The state of Connecticut, I think, was the first state to begin the 'use tax'. Sales tax in CT was higher on large ticket items in the surrounding states (which, at the time, had income tax, but CT didn't). The state of CT was incensed at 'losing' all that revenue so they tried to collect sales taxes from other states. That, of course, is illegal and CT got slapped down for that Federally. So they came up with the idea of a 'use tax' which is just a sales tax with a different name. A few years back someone did try to test the legality of the 'use tax', which, on the surface, is one state imposing taxation on the residents of another state. Constitutionally this is a no-no, but in the case at hand the use tax was upheld, mainly from some lovely linguistic gymnastics. I'm sooo proud of my home state, I could s**t.
Basically, if some politician wants a tax, he'll get it.... On Jan 5, 2008 12:15 AM, Tharin Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Winterlight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: At 03:15 PM 1/4/2008, you wrote: > >If you are paying the "use tax" as you should for your out-of-state > >purchases does it make much difference? ;) > > > >http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/faqusetax.htm > > > What are you kidding me... for a consumer retail purchase. You would > have hell of a time finding any consumer in this state paying that! > > > > Ermm yes well.. since "use tax" is pretty much an honor system the only > people who would normally have to fear anything would be businesses and > institutions because they are "bigger fish". Just about every state, if not > all, has an excise tax on out-of-state purchases that applies to EVERYONE but > most folks don't know about it or ignore it. We don't have state income tax > in Texas but I think some states that do include a line for use tax. I like > to joke about it when people talk about buying stuff out of state. > > Newegg.com and Zipzoomfly.com tend to be my favorite for special orders > (single unit items) because of aggresive pricing and their cheap shipping > rates. It seems that alot of the better e-tailers for computer equipment are > based in California. Probably because most hardware gets off the slow boat > from china (literally!) in California first and most of the wholesale > distributors are based in California. > > Anyway check out... > Directron.com (its in houston, tx) > globalcomputer.com (new york state) > >
