cmleidi

When did Barnes and Noble online start charging tax? Their prices aren't competitive enough to also factor in tax.

CaptDS9E

They charge tax to whatever states have a B&N store. Which is all of them pretty much

capt

marty888

They've always been charging tax if they have a physical presence in your state. This is true of virtually all of the online retailers.

That's why only Illinois residents get slammed with tax from DeepDiscount, for example, since their facility is in Illinois.

forumsmy

Not exactly -- in Texas they have had a physical presence (stores all over the place) for years and NOT charged tax UNTIL earlier in 2005. I know since that was an automatic 7-8% off when ordering and made the difference or a much better deal for ordering books, etc. with a member card. Also online they have discounts on books and such upto 40% before member discount and best of all was free UPS 3-day shipping. Reasons I buy from them, not as much now since the tax is added - just not a deal on some things. For larger items I am now going elsewhere unless the tax added is still less than other places.

I too was upset when I discovered this upon checkout.

As another note, Books-A-Million online does NOT charge tax and they have a store in Texas and they STILL do not charge tax. I just ordered from them within the last month here.

So I do not really know why some charge tax and some do not and why BN just now started with the tax and others do not.

marty888 --- I thought the same as you, but now I do not know.

cmleidi

They do have brick and mortar stores in Ohio, and up until yesterday, I've never had to pay tax on any item I purchased. I must concur with forumsmy. The tax negates any member discount I may receive so there's little reason to use them since their prices are rarely competitive.

stevevt

BN just had a unfavorable court ruling in California, where they previously had not been collecting sales tax, despite having a physical presence (retail stores) in the state. BN argued that they were separate business, but because you can return online purchases to the retail stores (and a few other reasons), they lost.

So I'm guessing BN preemptively decided to collect sales tax everywhere, since they knew they would not win if brought into court.

Not that I've ordered from BN.com in a few years, but I'm guessing that they didn't collect tax anywhere until very recently.


EDIT:
1) The case I was thinking of was against Borders, but it was in California.
2) BN is also being sued, but by IL.
3) I'm sure this things are all related.
4) When I said that BN never collected sales tax anywhere, I of course meant to say "except the state(s) where they have corporate offices."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...070101475.html

Funk

I bet you're right. I believe part of the ruling against Borders was due to the fact that the B&M and online companies were tightly intertwined. You could buy from online and return to B&M and you'd see advertisements for the online store in the B&M shops, so they weren't quite as separate as they said they were.

Josh H

Some times there book prices are better than amazon even with taxes. And Amazon's free shipping is slow as molasses and their pay shipping a little prices. I only order from their when I have GCs from my amazon credit card and keynote evaluations to burn and don't mind waiting 2 or 3 weeks to get whatever I'm ordering.

Just Lurking

They charge a tax on based on where shipments orginate. They have distribution center or their main supplier (Ingram Micro) has locations in those states. My wife works for textbook distributor (MBS Textbook Exchange) which is a wholly owned subsidary of BN. They began some distribution for bn.com a few years ago, the same time that began charging tax in MO.

From their website:

General Information:

In accordance with applicable law, Barnes & Noble.com currently collects sales tax in the following states: FL, ID, IL, MA, MN, MO, NC, ND, NJ, NV, NY, PA, SC, TN, TX, WI, and WV. Sales tax is applied to the total amount of the order, including shipping and handling charges and gift-wrap fees (where applicable) and is based on the shipment's destination state and local sales tax rates.

For your planning and convenience, we display an estimated sales tax amount when orders are placed. The exact sales tax will be listed on your invoice (packing slip) and reflects all state and local taxes of your order destination at the time your order is shipped. Federal tax is only added to orders delivered in Canada and is displayed as GST (Goods and Services Tax).

Gift Cards are not subject to sales tax. However, some states require us to collect taxes on shipping and handling charges. If your Gift Card order ships to one of these states (FL, IL, MN, MO, NC, ND, NV, NY, PA, SC, TN, TX, WI, WV), you will be taxed on the shipping and handling charge associated with a Gift Card purchase, not for the Gift Card itself. Purchases paid for with Gift Certificates, Reward Certificates, or other online currencies will be charged sales tax where required. .

Sales tax is collected in NY and TX for items purchased from our PC & Video Games store. Texas-based GameStop supplies these items.