I know that residents of Oregon, New Hampshire, Delaware, Montana & Alaska have 0% sales tax for goods and services and can apply to have it rescinded when they’re out of their states upon them visiting one that has ST (with valid ID to prove residence). But does that privilege carry over for international purchases, in this case, all goods are priced in ¥ from the seller as they’re based in Japan.
For example, when buying a new video game console & physical game combined is ¥71,960 ($455) which heads to a warehouse first (owned by a forwarding agent in Japan, since the seller doesn’t ship across borders) then shipping costs are calculated separately (like would it cost $40 to ship from Yokohama to Oregon). The thing is, can you still pay 0% ST since the item is not only out of state, but abroad?
The same counterpart in US (even 0% ST) is $590 MSRP via a official retailer (it’s more expensive when paying ST) if you’ve bought the console and game (you’ve saved ~$135 when buying either from out of state). Shipping across borders always costs money but the item itself costs less than buying within state just because of region pricing. Although, would that alone guarantee that you’re not paying any ST?
You won’t pay state sales tax, but you’ll still pay any tariffs.
Adding to what others have said tarrifs still being applied: the de minimis exemption has ended. You may not be used to paying duty on items purchased internationally because of that long standing policy. You would also need to factor in custom clearing fees from the carrier.
I know that residents of Oregon, New Hampshire, Delaware, Montana & Alaska have 0% sales tax for goods and services and can apply to have it rescinded when they’re out of their states upon them visiting one that has ST (with valid ID to prove residence).
This is not true at all.
USA sales taxes are imposed on a portion of the sale price for a purchase made within a state, irrespective of the residency of whomever is making the sale.
Some purchases are exempt from taxes, such as those by a registered charity, and if collected you can ask for a refund from the state with proof that tax was collected and your exemption, but being a resident of a state that has no tax of its own isn’t one.
I live in NY. If someone from any of those states came to Buffalo or NYC and bought a car or a box of legos or something, they’d be charged sales tax and any attempt to get a refund would be denied. (And if it wasn’t collected and the state found out, the vendor would be billed).
Confusingly if I drove to Delaware to buy a car and new PC and brought both back to NY for my personal use, NY does charge an unevenly applied “use tax” that would be the difference between local sales tax and foreign sales tax.
(And the tarrif charged by the feds on import of foreign goods is entirely separate, paid on import, and utterly irrelevant to your state of residency or even naturalization status.)
It is actually true In some cases but I never hear of anyone trying to claim it.
That is such a bizarre and wonky scheme in the Great State of Washington it almost makes me believe my mom when she says “New York is the best run state I’ve ever lived in.”
I wonder how much of that is due to the old “no tax on the internet” loophole that helped Amazon get so big…
It’s true in part.
Oregonians looking to buy pseudoephedrine would cross the border into our Vancouver pharmacy so they don’t need to get a prescription in Oregon (It’s an OTC med in Washington, but kept behind the pharmacy counter).
For the longest time we were able to take off the sales tax when presented with Oregon ID, it’s a normal part of the POS system. That exception changed a number of years ago for the border towns, but it definitely still exists.
Thanks for sharing! (I love learning new things.)
I think it’s relevant to note that (part of) Canada choosing to exempt specific purchases of medicine is entirely different than some implicit right of Oregon residents to avoid sales taxes.
Canada/US trade is international and has always had weirdness at the border, thanks to tariffs and “duty-free” shops and the like.
Wrong Vancouver, if you’re thinking BC. Vancouver, WA is right across the river from Portland, OR, so nothing international going on there.
I know nothing about US/Canada trade laws
As a foreign trade expert (not American tho, so you can take this with a grain of salt) I’d say yes. In international trade there is no sales taxes.
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Usually when exporting you use 0% sales taxes. With the exporting prove, you than can go to your tax office and tell them I exported the goods. => the tax office won’t demand taxes from you.
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The importer on their side has to pay the importing fees (tariffs) & tax the goods on their side with their sales taxes => the tax office will be informed by the customs, the goods arrived and that they need to collect the taxes from you. That’s why usually a lot of international b2c businesses won’t offer pre taxed deliveries as they would have to be tax registered in every country they ship to (there are exeptions).
So in your examples: if the goods went from Japan to Oregon etc, than there would be no sales tax as their sales tax is 0% but they’d still need to pay the tariffs.
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Americans make their own lives complicated LOL.
This may come as a shock to you, but the average person has very little, of any, control over what taxes they pay, regardless of country of residence.
But, by all means, continue spreading hate in exchange for internet updoots if that’s what you need to get you through another day of your life.
