Sales taxes on internet orders outside of NC?

[Steve973]

I was very interested in ordering some of your Kava, but I saw that you are charging NC sales tax on internet orders, even if they are being shipped to customers who are out of state. As a Maryland resident, if I am not within the borders of NC, I don't have to pay NC sales tax. I am definitely not trying to start trouble, but I am curious why this is being done.

Nolo.com says it quite well: "If an online retailer has a physical presence in a particular state, such as a store, business office, or warehouse, it must collect sales tax from customers in that state. If a business does not have a physical presence in a state, it is not required to collect sales tax for sales into that state. This rule is derived from a 1992 Supreme Court decision which held that mail-order merchants did not need to collect sales taxes for sales into states where they did not have a physical presence." See http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/sales-tax-internet-29919.html for the full article.

 

[Vekta]

I don't know about your state but my state has internet sales tax in effect. Your state may have done the same thing recently. Ours (CA) kicked in in 2012. Nolo is just a reference. You need to check with your state's revenue agency to know for sure.

I would assume there is one of the mentioned requirements in my state and is why they need to collect sales tax although I don't know for sure. Having a physical presence is just one of the criteria.

 

[Steve973]

They are collecting NC sales tax for people who are buying out of state. It's not a matter of them collecting sales tax for the zip of the purchaser. It is like they are treating all sales as if they are occurring locally at their kava bar.

 

[Vekta]

Hopefully we get some kind of answer then. *shrugs*

 

[The Kap'n]

That's interesting. They may just not have a way of separating tax from an order based on location so they just tax everything that goes on an invoice. Or it could very well be that no matter where the invoice request originates, it's still a taxable sale under NC law.

 

[Steve973]

I found out the answer by asking my friend Google. Kapmcrunk is on the right track:
http://www.dornc.com/faq/use.html

I apologize for calling Noble Kava's practices into question. I still don't like this tactic imposed by North Carolina, though.

 

[Vekta]

I don't blame them one bit for doing it.

Them tax people don't mess around when it comes to squeezing people for the cash. As long as the kava is good, I'm good. I'll keep doing business with them for sure.

 

[Steve973]

I ordered and received some ahouia kaolik kava. My first impression is that it is decent, but I need some more time with this one to get to know it better.