Sales Taxes on Web Purchases

 Just did a yearly T-Mobile  refill.
Noticed my $10.00 refill cost $11.01, which reflects the local sales
tax rate.  Cook County, IL.
The refills weren't taxed a couple years ago.
Seems some web purchases add the tax, others don't.
Anybody know what's going on with this?
Wonder how it will affect web sales.

--Vic

  Vic Smith wrote:

The flip answer, of course, is that Blago wants his share ;->

In general, in the US, you're supposed to pay state sales ('and use')
tax even on things purchased from another jurisdiction.  For the most
part, businesses that have any office/store/etc. in your state must
charge tax, even if you buy online.  Otherwise, you're supposed to
report it when you do your state income tax.  Though I suspect that
outside of big-ticket items and things like automobiles that require
government registration, compliance is less than 100% :) Perhaps very
much less.

<TINFOIL HAT>It wouldn't surprise me if the "fatherland security"
excuse to make banks and financial institutions share data with the
government didn't lead to states finding out more about your purchases
and demanding their cut.</TINFOIL HAT>  Nah, governments would never
do anything like that.

http://www.callingmart.com/  doesn't charge tax (I assume that their
physical location is somewhere there isn't a sales tax, or else they
eat the tax).  And the $10 T-Mobile refill I bought from them a few
days ago cost $9.30.

Dave

 On Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:23:16 -0600, Dave Garland


Thanks for all that info.
Do T-Mobile refill minutes bought on this site have the same 365 day
expiration (Gold Rewards) as on the T-Mobile site?
Seems weird that T-Mobile would sell refills to a reseller.
To what advantage for them?
Are these minutes easily added to your T-Mobile account?

--Vic

 Vic Smith wrote:

They are the same as time purchased from T-Mobile or another retailer.


They also sell T-Mobile refill cards at K-Mart and Target (and
probably other places that sell phones).  Target sometimes has them on
sale, but you'll have to pay the local tax if you buy there.


Probably to make it easy for you to use (and buy) more time.  I rather
suspect that most people buy much much more than $10/year.  Some
people need (or choose) to buy for cash, as they may not have a credit
card, or don't want to leave a paper trail.  Some don't have Internet
access (and prudently choose not to enter a cc number via a possibly
insecure computer in a library or other public place).

And I imagine that even at a substantial discount, the profit margin
is huge, once T-Mobile has recouped their subsidy on the phone itself.


Yes, just dial the appropriate number (I don't remember what it is,
star-something, but they'll tell you in the email that provides the
PIN number), and enter the PIN number.

Dave

 On Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:53:15 -0800, The Real Bev


The discounting is what surprised me.  Good to know if you use a lot
of T-Mobile prepaid minutes.  Until Dave pointed out otherwise, my
mindset was that T-Mobile prepaid was mostly used by those who
didn't use many minutes.
When I did the $10 refill to keep my unused minutes my prior year's
use was.....10 minutes.

--Vic