Online Sales Taxes is being collected

[Beiruty]

Effective Oct 1, 2019.

Texas is enforcing a online-sales tax on any online seller with $500,000 online yearly sales to Texas.
I wanted to place an online order for a scope from out of state seller and I was hit with the online sales tax.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politic ... ut-slowly/

[WTR]

Evens the playing field for brick and mortar shops.

[rotor]

Technically we were responsible for paying tax to the state on online sales before but nobody ever did it. WTR is right though about brick and mortar stores. No state income tax, fairly high property tax and fairly high sales tax. Somehow one needs to pay the bills.

[Tex1961]

Yea, I was about to make a purchase a few days back on Classic Firearms... Was just about to hit the "buy" button when I saw the extra $30.00 is sales tax... NOPE..... The majority of my product sales are on Amazon and over the past year, state after state has started collecting sales taxes...

[QB]

I bought another gun online just yesterday because the dealer doesn't have to submit Texas sales tax. I didn't want to wait just in case they do have to file later. The savings of $120+ on sales tax plus the savings in the actual price of the gun was a substantial savings.

For lower priced guns, as long as the sales tax is about the same as shipping +FFL fee, then I certainly buy local.

[chamberc]

Most places have been collecting for years... not much new...

[K.Mooneyham]

But what if you buy something from out of state that is not obtainable from a brick-and-mortar store here in Texas? How is that stick the state is using (the tax) to make you buy local effective in that case?

[03Lightningrocks]

The customer is and has always been responsible for paying state sales tax on certain products. The merchant is responsible for collecting those taxes from the customer and forwarding them to the state. It has always been the customers responsibility to pay the taxes if the merchant is not collecting them. Technically, anyone buying and not sending the taxes in has been guilty of tax evasion. There is almost no way to enforce the law from the customer paying in perspective. I have also been guilty of not paying the taxes on items purchased online. I am not even sure how one would go about it if they chose to. But it does not change the fact that in essence, we are stealing from the state when we don't pay up.

Buying from an out of state merchant does not make the purchase "Tax Free"... but most of us act like it does.

[03Lightningrocks]

> we are stealing from the state when we don't pay up.

No, the state is forcefully stealing from US. Let's get that straight right off the bat...

Really??? How are they suppose to pay for state infrastructure if they don't collect tax money?

[Texas_Blaze]

Evens the playing field for brick and mortar shops.

This isn’t at all about evening the playing field. Truthfully I find it hard to believe even does that. Brick & mortar is dying. I know it’s anecdotal but I’ve spent significant more money online than I have in storefronts. Even buying groceries online, although those aren’t taxed in TX and delivery is local ( HEB, Walmart). Local stores are purely for immediate purchases nowadays for me which would not be candidates for online purchase anyways. I’ll continue to buy online simply for the convenience.

[Texas_Blaze]

The customer is and has always been responsible for paying state sales tax on certain products. The merchant is responsible for collecting those taxes from the customer and forwarding them to the state. It has always been the customers responsibility to pay the taxes if the merchant is not collecting them. Technically, anyone buying and not sending the taxes in has been guilty of tax evasion. There is almost no way to enforce the law from the customer paying in perspective. I have also been guilty of not paying the taxes on items purchased online. I am not even sure how one would go about it if they chose to. But it does not change the fact that in essence, we are stealing from the state when we don't pay up.

Buying from an out of state merchant does not make the purchase "Tax Free"... but most of us act like it does.

The merchant isn’t responsible for collecting the taxes. The merchant is responsible to pay taxes on what’s sold. You and I just happen to get the privilege of covering the merchant’s tax bill.

[mot7981]

Frankly, I'm surprised it took the state this long to go after this pot of gold. We're talking about a lot of $$ to add to the state's coffers... which they'll spend wisely no doubt.