HOw many of you didnt pay tax by shipping your birkin to another state?
- Thread starter beautifulbags
- Start date
I would love to know too.. I heard Oregon is one of them, correct?
This would definitely be handy for me.. at least I won't have to pack the darned box into my luggage!
I hear ya, PI! My very elderly parents would be APPALLED at the insurance I would ask them to specify if I had a bag shipped to them to send to me.
It was more pain-free to order it and have it shipped to me.
53 and worried about what my 80-something parents would think, sigh.
They have the Depression-era mentality and I don't blame them a bit. They went hungry as children...
According to wikipedia, "Sales taxes are assessed by every state except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon". I believe California and Washington state have some of the highest sales taxes - around 9%. If you live fairly close to the border with one of these "sales tax free" states and don't have any friends/relatives living there, I would look for a shipping/receiving business whose address you can use for delivery purposes. When the package in delivered they will sign for it and hold it until you pick it up. I believe it could be really worthwhile - especially if you are spending thousands of dollars. After all, 9% on $10,000 is $900.
As I mentioned previously, Canadians who live close to the border with the USA can save huge amounts of money (on certain items) by shopping in the USA. For example, let's take a look at Hermes pricing - in Vancouver, a GM shawl is $1,375 Cdn +12% tax (total $1,540 Cdn or $1,468 USD), while the same shawl can be purchased on hermes.com, shipped to an address in Washington state for $950 + $30 shipping =>total $980 USD vs. $1,468 USD in Vancouver. That is a huge price difference.
By the way, I just made some interesting calcualtions - here are the prices (from hermes.com) in euros (I used today's exchange rate on finance.yahoo.com) for a 90 cm carre:
USA - 248 euros
UK - 251 euros
Canada - 268 euros
France - 275 euros
Australia - 323 euros
While the price difference on a 90 cm carre is not that much, it is much more substantial on other items as per my previous calculations.
As I mentioned previously, Canadians who live close to the border with the USA can save huge amounts of money (on certain items) by shopping in the USA. For example, let's take a look at Hermes pricing - in Vancouver, a GM shawl is $1,375 Cdn +12% tax (total $1,540 Cdn or $1,468 USD), while the same shawl can be purchased on hermes.com, shipped to an address in Washington state for $950 + $30 shipping =>total $980 USD vs. $1,468 USD in Vancouver. That is a huge price difference.
By the way, I just made some interesting calcualtions - here are the prices (from hermes.com) in euros (I used today's exchange rate on finance.yahoo.com) for a 90 cm carre:
USA - 248 euros
UK - 251 euros
Canada - 268 euros
France - 275 euros
Australia - 323 euros
While the price difference on a 90 cm carre is not that much, it is much more substantial on other items as per my previous calculations.
ITA with purseinsanity and chessmont! Also, sometimes it's just not worth the hassle of items being sent elsewhere especially when you are dealing with High ticket items. I prefer the peace of mind knowing where my goodies are and just paying what is due. Saves headache in the long run :okay:
The way I understand it is that if there is no Hermes store physically located in your state at the moment, you can get things shipped to you tax free. Once an Hermes store opens in your state however, that will no longer apply. That's why Washingtonians are now screwed too!
Hi baileylab... interesting thread indeed! But I have to give credit to beautifulbags who is the OP!
But for what's it's worth, big companies have done this type of manipulations forever to save on taxes (off shore or out of state under the counter type of transactions)...if that's worth the analysis... I don't feel too bad taking advantage of this. God knows we are already taxed to death... Tea Party anyone? LOL!
You can get your items shipped to your hotel. I routinely do this with exotic bags.
hmmm, if all us H lovers without friends/family in tax free places chipped in to rent a teeny apartment in a tax-free state and hired someone to go there, sign for packages and then resend them to us I bet in the end we'd still be ahead savings-wise!
I live in a state where there is no Hermes boutique, so I had the Kelly I bought in NYC shipped to me. The FedEx charge was $50 so my savings was nearly $600. I can wait a few days for that kind of money!
Your SA could not care less where you send your bag or if you take it with you. What you CANNOT do is ask them to ship an empty box to a state that will not be charging sales tax and you take the bag with you. That is against the law. One of the Arpel's went to prison several years ago for doing this with jewelry.
Of course, various states have their own laws about tax you owe on purchases made elsewhere. My state automatically assumes that if ones income is a certain amount, that a particular percentage was most likely made out-of-state and the 6% sales tax is charged when one does ones state income taxes. Many years ago, a famous local art collector got charged that 6% on a Picasso he bought for many millions of dollars at auction in NYC. He fought the tax and actually won as he could show that the state was selectively enforcing this law, thus the new legislation that now makes us all pay a percentage.
Your SA could not care less where you send your bag or if you take it with you. What you CANNOT do is ask them to ship an empty box to a state that will not be charging sales tax and you take the bag with you. That is against the law. One of the Arpel's went to prison several years ago for doing this with jewelry.
Of course, various states have their own laws about tax you owe on purchases made elsewhere. My state automatically assumes that if ones income is a certain amount, that a particular percentage was most likely made out-of-state and the 6% sales tax is charged when one does ones state income taxes. Many years ago, a famous local art collector got charged that 6% on a Picasso he bought for many millions of dollars at auction in NYC. He fought the tax and actually won as he could show that the state was selectively enforcing this law, thus the new legislation that now makes us all pay a percentage.
Thank you, Mr. p, and by all means, a very happy Thanksgiving to you and Mrs. p. too.
to nadiap and mooks