I put some "blem" FE Power valve covers up for sale in the Vendor Classifieds yesterday, and had a guy contact me about the sales tax issue. He wanted to know if he had to pay sales tax on purchases from FE Power. Back when the Supreme Court decision made collecting sales tax on online purchases required, I had to do a bunch of research on that, so just for general information I thought I'd post what I found out about this.
The key point is that nearly all states in the US have reporting minimums for collecting sales tax, when the products are shipped from outside the state. For example, California requires that if a business makes 100 sales into their state over the course of the calendar year, or sells at least $100,000 in products into the state, then it is required to report those sales and collect sales tax on them, then forward those taxes to the state. If the sales are fewer than 100, or less than $100,000, then no reporting or collection of sales taxes is required. Most other states have very similar requirements. Illinois is 200/$100,000, Connecticut is 200/$250,000, South Dakota is 200/$100,000, Ohio has no minimum quantity but has $500,000 in minimum dollar value, etc.
FE Power doesn't come close to these minimums for any state, so unless the purchase is going into Minnesota, I don't need to collect sales tax on any purchases. It aggravates me to no end that I have to pay tax on purchases from Summit, Amazon, ebay, and any other large online retailers, but at least my customers who buy direct don't have to do that. Just thought I'd put this up here for general information - Jay
