Tax question. Please help

[lunamagica]

I've purchased many, many items trough Amazon, including a big screen TV. Last year I bought a loveseat, paid a usual, and now received a letter telling me that since the furniture came out of state I'm owing taxes on it.

This had never happened before. Taxes are paid at time of purchase in amazon.Why wasn't I charged before?

This has to be a mistake!

[unblock]

1. I'm guessing the state you live in has a "use tax"

Afaik, amazon charges sales tax only based on where the seller is, so if the seller is only in California, e.g., but you're out of state, there's no sales tax.

However, most states now have a "use tax" that basically means if you didn't pay sales tax elsewhere but bring stuff purchased out of state into the state, then you owe tax to the state you brought goods into (usually the state you live in).

These use taxes have been around for several years now but hard to enforce, I think maybe they finally got amazon to forward some info to the states.

I'm guessing that's what this is about.

[lunamagica]

9. But then why I was never billed for this, and find about it today, from the IRS?

I never hid anything from them. I was never billed

[napi21]

2. Sorry to have to tell you, but it's not a mistake. I can't tell you how they found out about

this particular sale, but what we all call sales tax is actually named "Sales & Use Tax". Although none of use ever pay it voluntarily, when we purchased something out of state we actually are supposed to pay "Use Tax" on it. Most larger businesses are monitored for this tax & do pay it. If they found you, just pay it and hope they don't look closer at your purchases online.

[lunamagica]

6. But why is this the first I hear of this? Why wasn't I charged before?

[napi21]

12. ZUse tax is considered "voluntary", (HA HA) same as "Federal Income Tax" is. nt

[lunamagica]

8. This is the first I hear of it. Why was I never charged for this? Instead I get this ultimatum and

threats when I didn't do anything wrong.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Check each amazon purchase.

If you paid sales tax on it (regardless of which tax, or how much), you probably don't owe use tax.

BUT - many states have imposed a use tax on all purchase from out of state (including purchases out of state while traveling) for which no sales tax has been paid.

Amazon receipts include whether tax was paid or not. Check your account. Mine are a mixture - so I owe use tax on some, but not on others.

It is possible that a state would charge a top-off use tax, so you may have to do a more complicated calculation. This is typically reported as part of a state income tax return.

States are getting more aggressive at collecting use taxes, since more and more sales are taking place online AND a lot of people aren't reporting. So the states are losing money.

[lunamagica]

5. I'm FL, and I paid the sales tax receipt

[Ms. Toad]

7. You may have paid less than 6%

Florida looks to be one of the obnoxious ones - they require you to top off the tax if you didn't pay the full 6%.

Yes. If you paid 6% or more in sales tax to the seller at the time of purchase, no tax is due. However, if the seller charged less than 6% tax, you must pay "use tax" equal to the difference between what you paid in tax and the 6% tax imposed by Florida.

Here's the info page:

http://floridarevenue.com/taxes/Pages/consumer.aspx

[lunamagica]

10. Thanks for the link!

[More_Cowbell]

4. in CA we pay use taxes on our income tax returns

As others have said, use tax is the equivalent tax when you don't pay sales tax. It comes into play when an out-of-state seller doesn't charge your sales tax OR charges you a sales tax at a lower rate than your state sales tax. Almost every state (if not every state) that has a sales tax has a corresponding use tax. They require you to self-report on use tax. I know that over two dozen states require you to pay use tax on your state income tax return.

Amazon does usually take sales tax. Maybe it was the individual seller who didn't do the transaction accurately.

A few states have a limit under which you don't have to pay use tax, but I assume your state would have told you that if it had a limit and you were under it.

[lunamagica]

11. I did pay sales tax $35.00 on a $443.50. All paid at time of purchase