from what I can tell in that article, out of state sellers only need to collect sales tax on California buyers if they have "affiliates" in California which they deem as creating a physical presence in the state. So Im good there. But, It mentions that California is the seventh state to do this with others being Illinois, Arkansas, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Do these other states only require the collection of taxes if you have affiliates within the state? similar to what California has done?

The big question - do any of you CCupers collect taxes on out of state buyers?

Brick and mortar presence in a state will have nothing to do with collecting taxes. The states feel they are missing out on revenue. It is widely known that government has been working on a way to collect taxes for all online sales. This will become a reality once they stop trying to figure a system that adheres to each locations tax rules and just implement a standard internet tax.

Hi, just wondering - I've looked through and can't find an option - but is there a way to make the price tax inclusive without the customer suddenly discovering it as an addon at the checkout. Or at the very least, have the price appear beside the item as say $10.50 +GST. In Australia the law dictates that a buyer can assume that everything purchased includes the national 10% GST unless otherwise stated at the actual point of sale. eg: the price beside the item should either say $10.50 +GST, or just $11.55 . The checkout is too late, as it's regarded as misleading trade practices. Any hints or workarounds? Thanks, Andrew

Are you selling ONLY within the confines of Australia? If so, why not just figure the tax in (WOW 10%!!!) and post it as the $11.55 in your example...

Not to nitpik, but do Australian laws really consider the checkout too late to inform? I would think that that would be considered the actual point of sale, but that's just me.

The only OTHER option I see for you, would be to include the statement in the info about the item itself. Maybe a statement that says something along the lines of "Sales made within Australia will be subject to 10% GST in addition to the price listed on this item".

Andrew Thompson is quite right in his message above re: Australian GST law. I also need a work around for my Australian Only sales. Any ideas please!!

As long as the prices shown include GST, and not added later, you'll be fine.

Do you use MYOB, Quickbooks, or similar? You can generate a proper tax invoice to send with your parcel.

As for overseas transactions, I guess you need to weight up how many products you do send OS, and if it's worth the effort to try and offer some type of discount of 10% in the dropdown - GST inclusive purchase, and non GST inclusive purchases.

Most AU websites I've seen, just have the final price on the item in their shopping cart.

Phil, GST (Goods & Services Tax), is like VAT in the UK (Value Added Tax), which is a whopping 17.5% and not state taxes like in the US.

Bren, VAT here in UK is now an astonishing B....y 20%

In Uk law all retail prices MUST be displayed gross ie including VAT

This in mind i set my tax at 0% as retail clients cant claim it back anyway

I have a password protected website for trade so they can see net of vat

Overseas, if they want to claim back the VAT i am sorry to say, i am not willing to spend time filling out the ridiculous, amount of paperwork, so i would rather offer them 10% discount as a compromise.

WOW Viv, it must have gone up since the last time I read up on tax. New Zealand is 15%, so it seems Australia is doing okay.

Yes, but life there is so much better than here, so it's worth it.

For those that are interested, I think I've found a work around to show two prices for each item. Here in Australia we must show prices including GST but of course to attract international buyers we'd like to show the excluding GST price (an international price). What I've down is show the higher price (GST inclusive) in the short and long description of the product. This is best done via editing/manipulating your .csv file which you can import. If you look at the website I've built you'll see what I mean.