Thought I had a great deal on my Prascend by saving 5% using their Autoship option. Now they tacked on sales tax. Is this new for animal drugs? In my state there isn’t a “use” tax on for drugs purchased out of state online, but it seems that animal drugs are taxed. As if it wasn’t already expensive…
This is new(ish) for all internet sales. Last June, the Supreme Court in South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. decided that individual states can require online sellers to collect state sales tax on their sales. And the statess have jumped on the bandwagon big time - sending obscene “estimated” bills to anyone they think they can bully into paying up. It’s running a lot of small internet businesses into bankruptcy.
So expect to pay sales tax from here on out.
5 Likes
Just pay the damn tax and be glad you don’t live in Somalia. Sorry. I’ve recently become a socialist.
14 Likes
Unless you are in one of the “NOMAD” states (New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Delaware), you will be charged sales tax on your future e-commerce orders from any online retailer that meets the threshhold for nexus within your state.
As AltersAreUs identifies above, all of this is related to the Wayfair decision in the supreme court. It was meant to give brick & mortar stores a fighting chance for competitively priced goods against the e-retail giants, but it has had significant repercussions for a bunch of industries and is not cohesively thought out as each state has had a different roll-out date, has different definitions (and threshholds) of what entails commercial nexus, etc.
What it “means” is that online sellers are obligated to charge tax on transactions & register and remit that tax to the state the goods’ final destination is. It is a giant pain. Some purchasers are tax exempt (reseller, charitable, industrial/manufacturing) and have specific paperwork to prove it but that is generally allocated at the state level and each state’s certification is different. Again, giant mess.
The short version of it is basically that the days of tax-free online retail is over for good. Consumers can anticipate being charged sales tax from here out unless a retailer falls below the threshhold for commercial nexus in the state you reside in.
6 Likes
Legally, you always owed sales tax on your internet purchases. You are supposed to report it as a line item on your tax return. Realistically, almost no one did that, and now you have to pay it directly.
5 Likes
In my state you were required to pay a use tax based on your income. I tried to keep track of untaxed purchases last year but I got way behind and couldn’t catch up. This year I started doing it; some states were charging their own amount of tax which differed from NJ’s. Just wanted to see at tax time how my actual owed tax compared to the income-based amount.
Most states don’t charge sales tax on prescriptions. I would contact Valley Vet and find out why they are being charged. If what you bought wasn’t a prescription, then yes, sales tax is now applicable on internet sales. However, I have been paying sales tax in CA from most retailers already.
How many of the general population in socialist countries own horses, for pleasure not for meat?
I have never understood rooting for socialism if you are involved with horses. The money you spend on your horse should be spent on humans because that is more fair.
5 Likes
They should have been charging sales tax since Jan 1. If they weren’t they are having to pay out of pocket in many states.
Not all states had rolled out compliance measures by Jan 1st (and some were as early as October of 2018, annoyingly). It’s a mess. (South Dakota began compliance the most recently, I believe, in March of this year, and last I was aware Texas isn’t making it necessary until fall of this year.)
1 Like
Our accounting department was told that we had to have it in effect Jan 1. We were late and didn’t have it until March. Some states are allowing us to just pay once we collect, others are wanting back taxes. It has been a huge mess.
Absolutely the truth. Many of us are “cheating” on our tax returns whether we realize it or not.
1 Like
I think the key here is its a prescription product so should not be subject to sales tax, at least it never used to be.
I ordered Prascend from Valley vet in March. I am in North Carolina and there was no sales tax charged. I also ordered Revolution for my cat from Chewy, prescription product, no sales tax. I’ll definitely be calling if they charge sales tax on another rx purchase to ask what is going on with that, it would have to be quite a new regulation.
Depends on your state. Some treat animal RX differently from human RX.
3 Likes
Yes, that’s why I said I was in North Carolina, it was exempt here at least as recently as a couple of months ago and it doesn’t appear, at least here, that the sales tax exemption has changed. I’ll definitely contact those companies if I see a sales tax charge on any upcoming orders.
Companies are having to go items by item in almost all 50 states to find out what is exempt to everyone, what is exempt on Ag exemptions, and what is always taxable.
There is no database somewhere with all of this information. Its been a huge headache.
also note the pain gets larger as the state tax rates are not flat across a state but differ by city/county/or whatever break point a state may have.
Here you can cross a street and be in different sales tax rate
1 Like
Veterinary prescriptions have been subject to sales tax in Maine for years
Ditto Virginia on charging sales tax on veterinary prescriptions. I look at it this way: if the cost of the sales tax is going to have a financial impact on my caring for my horses, then I need to get out of horses.
1 Like
Riders in Canada, England, France, Germany, Sweeden, The Neatherlands seem to be fine.
4 Likes
