Steam Overcharging Sales Tax in colorado?

[SparkYo]

I'm trying to buy a Valve Index for $999, but steam keeps trying to take $111.89 in sales tax, which is a very high 11.2%
The sales tax here in Colorado Springs is not 11.2%
It is as follows:

Colorado State 2.900%
El Paso County 2.230%
Colorado Springs 3.070%
Total 8.200%

How do they come up with their sales tax number, and what can I do to order using the correct local sales tax? Is anybody else in the state having this problem?

[nullable]

Well it seems like other cities may have different tax rates. So based on your zipcode it's possible you may actually fall into a higher sales tax area?

Valve is probably using some 3rd party application to determine sales taxes. It's possible it could be calculating wrong it wrong. But it's fairly plausible there's a legitimate explanation, like it's being calculated correctly based on the information you've provided and need to update your location/banking info.

Hard to say, but those are your options methinks. You'd have to open a support ticket about it though otherwise.

Coincidentally Winter Park has a sales tax rate of 11.2%, so if you're being identified as residing there, that might explain that. And it may give you an issue to raise with support if it's absolutely wrong and there's literally no way you should ever be identified as a Winter Park resident.

[SparkYo]

Snakub Plissken님이 먼저 게시:

Well it seems like other cities may have different tax rates. So based on your zipcode it's possible you may actually fall into a higher sales tax area?

Valve is probably using some 3rd party application to determine sales taxes. It's possible it could be calculating wrong it wrong. But it's fairly plausible there's a legitimate explanation, like it's being calculated correctly based on the information you've provided and need to update your location/banking info.

I made sure my location was correct, as I need the hardware shipped to my home address. The only guess I have is that I am being charged the tax rate of Winter Park, Colorado, which is a tiny luxury Ski Resort in a very different county and zip code. (and the 8th highest tax rate of any town the country)
Can anybody else in CO check to help see if the entire state is being overcharged like this?

[SparkYo]

Snakub Plissken님이 먼저 게시:

Well it seems like other cities may have different tax rates. So based on your zipcode it's possible you may actually fall into a higher sales tax area?

Valve is probably using some 3rd party application to determine sales taxes. It's possible it could be calculating wrong it wrong. But it's fairly plausible there's a legitimate explanation, like it's being calculated correctly based on the information you've provided and need to update your location/banking info.

Hard to say, but those are your options methinks. You'd have to open a support ticket about it though otherwise.

Coincidentally Winter Park has a sales tax rate of 11.2%, so if you're being identified as residing there, that might explain that. And it may give you an issue to raise with support if it's absolutely wrong and there's literally no way you should ever be identified as a Winter Park resident.

I see you edited while I was posting but yes, I've triple checked and I'm sure steam is not identifying me as residing in Winter Park. The only guess I have now is that the whole state might be charged the highest possible rate, instead of being calculated by where people live?
And tbh, not even the 900 people who live in Winter Park actually live in Winter Park.

[magarity]

Hey, I'm in Centennial on the south side of Denver and our total sales tax is 6.75% but yeah Steam calculated that for 11% me too, something is seriously jacked up with that:
$111.89
Tax (CO)
$1,110.89
Total

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Contact support.

[nullable]

Yeah, I would second that. Sounds like an error in the sales tax platform being used. Valve would prefer to collect the correct sales tax because they don't want to overpay and then be responsible for trying to refund everyone affected.

Let us know what you find out if anything, or when it appears to be resolved correctly.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

It happens every couple years when taxes were increased in some bill the previous year but did not take effect until March 1st.

[SparkYo]

I've gotten a response from customer support:
"
Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to the Hardware Support Team, we apologize for the delay.

Valve determines taxability based on the best information we have available at the time of the transaction. We remit all tax collected to the applicable tax authorities.

Unfortunately, we are not able to analyze sales tax for your particular situation, or to issue partial refunds of sales tax. Many states have a process through which consumers may request tax refunds in the event the merchant is unable to assist, so we suggest contacting your state tax authority.

Thanks much,
"

Not very helpful. At least if it's a known bug, then that hasn't been flowed to customer support yet. So I've reached out to the Colorado Department of Revenue about the apparent noncompliance with HB19-1240 and for more information about what the sales tax should be, in case I am incorrectly understanding the situation. My understanding was that the state requires online tax be calculated based on the customers residence. The autoreply from the state DOR email said to expect 2ish weeks for a response.
I have also asked the steam csr for more information, particularly that they itemize the 11.2% by state/county/city. That itemization is required information on the form for the state to issue a refund on a sales tax overcharge. The state also requires a copy of your correspondence with the retailer asking for a refund, and the retailer's justification for why they refused to refund it. That's going to be really hard information to get out of valve, I'm sure. This state paperwork doesn't seem well optimized for a situation where the retailer has the customer support of, well... a big tech company.

I'm probably just going to buy a different VR headset rather than deal with all that. Really rethinking if I get any VR, tbh. There's probably not a lot else I can do, aside from see if a local news station is interested in having their consumer advocacy/investigative reporter check into it. An extra ~3% might be a whole lot of dollars if it's happening statewide.

[nullable]

Well if you go through your process and inform your authorities they may possibly determine Valve to be in violation of CO law. Which would invariably require some action on Valve's part.

I mean I'm sure Valve is not trying to steal tax money or intentionally overcharge. It sounds like their system isn't always perfect and I can understand that with who knows how many, state, city and county taxes there are. Perhaps they need to change vendors or re-evaluate it if it causes them and users enough issues.

I mean between customer support at Valve, and government systems, things can be slow, and cumbersome. I know this first hand. Patience is the key to dealing with those systems.

[jsauerii]

I was about to order and seen what appeared to be near 10% sales tax on my $20 order and so I searched to see what was going on with overcharging and found this. They are charging me 9.7% here in Burlington KS where the rate is only 8.5% There is NO county rate, only a city tax on top of the states 6.5% base rate.....

Something is certainly broken

[SparkYo]

The only update I have at this point is another message from Valve confirming that they are indeed unable to itemize/justify/explain the rate that they have chosen to charge. They again directed me to contact the local tax authority... who can't help me because Valve is not able to provide the justification required to file for a refund.
I think it's unfair for Valve to try and shift the burden of issuing refunds onto the state in the first place.

[Starseer]

"Valve determines taxability based on the best information we have available at the time of the transaction. We remit all tax collected to the applicable tax authorities.

Unfortunately, we are not able to analyze sales tax for your particular situation, or to issue partial refunds of sales tax. Many states have a process through which consumers may request tax refunds in the event the merchant is unable to assist, so we suggest contacting your state tax authority."


This is apparently the generic "cookie cutter response" everyone is getting when over-charged on sales tax.
This is the confusing part: "Unfortunately, we are not able to analyze sales tax for your particular situation",
and yet, they somehow are able to ~blindly analyze~ sufficiently enough to overtax us in the first place.

What gets even more interesting, is when ANOTHER support specialist responds days later, admitting "there was an error" (that Steam committed), yet we, the customer, still have to follow thru in contacting our State Department of Revenue and file an appeal seeking corrective remuneration for the overcharge.

My DoR's representative said the turn around time could be anywhere from 1 to 3 months.
That's a lot of dodging on Steam's behalf instead of just fessing up in the first place, and recognizing, "oops, we DID overcharge you" rather than having an additional support person notify days later the very same thing.

What's disturbing, is the multitude of customers who seem to be experiencing similar issues.
Some may not even be aware it's happening.
Some may not know what their legal recourse even is (EULA section 11).

I went back thru an entire year's worth of transactions, because I never would've expected this in the first place and trusted Steam to take the moral high ground and fess up to their error without dodging. In reviewing my previous year's worth of transactions, lo and behold, I discovered 22 instances of overcharges.

Twenty-two!
And the burden is on the customer to point it out to their finance department,
But, by their own initial recommendation, I have elected to take up the issue, as directed by Steam support, with my state tax authority.

So now they get to ask all the legal questions as to why this happened this many times.

So I implore any and every US customer, verify with your state's Dept of Revenue what your locality tax rate should be, then review all you Steam purchases.
My discovery, was the oddity that ALL of the overcharges were always the first week and first week only, of June, November, and March, literally like clockwork.

Be prepared for a lot of print-to-pdf work, as your state's Dept of Revenue will want every receipt you can obtain showing the unauthorized overcharges.

It is really sad that the customers are the ones who have to take the moral high ground in this issue.
"Unfortunately, we are not able to analyze sales tax for your particular situation", yet apparently ARE able to determine it's perfectly acceptable to overcharge the customers, and put the burden on them to seek correction and remuneration.

[SparkYo]

I've received a final message from steam support
"Hello,

We have finished our investigation and have resolved what you were experiencing. If you'd like to complete your purchase now you should see the correct tax rate.

Let us know if you have any further questions.
"

I tried adding the Index to my cart again. It does in fact appear that the tax rate has been fixed and is now 8.2%

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I'm glad you finally got them to fix this issue!

[Starseer]

congratz on getting yours resolved. I only hope myself and who knows how many other players who experienced the same "error" are also recognized and given a proper correction.

This never should've happened.
Especially multiple times.