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From: kent@tifsie.UUCP (Russell Kent)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Re: minix orders
Message-ID: <242@tifsie.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-Sep-87 20:43:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: tifsie.242
Posted: Wed Sep 16 20:43:52 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Sep-87 15:07:48 EDT
References: <2698@eecae.UUCP>
Organization: TI Process Automation Center, Dallas
Lines: 43

in article <2698@eecae.UUCP>, lawitzke@eecae.UUCP (John Lawitzke) says:
> 
>> I got back a set of disks,
>> and a bill for sales tax!  NOWHERE on the card did it imply that sales
>> tax was not included in the purchase price.
> 
> As I understand tax laws, if you mail order something from a different
> state, they can not legally charge you sales tax. If they do, they're
> probably just pocketing the money. Only if you live in the state the
> order is sent to can they charge you that sales tax.

What Mr. Lawitzke says is not entirely correct.  A state sales tax is
a tax levied on the purchase price of some items sold within the confines
of that state.  The problem with interstate mail orders is two-fold:
    1.  Where did the sale occur?  In the state where the buyer resides
	or the state where the seller resides?

    2.  If the sale is attributed to the state where the buyer resides
	(appropriate since the sales tax is intended to be paid by the
	buyer and should be therefore paid to his state's treasury), how
	does one enforce the law?

Many states have cooperative sales tax levy agreements; this is why one
cannot go to a neighboring state and buy a big-ticket item (such as a
car) and avoid the state sales tax.  In such a case, the sales taxes
are levied and distributed according to the states' agreement.
However, most mail-order sales have such small tax amounts that their
collection costs do not justify the enforcement of the law and the 
additional overhead associated with interstate taxes.

It would appear that to avoid possible legal action against PH, they
have chosen to comply with the letter of the law (obviously to the
chagrin of several mail-order customers :-).  With tighter state
budgets, this will probably happen more and more frequently.

Oh, well.  This is just one more of the "good ole days" stories that
we can tell our grandchildren.

-- 
Russell Kent			Phone: +1 214 995 3501
Texas Instruments - MS 3635	Net mail:
P.O. Box 655012			...!{ihnp4,uiucdcs}!convex!smu!tifsie!kent	
Dallas, TX 75265		...!ut-sally!im4u!ti-csl!tifsie!kent