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Sales tax in the US?

C

Constantine1337

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 3, 2009
284
0
Hello,

I have a question regarding the purchase of an iPad: since I will be visiting the US at the start of april, I wanited to know where it would be best to purchase an ipad? I'm from Germany and as far as I understand the iPad costs more than the displayed price at the apple online store, since there is a sales tax to be payed? Is this true?

I will be visiting Washington, D.C., Philadeplphia, Atlanitic City and NYC? Are any of those places tax free or do I pay the same taxes everywhere?
I did google first, but I decided to ask here, perhaps someone has some god advice here :)
 
I can't speak to those specific locations, but sales tax in the US is state, county, and city dependent. Each state has its own rate, then each county often tacks on another portion, and many cities may have an additional rate that adds in.

Where I live the combined rate is 6%; 4% state, 2% county, no city sales tax. Twenty minutes away in the nearby big city the combined rate is 9%; 4% state, 3% county, 2% city.

What you can do to figure out the specifics is look up the address of an Apple store in each location and plug that address into a mock order on store.apple.com/us and go to nearly the end where it should the estimated tax.
 
None of those are tax free. Delaware does not charge sales tax. If you're driving from DC to Phila., stop in Delaware.
 
Constantine1337 said:
I will be visiting Washington, D.C., Philadeplphia, Atlanitic City and NYC? Are any of those places tax free or do I pay the same taxes everywhere?
Click to expand...

rdowns said:
None of those are tax free. Delaware does not charge sales tax. If you're driving from DC to Phila., stop in Delaware.
Click to expand...

Specifically, go to the Apple Store at the Christianna Mall. It's right off of I95, which you'd be travelling along between Washington and Philadelphia.

Here's the LINK. If that Apple Store doesn't have the one you want, there's also a Target in the same mall. There's also several Best Buy stores in the surrounding area. As long as you're in Delaware, there's no sales tax.

For the record, Pennsylvania is 6% and New Jersey is 7%. However, in Philadelphia adds a 2% city sales tax on top of the state sales tax. I'm not sure if Atlantic City has a city sales tax. I think both DC and NYC are around 8.5% or so .. but I'm not sure.

Please note that the US doesn't have duty-free sales like some European countries. So you can't claim your sales tax back when you leave.
 
Last edited:
When you are in DC get on the Metro to either to Pentagon City (Pentagon City store) or Court House (Clarendon store). There are Apple Stores near both of those stops. Sales tax in VA is 5% which is the lowest in the region.

As another poster said, no sales tax in Delaware if you'll be traveling on 95 on the way to Philly.
 
DC's Sales tax is 6.5%. I would follow the other posters suggestion about stopping at that mall in DE. The whole state is sales tax free.
 
Thanks for the feedback - the situation is a lot clearer now.
ftaok said:
Specifically, go to the Apple Store at the Christianna Mall. It's right off of I95, which you'd be travelling along between Washington and Philadelphia.

Here's the LINK. If that Apple Store doesn't have the one you want, there's also a Target in the same mall. There's also several Best Buy stores in the surrounding area. As long as you're in Delaware, there's no sales tax.

For the record, Pennsylvania is 6% and New Jersey is 7%. However, in Philadelphia adds a 2% city sales tax on top of the state sales tax. I'm not sure if Atlantic City has a city sales tax. I think both DC and NYC are around 8.5% or so .. but I'm not sure.

Please note that the US doesn't have duty-free sales like some European countries. So you can't claim your sales tax back when you leave.
Click to expand...

This is surely awesome, however I will not be traveling by car, but by bus with 2 friends.... I guess that paying extra ticket to stop there will kill the tax difference. Or do you have any other idea how can I make a pit-stop there? I guess Greyhound Busses won't do a "custom" stops at the apple store? :D
 
Anything you do to make a special trip to Delaware is going to more than eat up the savings. Since you are staying in a few places along the way, I'd just pick the one that has the lowest sales tax and call it a day.
 
Well I know NYC has one of the highest rates on your list, but they have the coolest Apple stores :D
 
Constantine1337 said:
This is surely awesome, however I will not be traveling by car, but by bus with 2 friends.... I guess that paying extra ticket to stop there will kill the tax difference. Or do you have any other idea how can I make a pit-stop there? I guess Greyhound Busses won't do a "custom" stops at the apple store? :D
Click to expand...

OK, question for you. When you're in the various cities, how do you plan on getting around? I can tell you that the public transit system in Philadelphia is terrible. What do you plan on doing in Philly? If you have access to a car (local friends), then it's only a 30 to 45 minute drive from Center City to the Christianna Mall, just wait until after rush hour.

Another note - if you're going from Philly to AC, you could look into one of the "Chinatown" buses. Much cheaper than Greyhound. Last time I looked, it was like $20 for a round trip, perhaps cheaper for one way. Then if you go from AC to NYC, they have similar "Chinatown" buses that go to lower Manhattan. Just keep in mind that there have been a few high profile accidents with these buses in the last year or so.
 
ftaok said:
OK, question for you. When you're in the various cities, how do you plan on getting around? I can tell you that the public transit system in Philadelphia is terrible. What do you plan on doing in Philly? If you have access to a car (local friends), then it's only a 30 to 45 minute drive from Center City to the Christianna Mall, just wait until after rush hour.

Another note - if you're going from Philly to AC, you could look into one of the "Chinatown" buses. Much cheaper than Greyhound. Last time I looked, it was like $20 for a round trip, perhaps cheaper for one way. Then if you go from AC to NYC, they have similar "Chinatown" buses that go to lower Manhattan. Just keep in mind that there have been a few high profile accidents with these buses in the last year or so.
Click to expand...

This is kind of OT, but hey, why not:
We're flying to DC and are staying there for about 5 days. Then we're going to Philly for a day, then AC for a day and lastly NYC for about 10 days. Wasn't originally planning on visiting Philly, it was just along the way and might as well make a stop there. And I sure as hell am not flying oversees to drive in Chinatown busses - Greyhound + student discount will do just fine :)

EDIT

Can one reserve iPad for in-store Pickup? I'd hate to go to NYC only to see that there are no iPads left :/
 
Constantine1337 said:
This is kind of OT, but hey, why not:
We're flying to DC and are staying there for about 5 days. Then we're going to Philly for a day, then AC for a day and lastly NYC for about 10 days. Wasn't originally planning on visiting Philly, it was just along the way and might as well make a stop there. And I sure as hell am not flying oversees to drive in Chinatown busses - Greyhound + student discount will do just fine :)

EDIT

Can one reserve iPad for in-store Pickup? I'd hate to go to NYC only to see that there are no iPads left :/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were staying in Philly for a while. I thought that you were, perhaps, visiting some friends for a few days.

Sounds like your best bet may be to take the DC Metro to one of those Virginia Apple Stores like Chupa Chupa mentioned. That's probably the lowest sales tax you'll easily encounter.

As for the in-store reservations ... I know that I was able to call an Apple Store in the morning to reserve an Airport Extreme ... but it was just for that day. Not sure if they would do the same for an iPad, seeing as how they're much much more popular.

I hope you figure out a good way to get your gear. Good Luck.
 
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