Bill writes:
> I have been making it a point of shopping out of state for relatively big
> ticket items.
>
> We bought our 917LX used from a company in Washington who (rightfully)
> didn't charge us sales tax.

That doesn't mean you don't now owe the money directly to the state of
California.

If you're a business then the California State Board of Equalization will
very possibly get around to you (eventually) and you'll find that they will
make you pay that 8.something% use-tax on everything you ever bought for the
company from out of state.

The state seems to have the right to charge you sales tax for in-state
purchases (and they can require that the merchant collect and submit the
money) and they can require you to pay the same amount as a "use" tax for
things you buy from out of state that you didn't pay tax on there.

The only question is whether they can require someone outside of their
jurisdiction to collect that tax for them, which seems unreasonable to me
unless *that* state has some kind of reciprocal agreement with California
that they will make their businesses collect tax for California if
California will make its businesses collect tax for them.

Obviously getting the remote merchant to collect the tax is easier for them
than auditing every person in the state to try to collect the use tax which
virtually nobody pays today (though they seem pretty good about getting it
from businesses).

Didn't the California State and/or Federal tax forms recently acquire a box
for you to report the amount of purchases you made via the Internet or
something like that?

G.