Notification of Sales Tax Collection

[lew1]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

I am not a tax consultant, and don't play one on TV, but I believe that the only time you are required to collect sales tax is if your business has a physical presence in the state where you are shipping... otherwise you only collect sales tax from goods sold to people who live in the same state as you.

Other than that, I can't see that a mechanism exists for a state to go after a business in another state for non-payment of sales tax.

The Supreme Court case referred to in this thread authorized the states to require the payment of sale tax on things shipped into the states regardless of physical location of the seller. Of course, the state has to pass a law to this effect.

Personally I have had to provide my Sales Tax number etc to (1) Aim - who sells a lot on line and (2) to the Poulin auction company. If I did not do so, they were going to charge me sales tax - I forget whether it was their state rate or my state rate. Since I have a sales tax number, I documented it with them.

Generally speaking, it will be an interesting to see how they collect it from people in other states.