ECS Tuning Sales Tax Rant
 

I've noticed that almost all online purchases are now charging sales tax, and I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is when they overcharge for sales tax.

I was making a purchase on ECS Tuning last week and noticed that the sales tax was being calculated at 5.6% instead of the 5% that would be appropriate for the state/county I live in. I looked back at some previous purchases and saw that they were charging me 5.6% over a year ago.

I aborted the check-out and emailed them regarding the incorrect sales tax. Their response was that their system wasn't capable of determining the rate by county, so they just charge the highest rate in the state. In the neighboring state of Illinois I believe the sales tax can range from 6.25% to 11%. I make a fair amount of online purchases and haven't seen where any other stores have this handicap.

In order for them to make it right, I had to complete the check-out and then they lowered the item price to achieve the correct total while still charging 5.6%. May be time for ECS to update their system.

The time I spent wasn't worth the $.75 difference in tax, it was a principle thing.

I've seen the same thing on other sites. They can charge whatever the hell they want, and only .0001% of the people will catch it and only .000001% will do anything about it. Apart from that, it's gravy.

Even better are the guys who try to charge sales tax at swap meets.

FWIW, I work in eCommerce, and there is a way to figure out the tax based on the customer's ZIP code.

^^^ I've owned three homes in my current Zip Code, two of which share a sales tax rate of 4.5% and one with a rate of 7.8%. Is it possible for software to be address specific - perhaps when a customer enters their four-digit Zip Code extension?

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This. So many government entities want a piece of the pie, and the zip code can cover more that one city. I have to file the sales tax report to our state government, even though we do 99999% of our sales with no physical item, just electrons on the internet.

Yes, and the +4 isn't "entered" - it's looked up using another piece of software, based on the mailing address

It's worth noting that sales taxes are a 'trust tax' and in many places the penalties for failure to remit such as well as the actual tax are not forgivable in any way. They can follow the owners (and even check signers who aren't owners or accountants who pay the bills but aren't owners) outside of the business. The ol' game played by foreigners who open a new corp every year so they can screw their landlords and vendors won't work in this arena.

Not an area of taxation to play games with. Might be hard for states to get a hold of it but if you collect 5.6% and then file a return claiming you only collected 5% you've most likely committed fraud.

Link those two concepts together and you're gonna have a bad day if such a thing comes to light.