In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Sales Tax

offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
edited February 2002 in General Discussion
I assume each state differs on this subject. If there is anyone out there from Massachusetts who's done business here before, could you tell me if sales tax would be collected on a handgun bought out-of-state during the transfer process?

Thanks
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was wondering if it is customary for all incoming FFLs to collect their state sales tax on out of state transfers?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am confused. I was reading WV sales tax rules and requirements and it sounds to me like West Virginia requires sales tax to be collected for internet sales from WV. And a use tax if it was brought into WV. I thought all sales on the internet across state lines were sales tax free. It seems to me that they could track the gun sales to tax as the FFL dealers must keep good records of all sales.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    More and more dealers around here are deciding they have to charge the state's 5% sales tax on a GB purchase. A simple classifed ad transfer between private parties in the state is $10 at your dealer, but because you're "using" the dealer's FFL when you "order" a gun from out of state he figures the law requires him to collect as the seller to me. He says there's also no way of telling whether the seller is a distributor, dealer or private person. Bummer. Theoretically, I suppose I could order a gun wholesale from SOG, say it was an auction and ask for a copy of my dealer's FFL, send in my money and pick it up at my dealer's for his auction fee. Auction fees are still holding here between $20 and $30, with one or two exceptions, and one guy charges 10% plus sales tax. I'm currently using a guy that charges $10 plus sales tax. Some of these guys seem to think some dealers are "skating" on the sales tax issue.
    "The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I AM A N.J. RES. AND I WANT TO PURCHASE A FIREARM THRU THE ONLINE AUCTION, IF THE SELLER IS FROM OUT OF STATE DO I HAVE TO PAY SALES TAX TO THE SELLER OR TO MY FFL IN N.J.?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think that some of these FFLs are just angry because the Internet is making it easy for ordinary folks to find good deals on guns (and, therefore, make their business less profitable).How about when you buy something on online that doesn't require an FFL, from an out-of-state seller. Do you have to pay tax then? NO! So, what's the difference?My FFL charges me 20 bucks and NEVER charges me for anything else, period. Anybody who does is ripping you off (IMHO).G36
    Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT Criminals
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    G36 --I don't disagree, but as somebody just posted here on another thread, in some states it is illegal to buy guns out of state. Hence, the need for the buyer to use a local FFL. This gives the dealers the idea that they are the actual seller (to you and me) and entitled to the mark-up for the use of their FFL. It will be interesting to see which point of view wins the day. Heck, if they're going to take mark-up I MIGHT AS WELL order wholesale from SOG, right?
    "The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • salzosalzo Member Posts: 6,396 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    concealedg36-Not necessarily. Depending on the state, sometimes you are required to pay sales tax to the state where you reside. If I purchase something through mail order, and tax is not charged, I am legally required to send the state of Pennsylvania(where I reside), the six percent sales tax the state of pennsylvania charges.For example: I buy 100 dollars of goods through mail order from a company that resides in another state. I am required by law, to send the Bureau of Pennsylvania revenue six dollars to cover the sales tax on the item I purchased.
    Happiness is a warm gun
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hey, I just had an idea, in all seriousness. Let's convince Gunbroker to provide some help to get started as FFLers ourselves if we want, just for the purpose of processing GB purchases in our community... Suppose they'd go for it, to avoid all this stocking dealer BS? I really think GB should at least provide a page on "How to get your FFL." Of course, I'm not sure my apartment is zoned commercial, so I'm probably out, personally. But I sure wish we had some reliable processors.Anyone who registers with GB to do these transfers ought to get feedback, too, by the way. That would motivate them to provide better service, I'm sure. Particularly once sales of this type pick up. eBay has just started a transaction assistance program that lets those of us who are experienced help newcomers to do auctions over there. This wouldn't be all that different. eBay even supplies me with posters and handbills to advertise that I'm a registered eBay transaction assistant.
    "The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    While I've got my thinking cap on, I might as well add that this sort of thing should be worked out while we've still got a Republican President. I'm not kidding. When I let my FFL go (I used to have one), it was partly because the BATF was on my back to tell them what my "business hours" were, and generally things that encourage only the stocking dealers. Now there's a whole new class of purchases -- Internet non-stocked. There really ought to be an FFL provision or "class" for those licensed to do transfers from out of state, whether they stock or not. Then the price for a simple OOS transfer would come down to reasonable.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • concealedG36concealedG36 Member Posts: 3,566 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sorry, my mistake, I spouted off before understanding all the details. I'll sit back and read (and learn) now...G36(And, oh yeah, I'm going to send my tax payments in for all of my online purchases now)
    Gun Control Disarms Victims, NOT Criminals
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • agloreaglore Member Posts: 6,012
    edited November -1
    Could be that they are technically providing a service by having to go through the hassle with the forms. As to other goods being purchased on the internet without sales tax, those other goods do not go through a middle man before being delivered to you. They come straight to your home.
    AlleninAlaska
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    This came up awhile ago about Kalifornia. I posted the reply that I had recieved from the state tax authority when I had asked them the question & the person asking the question was able to use that information to get the dealer to NOT charge the sales tax.The bottom line is-- The dealer is not supposed to collect sales tax. (In Kalifornia). You are required to send the state the "USE TAX" due on the purchase.This is the same tax you are required to pay on all out of state purchases. (When is the last time you ever heard of anyone paying that?)
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    When the BATF started harrassing non-stocking dealers by raising fees and asking for zoning and business hours information, I got out. When they asked for my bound book with my history of activity and I closed out my FFL, the state of Indiana was apparently notified by the BATF -- and I received a statement billing me for "Indiana use tax" on any guns I had bought through my FFL and kept for myself (because then I had never collected sales tax by re-selling them). I had to pay up. At least that's my best memory of how it happened. I do remember I paid the use tax bill from the state, knowing they'd been notified by the feds.
    "The 2nd Amendment is about defense, not hunting. Long live the gun shows, and reasonable access to FFLs. Join the NRA -- I'm a Life Member."
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    While I'm fortunate enough to live in a state where advocacy of 'broad based' taxes is political suicide (we have neither sales or income tax at the moment, but some recent BS decisions by five #$%^&* in black robes which forced the state to increase it's budget by about $800K may force that to happen), I expect these dealers may be under some pressure from the taxing authorities of their jurisdictions. State and municipal government detest the Internet's tax free sales. It cuts into their ability to waste other people's money. The only reason the Feds haven't ended the moratorium is that it is not their ox being gored. If the Feds had a sales or value added tax not bringing in the desire pork, you can bet e-commerce would be taxed to death.
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • fergusonmorse392fergusonmorse392 Member Posts: 432 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    anybody know a reasonable priced dealer to do a internet transaction in the oakland california bay area?
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Sign In or Register to comment.