Shrewsbury, NJ
Quoted from Rarehero:Someone PM'd me about this, and I have people on ignore and can't see the whole conversation. I just want to say that getting hit with the Use Tax has nothing to do with the distributor. Trent was completely unaware about it. The CA Use Tax Board apparently gets copies of shipping receipts and randomly picks ones to go after. I was contacted when I had 2 Metallicas delivered to my house (one for a friend so we could save on shipping)...they saw that I got a 500 lb delivery from Stern Pinball in Chicago, and said I had to pay tax on it. I actually had to pry that info out of them - they said it's my responsibility to keep track of my purchases and pay tax on them. Clearly they don't want to keep tabs on everything you buy - but since it's the first time this happened, I had no idea what they were talking about or how much they wanted. So - she begrudgingly read the shipping invoice to me, and I knew it was for the 2 Metallicas.
They contacted me again for another game...again, wanted me to tell them what I owed them...and I'm like "C'mon, help me help you...tell me what I owe you and I'll pay"...again, begrudgingly, she told me (I think it was Iron Man this time).
I asked her "what if I buy a use game from a friend out of state". She said I'd have to pay tax on that...I'm like "but there's no invoice, it's between friends...that's like saying I have to pay tax on things I buy on a garage sale", which of course got the standard reply "It's up to you to keep track of your purchases and pay tax on them".
Bleh.
I can only speak for NJ, but by law I need to keep track of all out of state purchases and even in-state purchases that fail to charge me sales tax, and pay a use tax. When it comes to vehicles purchased out of state, we pay the sales tax when we register the vehicle. People always fudge the purchase price on the title paperwork.
For my business, any equipment I purchase out of state, I always pay the use tax on it. It is way too easy to get caught on a sales tax audit (which my state does a lot) on a business level.
