Sales Tax
Taxes that appear on your online order are a very close approximate if not in
most all cases exact. The actual taxes charged to your credit card will reflect
all the applicable state and local sales taxes, and will be calculated when your
order is actually shipped. If the state of Washington or other states change
their sales tax rate between the time we received your order and the time we
shipped your order than you will see a small difference on your credit card
statement. Orders shipped to Washington will have all applicable local and state
sales taxes added to your total order, and to your shipping charges where
appropriate.
Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA).
To be clear, the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which was signed into law
on October 21, 1998, does not, as some have asserted, preclude sales and use
taxes on any and all commerce conducted over the Internet. State and local
governments are allowed to impose sales and use taxes on all such electronic
sales, provided that the tax (and its rate) are the same as that which would be
imposed on the transactions if they were conducted in a more traditional manner,
such as over the phone or through mail order.
The IFTA is intended to prevent any jurisdiction from imposing special taxes on
Internet transactions, other than such taxes that a jurisdiction already has the
ability to impose (e.g., sales tax; see below). The ITFA was able to prevent the
imposition of any such taxes through October 21, 2001. At this time the fate of
sales tax on the Internet is unknown and could change at any time which could
affect your order.
Taxation rules used by mail-order companies.
Currently, most e-commerce companies use the same taxation rules used by
mail-order companies, which are based on constitutional guidelines for
interstate commerce. Generally this means that states can only require companies
to collect sales tax in states where they have business operations, and as a
result, a company will not collect sales tax in states where they have no
business operations. If someone were to order something from one of our
catalogs, that person would only be charged sales tax if he or she lived in a
state where our company has physical operations. Example: If a person in Wyoming
ordered something, our company would not be required to collect sales tax
because it has no business operations in Wyoming.
State and local government sales tax rules.
The ITFA also prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes on
Internet access charges, protects against the imposition of new tax liability
for consumers and vendors involved in commercial transactions over the Internet,
and creates a temporary commission to study taxation of Internet commerce and to
report back to Congress in 18 months on whether the Internet ought to be taxed
and, if so, how taxes can be applied without subjecting the Internet and
electronic commerce to special, discriminatory, or multiple taxation. Although
the 18 months have already passed, this commission has still not reached any
conclusions for congress to act on.
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