Doc Moonlight

It's sales tax free weekend in Missouri and there is no sales tax on clothing and school supplies. I know other states have this, although the weekend may be different.

Over they years this seems to have grown into another "event" weekend. CompUSA was open 24 hours yesterday, CC and BB have extended hours, our local BB has cordoned off it's computer department and you have to sign up for assistance if you are looking to buy a computer. There are $299 desktop and $399 laptop deals as well as $3.99, $6.99 and $8.99 DVD deals to get you in the door.

Couldn't help but think that it's almost like Black Friday, 3 months earlier.

ben12

Gray Friday

tonyc3742

Distract-you-from-how-much-you-pay-in-sales-tax-the362-days FridaySaturdaySunday.

It is tax holiday weekend in NC.....I guess I need to check the dvd racks for those cheapies, though I don't need anything else other than some clothes.

EdTheRipper

I ventured into Massachusetts a couple of years ago during their tax-free weekend. Big mistake. Definitely not worth the aggravation just to save 5%.

ernestrp

They are having about the same thing in VA this weekend. JC Pennys which usually has coupons for 10.00 off of 50.00 and 15.00 off of 75.00 but this weekend they are 5.00 off of 50.00 and 10.00 off of 75.00. Its just a gimmick. I have not heard of any stores here doing any special promotions here.

BKenn01

Yep!

calhoun07

Everyday I shop online, it's tax free day. When I mention this to my co-workers as they piss themselves over the "sales," they just look at me like I spoke in a strange language.

Xbox69

They're having it this weekend in TX here but it's mainly a back-to-school thing with supplies, clothing, shoes, etc. I think each item also has to be under $100. We have an 8.25% sales tax.

tonyc3742

7% here, so it can make a difference.
I bought my softball glove last year that weekend, it helped a bit. I guess if you're buying a lot of school clothes, or a computer, it can make a big difference; although I'm not sure if it would apply to e-tailers [Dell, for example].
calhoun: Yep, I'm doing more and more of that for precisely that reason. Of course, NC has a field on the state tax form where you estimate your online purchases, so they can get their share of that. Unfortunately, I'd prefer for more of my tax burden to be directed at the state than the feds.

Brian Shannon

Not worth the 5%

ernestrp

The Best Buy near me in VA did have a couple of Dvd's advertised in the paper today I wanted to get. I was driving buy at 8:30 am and noticed there were some cars in the parking lot and drove by to see if they were opening earlier and the sign said 9:00 am. Took a pit stop at Target and back over to BB and there were exactly 4 of us at the door when it opened. And they did not charge me any tax on the Dvd's I bought. I guess I saved about 1.00 and I was able to get home earlier and beat the heat.

Michael Corvin

saving <10% s.t. isn't quite the same as getting 50-90% off items on black friday. Not even in the same ballpark.

Plus, like Calhoun said, every day is tax free when you shop online.

tonyc3742

I was charged tax for the one dvd I bought for my dad [it was 3.99]. We did save about 8 bucks [whoohoo] on the clothes we bought at Old Navy, but we did better with the 'Best Week Ever' contest--won 2 10-off-50 coupons. Since we bought just over 100$ of stuff, well, let's do two transactions.
But yeah, if I were needing a computer or a printer or something, it would be great; but also, odds are I'd order those online and save it on the front end.
One advantage is that the stores were not *nearly* as crowded as they are on BF.

DVD Josh

I guess if you enjoy tax evasion it is, unless you are fortunate enough to live in a state without a use tax, of which there are not many.

For those that don't know, a use tax would require you to pay to the state any online purchases for which you were not charged your in state tax.

Ginwen

Does anybody (besides DVD Josh) actually do this? Don't all raise your hands at once.

The Bus

Delaware is tax-free year round.

IDrinkMolson

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. What is this "sales tax" you're talking about?

DVD Josh

Whether you actually do or not is irrelevant. The point is that you DO owe sales tax for purchases made online. The head of Tyco went down for it, interestingly.

tonyc3742

And many states, since they're now 'losing money', are attempting to start collecting it, either by a line-item on the annual tax form or by working with other states to create some sort of consistent online-sales-tax collection procedure, though I'm not sure how that's progressing.

Xbox69

Is it every April 15th? TX has no state income tax. I just file the federal return.

Ginwen

Washington State talks about enforcing it, but we have lots of businesses here that benefit from the lack of taxes for online sales, so it hasn't progressed.

According to the Washington State tax website we are also supposed to pay Washington State use tax if you buy stuff in another state (like Oregon) that has a lower tax rate.

I guess, yes, I do enjoy tax evasion--at least I do when I seem to be getting away with it.

DVD Josh

I would be surprised if it doesn't become a bigger deal in the years ahead. They would still need some way to track it though.

tonyc3742

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6060450.html

"More than 40 states are participating in the Streamlined Sales Tax http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/index.html effort, which is designed to do two things: simplify convoluted state tax codes and make tax collection mandatory for out-of-state sellers.

Once state tax laws are simplified, the theory goes, Congress can be persuaded to eliminate the nexus requirement. Two bills that would do that--and effectively override the Supreme Court's 1992 decision--are pending in the U.S Senate. "

I'm for simplification of the abominable tax systems, but I wish they'd spend more time and energy using the money they currently receive more efficiently; and I wish they wouldn't feel so entitled to taking more of my money.

http://www.intuitive.com/blog/its_ti...sales_tax.html

I have no idea who that second guy is, but I disagree with 2 of his 3 conclusions.

"1. Internet businesses no longer need to be sheltered from taxation to be competitive,"
Hmm...this is perhaps true, for some businesses. Sure, Amazon.com is well established. But there are lots of mom and pop type e-stores that rely on the internet because it doesn't have all the bureaucratic obstacles to starting a business that they'd face starting a B&M, and of course vastly lower operating costs. Is that why they were originally not taxed?

"2. The U.S. Government needs additional tax revenue and usage taxes are easier to accept than income taxes, "

I'd buy the latter, if we toss the income tax--which would not happen. And the whole idea of 'the government *needs* more of our money' I heartily disagree with.

"3. Businesses with retail establishments need to stop being penalized in the online world so that they can compete effectively."

They can-and do-complete, by being able to offer things the e-tailers don't. Convenience, instant gratification, local returns, no shipping fees, being able to 'touch' the item before buying it, knowledgeable+helpful sales/service people. [Of course, it's up to the B&M to actually offer those things]. And what's the difference between buying something from Amazon and buying something from Target? They're both huge faceless corporations. Compete or die. Now, if he used this same argument to help Mr and Mrs Johnson's Little Hardware Store, okay, I'd buy that to an extent--of course, I would be interested in seeing figures as to how many new non-dining businesses are started each year, B&M versus e-tailing. I'll admit some people 'window shop' in B&Ms, then purchase online--but many do not.

GradVT06

There was no tax on DVD's b/c (at least the BB in my area) instead of tax free (on school supplies, clothing), BB absorbed the cost of the sales tax on everything by paying it themselves. So it was a little different. If they do the same thing next year, I may be in the market for finally getting an HDTV, and tax on a $4000 TV would have been a little more than $200. Plus if the price goes down within 30 days after that, I can collect.