Product prices in the UK and USA

Fido

Fido

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Location
New Forest, England.
In the UK it is common for prices quoted on websites to be clear about whether or not they include VAT.

Prices quoted on USA websites usually make no mention of sales taxes. How are these applied?
 
As far as US online retailers are concerned I think sales taxes are only collected if the customer is physically in the same state.
 
Sales tax for each state, which varies (from 4-5% to roughly 9% if I am not mistaken). Few states have no sales tax (e.g. NJ).
Internet sales no sales tax (cross-state only, antdad is correct), i.e. you are in NC and buy from Lee Razors (who resides in NY) there will be no sales tax.
 
N_Architect said:
Sales tax for each state, which varies (from 4-5% to roughly 9% if I am not mistaken). Few states have no sales tax (e.g. NJ).
Internet sales no sales tax (cross-state only, antdad is correct), i.e. you are in NC and buy from Lee Razors (who resides in NY) there will be no sales tax.
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Well technically you should grass yourself up to your home state government and pay the appropriate tax, which happens all the time... :lol:
 
Sales tax is based on the state and what THEY charge..California is 9.75% vs Ohio which is 5.5% added NOT to certain food types but added to online/store purchases much more frequently

B
 
Not sure if this answers the question but most US sites I have ordered from do not ever add vat/import tax to the price making it look cheap, and sometimes you will be lucky and get away with it and pay that.

But as we all know import tax hurts, even worse if it comes by courier they pay the import tax for you and add interest and you then have to pay them (this happened with DHL once)
 
cozzyb said:
Not sure if this answers the question but most US sites I have ordered from do not ever add vat/import tax to the price making it look cheap, and sometimes you will be lucky and get away with it and pay that.

But as we all know import tax hurts, even worse if it comes by courier they pay the import tax for you and add interest and you then have to pay them (this happened with DHL once)
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It is not up to the seller to add VAT & Duty to orders going oversees, since it's different for every country.
It's up to customs to retreive that money from you, they do this through the help of DHL/UPS/Royal Mail. Each of these carriers have their own variable or fixed "handling charge"
To calculate the VAT & Duty on imported goods, I use this website: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dutycalculator.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dutycalculator.com/</a><!-- m -->

They also have a list of handling charges for the different carriers: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_center/will-there-be-any-extra-charges-from-the-shipping-provider/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_cent ... -provider/</a><!-- m -->

DHL/UPS will intercept 99%* of parcels for VAT & Duty (it's where they make a bit of extra profit), using RM stuff often slips under the radar.

Hope that clears it up :p

Max

*Statistics made up on the spot
 
Fido said:
In the UK it is common for prices quoted on websites to be clear about whether or not they include VAT.

Prices quoted on USA websites usually make no mention of sales taxes. How are these applied?
Click to expand...

Sales tax is state dependent, with different rates for different states, and some don't have sales tax at all. Also, if you buy out-of-state, you don't pay sales tax. This only applies to mail-order to an out-of-state address, not when you are physically present in the shop, even if you travel out of the state after your purchase.

In the EU, I'm quite sure that it is unlawful to quote consumer prices not including VAT. The only exception used to be computer stuff.
 
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