The US had a de minimis exemption for import of goods under $800 until recently. You could buy up to $800 and not pay tax on it when it was imported. That was recently suspended, and so if you buy something internationally, customs should charge you tax on it as it enters the country. Technically, it's not sales tax though.
Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
Depends on where you live. Also, if you're importing from another country, you may have to pay import duties and tariffs, not to mention shipping. This may end up costing more than the domestic price for said item.
Laws will vary widely from state to state, but in most (many? some?) US states, the "sales tax" is more accurately titled "sales and use tax."
You may be asked on your year-end tax return to list anything purchased out of state that was brought into your state for use, and to pay the appropriate tax on that.
In my state, it's on the honor system. So almost entirely unenforceable, especially for small items. Look up the laws in your area, though.
To sum up: technically, probably not; practically, probably so. This is not tax advice.