SALES TAX QUESTION

[saleen-s351]

i get you are charged sales tax on sale plus shipping but here is my question please enlighten me and make me understand this? item price was $51.96 plus $7.00 shipping making total $63.08. sales tax in pennsylvania me seller is 6%, buyer in florida is also 6% which would be $3.78. why is the sales tax from this sale $4.12 ? thats not 6%.

[janet9988]

Local county or city municipalities can have higher taxes than just the state tax.

Google tax for Miami- Dade.

[frankenhobbit]

6% is probably the state tax. The county and city may also charge extra.

For example, Sales tax in Texas is 6.25 percent. Houston is 8.25% as both Houston and Harris County charge sales tax too. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

EVERY state has NUMEROUS additions to the 'sales tax'; which goes 'per county' 'per city' per area'....

NOTHING new but I can tell you- NOBODY in those states are JUST paying those percentages. 

[redmodelt]

The sales tax is based on the ship to address not the ship from address. While the state as a whole may be 6%, each county/city may have additional %'s added on to the base 6% so would be higher. 

[saleen-s351]

sorry i mean $3.54 is 6% of $58.96. but sales tax total is $4.12, sales tax in pa and florida, buyer and seller is 6%, $4.12 is not 6% of total sale with shipping of $58.96 ?

[solidguitar1961]

Florida has a 6.00 percent state sales tax rate, a max local sales tax rate of 2.00 percent, and an average combined state and local sales tax rate of 7.02 percent. 

[saleen-s351]

weird cause whatever store i goto its always 6 percent on receipt no matter where im at in pennsylvania.

[solidguitar1961]

Are you the seller or buyer? Ebay charges the tax rate for the state the buyer is in.

[saleen-s351]

its not all ebays fault i know, this whole thing of selling something that was taxed once and now being resold again and being taxed again is **bleep**. its funny how this world is. i was selling things on here to pay my house tax, and i am being taxed on money im using to pay tax. CRAZY

[luckythewinner]

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@saleen-s351 wrote:

its not all ebays fault i know, this whole thing of selling something that was taxed once and now being resold again and being taxed again is **bleep**. 

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Sales tax is a tax on the economic activity, not on the item. 

If sales tax was only paid on the first sale of an item, then every store would avoid sales tax by only selling 'used' items - after first 'selling' it to a friend for a penny, and then buying it back for a penny. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@saleen-s351 wrote:

weird cause whatever store i goto its always 6 percent on receipt no matter where im at in pennsylvania.

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But the buyer is in Florida, so that transaction would be taxed at the rate for the buyer's location in Florida.  

The base rate for sales tax in FL is 6%, but localities can add to that.  Statewide, the average total sales tax rate including local add-ons is 7.2%.  Your buyer paid $4.12 sales tax on a transaction of $63.08, which is 6.5%. So apparently the local total sales tax rate in at the buyer's shipping address is about 6.5%.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

EVERY state has NUMEROUS additions to the 'sales tax'; which goes 'per county' 'per city' per area'....

NOTHING new but I can tell you- NOBODY in those states are JUST paying those percentages. 

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In about 8 of the states that have sales tax,  there are  no local add-ons. For instance, in my state (Massachusetts) the rate is 6.25% no matter where the purchase is made. Here's a list:

https://www.rocketmoney.com/learn/personal-finance/sales-tax-by-state

[dbfolks166mt]

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

EVERY state has NUMEROUS additions to the 'sales tax'; which goes 'per county' 'per city' per area'....

NOTHING new but I can tell you- NOBODY in those states are JUST paying those percentages. 

In about 8 of the states that have sales tax,  there are  no local add-ons. For instance, in my state (Massachusetts) the rate is 6.25% no matter where the purchase is made. Here's a list:

https://www.rocketmoney.com/learn/personal-finance/sales-tax-by-state

      The one problem with your reference link is they are taking the sales tax rate and adding the average local sales tax rate and showing the combined rate. That may or may not be accurate the link shows Illinois with at 8.84%. However, I used to live in Illinois and sales tax in Chicago is 10.25% and within some municipalities in Cook county it can be 11%.

[nobody*s_perfect]

I was just using it as confirmation that several states have zero add-ons. As noted in my other post, the average in FL doesn't match what the OP's buyer paid.