Taxes that appear on your online order are a very close
approximate if not in most all cases exact. The actual taxes
charged to your credit card will reflect all the applicable
state and local sales taxes, and will be calculated when
your order is actually shipped. If the state of Minnesota
or other states change their sales tax rate between the
time we received your order and the time we shipped your
order than you will see a small difference on your credit
card statement. Orders shipped to Minnesota will have all
applicable local and state sales taxes added to your total
order, and to your shipping charges where appropriate.
Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA).
To be clear, the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which
was signed into law on October 21, 1998, does not, as some
have asserted, preclude sales and use taxes on any and all
commerce conducted over the Internet. State and local governments
are allowed to impose sales and use taxes on all such electronic
sales, provided that the tax (and its rate) are the same
as that which would be imposed on the transactions if they
were conducted in a more traditional manner, such as over
the phone or through mail order.
The IFTA is intended to prevent any jurisdiction from imposing
special taxes on Internet transactions, other than such
taxes that a jurisdiction already has the ability to impose
(e.g., sales tax; see below). The ITFA was able to prevent
the imposition of any such taxes through October 21, 2001.
At this time the fate of sales tax on the Internet is unknown
and could change at any time which could affect your order.
Taxation rules used by mail-order companies.
Currently, most e-commerce companies use the same taxation
rules used by mail-order companies, which are based on constitutional
guidelines for interstate commerce. Generally this means
that states can only require companies to collect sales
tax in states where they have business operations, and as
a result, a company will not collect sales tax in states
where they have no business operations. If someone were
to order something from one of our catalogs, that person
would only be charged sales tax if he or she lived in a
state where our company has physical operations. Example:
If a person in Wyoming ordered something, our company would
not be required to collect sales tax because it has no business
operations in Wyoming.
State and local government sales tax rules.
The ITFA also prohibits state and local governments from
imposing taxes on Internet access charges, protects against
the imposition of new tax liability for consumers and vendors
involved in commercial transactions over the Internet, and
creates a temporary commission to study taxation of Internet
commerce and to report back to Congress in 18 months on
whether the Internet ought to be taxed and, if so, how taxes
can be applied without subjecting the Internet and electronic
commerce to special, discriminatory, or multiple taxation.
Although the 18 months have already passed, this commission
has still not reached any conclusions for congress to act
on.
