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Sam Spade

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 30, 2007
181
0
Is there anywhere you can purchase a refurbished iMac and not pay sales tax?
 
The answer:

If you buy an Apple refurbished (or new) computer in the United States, with a shipping address to a state that has sales tax, Apple will charge you upfront for the tax.

If you buy an Apple refurbished (or new) computer in the United States, with a shipping address to a state that does NOT have sales tax, Apple will NOT charge you upfront for the tax.

So -- if you live in a state that has sales tax, and order from Apple, you are going to pay the tax. No way around it.
 
If you want one refurbished by Apple with a full Apple warranty and the option to buy AppleCare, then the answer is it depends on which state you have it shipped to.

You can add applecare to any mac that is less than a year old, it does NOT have to be purchased from apple to add applecare.

The benefit of purchasing from apple is that they refurbish all of their units, and the first year of applecare starts over basically when you purchase it so you can still have 3 full years of warranty.

Also, I have purchased from the refurbished apple store before, and while they did still charge me sales tax, it was a fraction of the sales tax we actually pay. Here in Colorado, sales tax is like 8.755%

On a $1,500 purchase they only charged me $44 tax.

 
You can add applecare to any mac that is less than a year old, it does NOT have to be purchased from apple to add applecare.
...
True, but if you buy an iMac that was refurbished by someplace other than Apple, it could be more than a year old and not be eligible for AppleCare.
 
Also, I have purchased from the refurbished apple store before, and while they did still charge me sales tax, it was a fraction of the sales tax we actually pay. Here in Colorado, sales tax is like 8.755%

On a $1,500 purchase they only charged me $44 tax.

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So, does Apple not charge the full sales tax rate that would be assessed if we purchased a product from their local retail store?
 
The answer:

If you buy an Apple refurbished (or new) computer in the United States, with a shipping address to a state that has sales tax, Apple will charge you upfront for the tax.

If you buy an Apple refurbished (or new) computer in the United States, with a shipping address to a state that does NOT have sales tax, Apple will NOT charge you upfront for the tax.

So -- if you live in a state that has sales tax, and order from Apple, you are going to pay the tax. No way around it.

If you are a business, school, or Gvt apple has a Parrell store store that gives discounts and if you have the proper paperwork you will not be charged tax.
 
...On a $1,500 purchase they only charged me $44 tax….

That's not a sales receipt, that's a screen shot of an earlier stage of the online checkout process. The question is, was the "Estimated Tax" the actual tax charged?

Estimated Tax
The sales tax listed on the checkout page is only an estimate. The final total sales tax will be reflected on your invoice and will include state and local sales taxes, as well as any applicable rebates or fees. In CA and RI sales tax is collected on the unbundled price of the iPhone.

All one need do is make an error when entering the zip code for the tax estimate, and the estimate will be off. Later in check-out, when purchasers provide their complete shipping address, the zip code is validated, and then the proper taxes can be computed.

Apple has zero incentive to charge less than the proper tax, unless they advertise the fact (and they don't). When they report to the state's tax authorities, they have to report the total amount of taxable sales made in that state (and yes, when a purchaser can provide a tax-exempt certificate, it's not reported as a taxable sale). The tax due is computed on that figure. I'm not aware of any state that charges a different tax rate on used goods than on new. Any shortages become Apple's expense.
 
So, does Apple not charge the full sales tax rate that would be assessed if we purchased a product from their local retail store?
I'm not really sure, that was the first apple refurb I ever purchased, and I was expecting to pay a lot more. I was pretty surprised when they only charged me $44.

That's not a sales receipt, that's a screen shot of an earlier stage of the online checkout process. The question is, was the "Estimated Tax" the actual tax charged?

Thanks, but no it's not a screen shot of the checkout process. :rolleyes:

That is a screenshot of a receipt sent to my email AFTER I paid, where I know the zipcode was correct because they shipped it to me.

I just didn't screen shot the entire email because it has personal information on it.

Nice try though.

 
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