this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
9 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

40178 readers
1115 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, 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 spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust 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:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

That anime scale figurine costs $300 but when accounting for the sales tax: it's closer to $340. However, you discover a listing on Mercari that prices the same for ¥20,000 ($124) in brand new condition without imposed sales tax as the seller resides outside US jurisdiction. By using proxies as an intermediary for importation and shipping costs: does that alone elude sales tax?

top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

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.

[–] plaztek@piefed.ca 3 points 4 hours ago

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.

[–] radix@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

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.