[Hidden-tech] Massachusetts sales tax policy

[Seth Fischer]

Another thing to remember is that many states actually apply different tax
schemes depending on whether a company is in state or out of state. I
collect and remit sales tax in 28 states and some have different tax rates
for out of state entities, Perhaps Use Taxes (not Sales Tax) is applied
differently.

No question, it's a really bad customer experience, but I can tell you that
I have had angry customers that were just plain wrong about their
interpretation of sales tax, even in their own state.

Seth

On Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 5:15 PM Shel Horowitz via Hidden-discuss <
hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:

> Correct that services are not taxable in MA. However, most hard goods are.
> It is unclear to me whether ebooks are taxable even though they don't
> physically exist--but as a vendor, I take the safe approach and
> collect/remit tax on both physical and e-sales to MA addresses. But several
> years ago, I did change the structure of one product line, where I had been
> charging tax on electronic storage of a document but not on creating the
> document itself. I decided that was silly in this virtual era, upped the
> price of the service five bucks and included the electronic delivery in the
> price (non-taxable).
> ᐧ
>
> On Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 3:04 PM Marcia Yudkin via Hidden-discuss <
> hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I received a notice from an online company I do business with saying that
>> they are going to start charging sales tax on their subscription fees.
>>
>> This seems totally wrong to me for two reasons.
>>
>> 1)They announced it as a blanket policy, although each state has
>> different tax policies and some states have no sales tax at all. (eg New
>> Hampshire)
>>
>> 2)In Massachusetts, from what I know, sales tax is not levied on
>> services, only on products. That means that a subscription fee is not
>> subject to state sales tax. Isn't that correct?
>>
>> I want to make sure I'm on solid ground before I write back to them to
>> object. And if they do go ahead and charge sales tax improperly (the
>> subscription fee is $500/year so this would be $25+), how do you suggest I
>> deal with that? Object to the credit card company if they won't budge?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Marcia Yudkin
>> www.yudkin.com
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>
>
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