Does importing goods from abroad alone really void sales tax?

Comments

• neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Varies a lot based on country of origin and destination.

  Here in norwegialand we have VAT between 15 and 25% depending on the type of goods when buying domestically as a private person. When buying something from abroad instead, such as online shopping, this is replaced by a customs fee/tariff of about the same amount. There are exceptions and caveats, but that’s the gist of it.

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• lemmyman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  In the US, in states that charge sales tax, the merchant is generally supposed to charge sales tax. And if they don’t, the purchaser is generally supposed to pay a “use tax” that is the same amount as what the sales tax would have been.

  The latter pretty much never happens though, because there isn’t the tax infrastructure to do that for individuals.

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• Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The only way to do it tax and duty free would be to go to Akihabara yourself, buy the goodies in person (paying sales tax), and get a receipt. Then submit the receipt to the relevant tax authority to get your sales tax reimbursed (there are companies that will help you with this for a fee). Then you take the goodies back with you in checked baggage and hope you’re under the personal limit for importing goods, otherwise they’ll hit you with the import duty anyway.

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• HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  So there are two different kinds of sales taxes, the value added tax and a retail sales tax.

  You’re generally never getting out of paying a value added tax since it is incorporated as part of people and corporations doing business. Dove countries allow for refunds up to a certain amount for tourists, but it is baked into the price.

  A retail sales tax is a lot more complicated in enforcement. Selling to a business can mean you don’t have to pay the sales tax. There are also smaller groups that don’t get the attention of local tax officials when selling goods, so they don’t charge the retail sales tax. Most large websites will typically charge the buyer’s local sales tax, but it isn’t uniform for smaller vendors.

  Importing to the USA has also gotten more complicated as a lot of the minimums on import duties are gone.

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• IWW4@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  In the US it does not.

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• devfuuu@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The vat is paid when it crosses the customs. There’s no way around it.

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• remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  When I go shopping in Germany I can claim the VAT back, so sometimes I guess?

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• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Depends on the countries but generally yes you avoid local sales tax but you may have to pay import duties on them.

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