Sales tax?

[Applejuiced]

Read the addendum. I added to my post. Retailers can now choose to pay that portion. But it is still taxed.

I doubt it's a loophole. It's just those establishments are fine with paying that additional tax while others are not.

Interesting.
Then I support those retailers that want to pay my additional tax portion of the phone😀

 

[thecore762]

Here is mass law...
http://blog.mass.gov/revenue/curren...sales-tax-for-cellphone-bundled-transactions/

In short, you are supposed to pay tax on the MSRP value of the device, in ALL cases. The vendor, however, can elect to pay a portion of the tax.

I am guessing that some vendors do pay that portion of the tax while others leave it solely on the consumer.

I see, then I'd have to say Apple is being extremely nice. 🙂
Of course they are making money from me every two years...

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.

 

[thecore762]

Not weird... same thing here. In Las Vegas, I paid tax on discounted price at Apple on the 4S, and tax on full retail of 5 at an AT&T store. That was the last subsidized phone I bought.

Thanks for confirming this, at least people are not calling it an error lol.

 

[cfedu]

Seems like a scam to me if I'm understanding this correctly, so I have are a few questions? Do you pay tax on your monthly bill? If you pay sales tax on the service you would in theory be paying tax twice the same item, since the subsidized portion is incorporated into the monthly bill.

Where I live I pay sales tax only on the portion I pay upfront which is 15%. On the monthly bill I pay 15% as well, so I'm indirectly paying sales tax on the full amount.

 

[lordofthereef]

Seems like a scam to me

Read my subsequent responses. 🙂 Not a scam

 

[thecore762]

Seems like a scam to me if I'm understanding this correctly, so I have are a few questions? Do you pay tax on your monthly bill? If you pay sales tax on the service you would in theory be paying tax twice the same item, since the subsidized portion is incorporated into the monthly bill.

Where I live I pay sales tax only on the portion I pay upfront which is 15%. On the monthly bill I pay 15% as well, so I'm indirectly paying sales tax on the full amount.

Some people really fail to read the whole thread before speaking their minds. 🙄

 

[cfedu]

Read my subsequent responses. 🙂 Not a scam

It is a scam if you pay tax twice. Where I am the tax rate is 15%, if i get phone that is 0$ on contract and do not have to pay any sales tax.

where I am, the plans where you get phone subsidies cost around 20-25$ per month more so the government gets 72$-90$ in EXTRA tax revenue on these larger monthly bills over a 2 year contract. I would be paying tax twice if I paid 75$ tax upfront on a 0$ (500$ unsubsidized) and another 72$-90$ over 2 years in extra monthly tax.

As I said in my first response, if you do not pay tax on your monthly bill, than this does not really apply.



40$/month x24= $960 sales tax after 2 years is $144 (without free phone)

with free phone 60$/month x24 =1440 sales tax after 2 years is $216 (with free phone)

The extra tax is 72$ with the subsidized phone so if you pay 75$ tax upfront you are effectively paying tax twice which sounds like a scam to me.

----------

Some people really fail to read the whole thread before speaking their minds. 🙄

Some people have zero brains🙄🙄

 

[lordofthereef]

It is a scam if you pay tax twice. Where I am the tax rate is 15%, if i get phone that is 0$ on contract and do not have to pay any sales tax.

where I am, the plans where you get phone subsidies cost around 20-25$ per month more so the government gets 72$-90$ in EXTRA tax revenue on these larger monthly bills over a 2 year contract. I would be paying tax twice if I paid 75$ tax upfront on a 0$ (500$ unsubsidized) and another 72$-90$ over 2 years in extra monthly tax.

As I said in my first response, if you do not pay tax on your monthly bill, than this does not really apply.



40$/month x24= $960 sales tax after 2 years is $144 (without free phone)

with free phone 60$/month x24 =1440 sales tax after 2 years is $216 (with free phone)

The extra tax is 72$ with the subsidized phone so if you pay 75$ tax upfront you are effectively paying tax twice which sounds like a scam to me.

----------



Some people have zero brains🙄🙄

I can't speak for where you are in Montreal. I can say that this isn't st all how sales tax is calculated on any of the plans here in the states. You simply don't pay a sales tax more than once. Any taxes you oay on services are exactly that, services. Being that this thread is about a US phone ourchase, that is what I was responding to. The OP is not paying taxes twice in any scenario. Further, service taxes are calulated differently than a sales tax because, again, it's not a good being sold its a service.

 

[cfedu]

I can't speak for where you are in Montreal. I can say that this isn't st all how sales tax is calculated on any of the plans here in the states. You simply don't pay a sales tax more than once. Any taxes you oay on services are exactly that, services. Being that this thread is about a US phone ourchase, that is what I was responding to. The OP is not paying taxes twice in any scenario. Further, service taxes are calulated differently than a sales tax because, again, it's not a good being sold its a service.

As long as you are not paying more tax than it does not really matter, thats is why I asked how are taxes calculated on the monthly bill in the USA. Up here the sales tax is 15% on almost all goods and services purchased from clothes, electricity, computers, and phone bills. If you are not pay more monthly tax on your phone service than it's all good.

 

[Applejuiced]

As long as you are not paying more tax than it does not really matter, thats is why I asked how are taxes calculated on the monthly bill in the USA. Up here the sales tax is 15% on almost all goods and services purchased from clothes, electricity, computers, and phone bills. If you are not pay more monthly tax on your phone service than it's all good.

Even though I hate taxes and we are being taxed heavily on cellphones and cellphone service you are not being taxed twice.
One tax is on the actual product/device as sales tax of the good.
The taxes on your phone bill are service regulatory state, fed taxes Universal Service and 911 service and tech fund fees.

 

[cfedu]

Even though I hate taxes and we are being taxed heavily on cellphones and cellphone service you are not being taxed twice.
One tax is on the actual product/device as sales tax of the good.
The taxes on your phone bill are service regulatory state, fed taxes Universal Service and 911 service and tech fund fees.

I was not sure how it works down there here it works differently as the sales tax(varies province to province) is a applied to the entire amount for most products and services. So a 100$ monthly phone bill will be 115$ after tax, the same way that a 100$ item bought at a store will cost 115$. I know some states have a sales tax for items bought but I was not sure if the sales tax was also applied to services like phone bills.

 

[lordofthereef]

I was not sure how it works down there here it works differently as the sales tax(varies province to province) is a applied to the entire amount for most products and services. So a 100$ monthly phone bill will be 115$ after tax, the same way that a 100$ item bought at a store will cost 115$. I know some states have a sales tax for items bought but I was not sure if the sales tax was also applied to services like phone bills.

Hey I hear your healthcare is better... WAY better. I;d take a 15% tax on everything just for that!