Suddenly being charged for sales tax

[CaptainMayhem88]

I live in NYS and went to buy the deluxe version for Resident Evil 2 and got to the checkout screen and noticed I was going to be charged almost $6 in sales tax for a digital product. The last game I purchased was in January and it didn't have the sales tax at that time. So what happened in a month where this was suddenly necessary?

[Wolf Knight]

the law is what happened. Steam is simply complying with the law, if you dont want to pay tax on your purchase, take it up with your local lawmakers.

[CaptainMayhem88]

Any link to this law? Because I tried searching and found nothing on this besides links leading to how NYS doesn't charge for digital goods.

[Kargor]

The story is always the same. I'm in Europe so I don't really follow this, but apparently the Supreme Court decided that states can collect sales tax from online retailers even if those retailers have no physical presence in that state. This isn't just New York.

To my knowledge, you have always been required to pay sales tax on Steam purchases -- it's just that most people "forgot" to do so. So, states are now forcing online retailers to do it for you.

[OLDMAN🎅]

24 states will have online sales tax laws in effect as of Dec. 1

[CaptainMayhem88]

Yeah I'm still not finding anything on NY having them and it really doesn't make any sense for it to be enacted in February.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by CaptainMayhem88:

Yeah I'm still not finding anything on NY having them and it really doesn't make any sense for it to be enacted in February.

General elections and voting occur months before the enacting of laws.

If you're "suddenly" being charged tax it IS because the law in that area changed. Expect this to become the norm. I honestly don't know why it isn't already.

[CaptainMayhem88]

Right, but if that changed you'd figure I'd be able to find something about it online correct?

[Zekiran]

Does your steam account list a specific location that you have for downloads AND for your credit / bank information?

Because you are actually correct - only certain eBooks are meant to be charged tax in NY now that I look it up.

Maybe your specific location (new york CITY) has something to do with this, and wow what a mess.

https://nypost.com/2018/06/21/what-the-supreme-court-sales-tax-ruling-means-for-new-yorkers/

[Satoru]

Originally posted by CaptainMayhem88:

Any link to this law? Because I tried searching and found nothing on this besides links leading to how NYS doesn't charge for digital goods.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/06/26/dissecting-supreme-courts-internet-sales-tax-decision/#e3e12e03fbee

Supreme court ruling allows states to collect sales tax on out of state purchases on their residents, closing teh loophole that required a 'physical presence' to be able to collect sales tax

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/use_tax_for_individuals.htm

Issue Date: Updated January 2, 2019

The following are common situations in which a New York State resident may owe use tax:

purchases of taxable property or services made outside of New York State;
purchases of taxable property or services made over the Internet, from catalogs, or by phone from businesses that are located outside of New York State;

Before businesses like Amazon declared that not haing a physical presense made these laws illegal to enforce.

The supreme court disagreed, allowing states to pass laws that allow collection of sales tax on out of state purchase without a physical presence in the state

More states are passing laws allowing the collection of sales tax over the internet sales. States that already had such laws were already collecting them last year.

Stores are slowly integrating various states as new laws are passed

[8ullfrog]

eh, nuts to the "loophole" part. Brick and mortar, or even amazon? Sure. That's taxing state infrastructure, hence TAX.

Digital delivery? That's hand in pocket economics. Heralds back to the "Email Stamp" urban legend.

[TheRandomGuy]

At least in the US, sales tax is a state thing, and since the advent of online shopping and digital shops, online sales tax has slowly spreaded from state to state, understandably, as online shopping is more and more prevalent in our day to day lives. Essentially, your state, New York, has more than likely enacted a sales tax on digital goods, just like my State, NC, did last year. It sucks I know but more and more states are doing it, can't really blame em tho, gotta make those tax dollars for the state government and what not, regardless of how useful the things they go towards are.

It's also worth mentioning that a business does NOT need to have a physical presence in the state to be applicable for sales tax, that pretty much changed due to Amazon's prevalence. Internet sales (digital goods) are probably going to get sales tax across the board soon too.

In any case, blame New York's State Government for sales tax, not Steam.

[8ullfrog]

Oh for sure, this is a state issue, not a steam issue. Still an un-asked for "feature".

[TheRandomGuy]

Originally posted by 8ullfrog:

Oh for sure, this is a state issue, not a steam issue. Still an un-asked for "feature".

Not like we have a choice to ask for a store without sales tax. Government here probably wouldn't like it.

[задоджил аборт]

L

[Straypuft]

Originally posted by CaptainMayhem88:

Any link to this law? Because I tried searching and found nothing on this besides links leading to how NYS doesn't charge for digital goods.

https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/quick_reference_guide_for_taxable_and_exempt_property_and_services.htm

"prewritten (canned/off-the-shelf/standard) computer software (whether transferred by CD-ROM, Internet download, remote access, etc.);"

I live in another state and have recently discovered that steam is charging me sales tax also, I wasnt outraged like you, it was just common sense that they wouldnt charge sales tax forever.

Do not be upstate that your state is doing this, but be glad they arent going after you for years of not including them on your yearly tax filings, Not just Steam, but any website you have bought stuff from.

Soon, gone will be the days of buying an expensive computer part from places like Newegg without tax