Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Not necessarily. The idea of charging sales tax on an item being shipped to a buyer is that the sales tax is charged based on where an item is ultimately to be stored or used. It is different from when you actually walk into a store and buy something and take physical possession of the item right there. In that case it doesn't matter what state you may actually live in, you pay sales tax to the state where you physically took possession of an item, based on where the store you bought it from is located. If you were on vacation in say Oregon, and bought some mementoes, collectibles, and such, and then took everything back home with you, to say California, you aren't going to be met at the CA border by one of its sales tax agents demanding you pay CA sales tax on items you're now bringing back into your home state. You wouldn't owe any use tax to CA as you already paid the applicable sales tax to the state the store you bought and took possession of the items you purchased was in, even if it was Oregon that has no sales tax.
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I’m pretty sure this is exactly the situation why use tax exists - for people buying stuff in low or no sales tax states and then taking it home with them to high sales tax states.
You’re not met at the border by a tax agent.
But the law does say that you owe use tax.
It’s just that no one actually ever pays it.