Check The Amazon Sales Tax You Pay

[CRLLS]

I just finished a Chat with Amazon customer service.

I live in an unincorporated area. My address uses the name and zip code of the neighboring city post office. That city has a local sales tax. I recently found that Amazon may have been including that city tax for my purchases. I view this as taxation without representation since I cannot vote for the people who implemented that tax.

I was assured by the customer service person that my account will be corrected to show I should not be charged that city sales tax. He/she will email me with a confirmation that this was done. However, there is nowhere on my account details what the tax rate applied is. I have to take their word that this has been completed successfully.

I am posting this as a public service announcement. If you live in an unincorporated area, you may want to check too.

 

[braumeister]

I dealt with this for many years. My ZIP code was partly in a suburban area of one county that had a hefty sales tax, and partly (my part) in an unincorporated area of a different county with a much lower sales tax (and different rules for applying it).

Some online vendors could deal with that, and gave me an additional pulldown menu to choose the county after I input my ZIP. But most couldn't handle it.

 

[jazz4cash]

Can’t you initiate a purchase to see the tax calculation and cancel prior to submitting the order?

 

[CRLLS]

braumeister, Amazon has no such user setting as "County" or "unincorporated". At least none that I could find.

jazz4cash, Sure I see the tax charged before I click "buy". I'm no complaining about the "amount" of tax, but the "proper" tax applied.

My point for the post was for frequent buyers on Amazon to check their rate to be sure it is proper. Presumably there may be a setting that Amazon can do internally (I can't do it myself) to change your account to the correct rate instead of relying on the zip or city name. Time will tell if this really is true or if I was told BS just to get me off the Chat.

From what I read here, some of the members look for that extra 0.1% on out CD's, fund expenses etc. IMO it is just one thing we might be able to take to save ~1% in improper sales tax. I'm not sure really where that ~1% was ending up. I don't want to be subsidizing a taxing body that I am not required to.

 

[zinger1457]

Can’t you initiate a purchase to see the tax calculation and cancel prior to submitting the order?

The sales tax shown on Amazon when you place an order is an estimate and subject to change, at least that's what it states in the fine print. Never bothered to check if it ever actually changes from the original amount listed.

 

[CRLLS]

Thanks. You are right, the order placed said "estimated tax" I checked the actual charge to my CC. It was the exact same amount. I guess their estimate was pretty good.

 

[jazz4cash]

Confused but I’ll get over it.

 

[RobbieB]

I checked it, it's fine.

 

[bingybear]

Can you file with the locality to get your sales tax back?

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Can you file with the locality to get your sales tax back?

That's assuming that Amazon remits it to the locality.

 

[CRLLS]

Can you file with the locality to get your sales tax back?

Maybe. I don't want to have to do that on every purchase. On this purchase the locality may have only been a $0.83 adder to the end cost. That's not worth my time. But if I can get Amazon to apply the correct sales tax rate for every future purchase, then that is worth my effort.

 

[jazz4cash]

Any thought to notify the tax jurisdiction of the issue and letting them take it from there? We all pay whatever sales tax is required but don’t really know if the merchant reports and pays the tax properly.

 

[Ed B]

This is probably different in each state but in Texas the sales tax earmark for the nearby town goes the the General Fund of Texas. The town doesn't get any of it. The merchant (e.g Amazon, ATT, DirecTV, etc.) would rather collect the full 8.25% sales tax than figure out which rooftops are taxed at what rate.

The state knows about this but they have no incentive to force merchants to correct the problem.

 

[Senator]

It may be more important to know the sales tax you do not pay. Your state could come after you for it.

States that have a sales tax have a limit on how much you can purchase without filing and paying a use tax.

In MN the limit is $770. Buy $771 and you owe use tax on the full $771.

Amazon sends a feed to MN. Maybe they do for all states?