Originally Posted by BobC
Leon,
Sales and Use Taxes are state, not federal laws, so they can really vary from state to state. Also, you won't typically see anything specifically written into such state laws that talks or deals with sales and use taxes being due when someone moves from one state/location to another. Sales and use taxes are typically calculated and due right when you purchase something, not long after you've bought and owned something, and then later on move and take them with you. Have you ever in your life heard of someone moving from one state to another, and then having to figure out if they now have to pay sales/use tax to the new resident state they just moved into? I'm going to guess that will be a huge NO, because no state and their legislature could ever be that stupid (regardless of how hard a lot of them may try).
So, if you bought cards and had them immediately sent straight to, held, and then kept in a vault in a state with no sales taxes, that is where your cards are deemed to be kept/used, and therefore the sales/use taxes of that same state are applicable. The laws are the same for individuals and businesses. Ford Motor is headquartered out of Detroit, but has factories and offices all over the country. But if someone from the main office in Detroit orders something to be delivered and used at a plant in say Ohio, Ohio and not Michigan sales/use tax will be due on what was purchased, even if the invoice gets sent to Detroit, and the check to pay for the purchase comes from there as well. And the same goes for individuals like you and me, it doesn't matter where we live at the time we buy something online or otherwise have delivered to us from an out of state seller that determines sales/use tax on our purchase, it is where the item purchased is to be sent/kept/used. And that is one thing that is pretty much recognized and universally followed by all the states with sales and use taxes. And that is why the vaults work to keep people from paying any sales/use taxes when they're located in states with no sales/use taxes.
Now states are aware that people may try to get around sales taxes on big ticket items like cars. So even if you drive across state lines to buy a car, the sales tax will be charged based on where you end up registering and using the car, not necessarily where your main residence is. Think of someone having a vacation home they stay at a few weeks out of the year that is in another state, and they buy a car just to keep and use at the vacation home. The sales tax is due to the state your car is kept and used in, in that vacation home state, not the state you permanently reside in.
Normally state's sales/use tax laws say nothing about a time frame for how long after you purchased something in one state that you then need to wait before moving it to another state, and be totally free of any concern that the new state you just moved it to might think you now owe them sales/use tax on items just brought into that new state that were previously purchased elsewhere. There are some rare instances though where a time frame may be indicated in a state's sales/use tax laws. For example, California sales/tax laws have a specific provision, just for motor vehicles. If you buy a car in another state, and then move it to and register it in CA within less than one year from the date you originally bought the vehicle, you now owe CA the difference between the sales tax you paid in the state you originally bought it, and what you would have owed had you originally purchased it CA. If you originally paid more than what you would have paid CA, then you owe CA nothing. But if you owned the car a year or more before then moving it to CA, you don't ever owe CA any sales tax on the car you just moved into the state. And I believe they may have something about 90 days for other regular sales well. And CA is a very aggressive taxing state, yet even they realize you can't be subject to sales/use tax forever on items you're just moving from one state/location to another.
It's just that to my knowledge, most state currently have no specific language in their sales/use tax laws that spells out how long you'd have to keep a card in one of these vaults before you could then take it out and bring it home with you, and have absolutely no sales/use tax consequence from your state of residence. So, when looking at and maybe selecting which different vault provider you may be thinking of using, you may want to ask and find out up front what their policies are on charging sales/use taxes on something you end up removing from their vault, especially if it is long after you originally bought it and put it in there.
|