now called "showrooming" rather than browsing. I think showrooming is to the merchan's benefit because people who become interested in a gun (any product) visit the merchant's store. If Joe Internet sees a 642 (or whatever) online, reads reviews, checks the prices on someonlinegunstore.com, there are two ways it can go from there:

1) They buy the gun right then and there, counting on return policies or the ability to sell to cover disappointments. The deal is done and local retailers lost the sale without ever knowing it was being considered. Some kitchen table FFL will get $20 and that's that.

2) Joe wants to touch and feel so he heads for a local shop. The shop has a prospect walk through their door interested in a particular gun and intending to buy. It is now up to the sales person to convince Joe that buying from that shop is better in some way than buying online...an opportunity the shop didn't have before.

Possibility #2 is something businesses pay for. They pay real money to get qualified customers in the door. Advertising, store decore, and so on...none of which was needed to get Joe to come in. I say it is not only ethical of Joe to visit a local retailer to touch/feel, but it is a positive benefit to the retailer and can be viewed as free money being given to the store. It is up to the store to recognize the opportunity and close the sale. If the store can't close it is just sour grapes and an indication of poor thinking to blame online retailers for their own missed opportunity.

That is my take anyway. :)