"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
...
On Nov 16, 6:54?am, "BillP" wrote:
"Vic Smith" wrote in message

...





The key phrase "QVC is registered with your state to collect sales or
use
tax" this provides the "nexus".

QVC has volunteered to register with the state, probably due to either a
presence in the state or a subsidiary in the state.
Without this presence, or nexus in the state they can not be forced to
collect the sales tax.

I found this (I live in Illinois)
http://www.revenue.state.il.us/legal...rulings/st/200...

Which includes this:

"Some out-of-State retailers who do not have sufficient contact
(nexus) with this State choose to voluntarily register to collect
Illinois Use Tax so that their customers are relieved of the
responsibility of filing a return and remitting the tax directly to
the Department."

Indicating "nexus" isn't necessary.
I don't know why a company would "voluntarily register" without a
nexus since this is a pricing disadvantage.
But apparently they do.

--Vic

They ?nexus or presence is created when the company registers
*voluntarily*
with the state.
There are many reasons why a company will do this voluntarily,
subsidiaries
in the state, a company that they do a large amount of business with in
the
state, or a business relationship with the state ( get on the state's bid
list).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thereby rendering moot any insistence that collecting sales tax on
interstate transactions is "illegal". No state will allow a company to
voluntarily commit an illegal act.

Oh jeeze.. once they register with the state it *becomes* legal for them to
collect tax, if they collect tax before registering it is illegal.
It's also illegal for them to be *forced* to pay if they don't have a
presence or nexus, no matter what the their state law says.

Good reasons to collect sales tax if you are in internet retailer
probably include the fuzzy definitions of things like "presence" in a
state. Courts can and often do redefine things. Many companies
wouldn't survive a demand for 2-3 years retroactive sales tax, so why
run the risk?

For a large corporation this is true, unless they are absolutely sure they
have no nexus to the state they're probably better off registering.

Which reminds me of Amazon again- they only collect sales tax in the 4
states that they are registered as Amazon.comLLC yet they seem to have a
presence in others states in which they are not collecting tax.
They have fulfillment and warehousing centers in Arizona, Delaware,
Massachusetts, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas, yet they don't collect sales
tax for those states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

If the only benefit a company offers its customers is an opportunity
to screw the state out of the taxes it would collect if the customer
had any sense of community and did business with a local merchant,
it's not much of an enterprise, IMO.

The company isn't screwing the foreign state when it is not required to
register and collect tax- it's the customer that does if they don't remit
the "use tax".