I was just curious how everyone felt about this, but I was very encouraged by Pennsylvania's recent decision to exclude coins and gold bullion from their state sales tax. As a West Virginia resident to attends PA auctions, this will make a difference to me. I think that hobbyists need to start pushing more states to exempt coins from sales tax. Whether individuals are in the hobby for investment or for the pure enjoyment of collecting, numismatics still provides an excellent savings vehicle for a country that simply does not save money. This form of savings and investment should be encourage through tax incentives. I salute PA for their decision to exempt coins from sales taxes. I guess its time to start writing state Congressmen. Shortgapbob
I agree I need to find out what the law is here in Iowa. when I go to coin shows most people do not collect sales tax, but there is one person in particular that always charges tax.
IN ILLINOIS they would tax you state county , and city .If they could for the air you breathe ! redhorse
Tax-coins-air You indirectly pay for the clean air act with your state and federal taxes. That is the air you breath. Coins are not taxed in some state like over 200.00 or some thing like that. If you buy out of country, the credit card companies charge to make the money exchange. It can add up to 20% plus or minus. Take the RAM, all is quoted in AUD$ . I do not know if this is all card companies or all mints. The mints are Govt. owned and American dollars if they are converted costs very little. Seems like the little guy always pays. Have you heard and complaints about a money shortage in CA or other states lately ? The feds are raking in record taxes from , yea gas tax. I believe we need to stop terrorism, but we are now at $+3 per gallon. So we pay for that. I do not mind a bit of hard ship terrorism is bad. Oil trading has been fingered as one cause, oil companies like large profits, and the local state and feds do not ever mind a bit of slush. Maybe Doug could help us on the local taxes on coins etc. He is the" Oracle" . That name was given to one long ago. A group from the same company all went on fishing outings together. When no one caught fish " Robert" always took home something.He is now gone so the name is free to use in my mind. Good week end Floyd
I grew up in IA and the state charges sales tax on all coin purchases. The vendors who don't collect the tax are probably not true dealers, but are just collectors selling some stuff. If they ran a retail business then they would be required to collect sales tax. I currently live in IL and sales of coins and bullion are sales tax exempt. As an aside the Consitiution of the State of Illinois specifically bans the introduction of a sales tax, so the legislature here has instituted a use tax to circumvent the Constitution. So I guess coins aren't sold to be used, so they're exempt?!
Iowa recently repealed the sales tax on numismatic items. Read about it here : http://tinyurl.com/grghy or here : http://ina.anaclubs.org/ Missouri has no sales tax on numismatic items, which is nice. The Pennsylvania decision to look at repealing their tax is in part due to the efforts of the Iowa deligation.
I live in Delaware, where there is no sales tax on coins or bullion. Or anything else for that matter.
I think you missed the point redhorse was making about Illinois. There are taxes for city, county, state for just about everything. We pay taxes on the money we make and then with what is left we pay to use the roads with tolls, pay to park on the streets, pay to go to work and pay to go home. We pay taxes on the food we buy, gastax for our cars, tax on the cloths we wear, caskets we get buried in. taxes on the tombstones for our graves, taxes on a bottle of water, taxes on food in restaurants, etc., etc., etc. And in Illinois if you don't think there is a tax on something, keep it quite or else the next day it will be not only taxed but there will be a back tax on what was missed. Taxes on the sale of coins? SHHHHHHHHHH. Funny isn't it how this state is always broke.
If you think thats crazy if you buy outside illinois and you address is illinois your taxed .Icould never explain that Ilive in the states of illinois ,chicago, cook
Here in New York State, not only are coins and bullion taxed, but there is a line on the State Income Tax that you are expected to complete to declare the sales tax on purchases made outside the state (or county, I will get to that) on which you did not pay tax. Example: You buy $100 in books on Amazon.com. They do not charge tax. You should have paid 8% tax, so you declare the $8 on your income tax and pay up. You have to attest to NOT doing this if you don't fill in that line with something, or insist that you owe ZERO. And you have to print ZERO in big block letters so the computers and auditors can see it easily. There is a handy chart to use if you don't remember how much you bought on eBay et al. What absolutely galls me is that if you have no income at all you are still expected to fork over $5 for this. Excuse me? No income, and yet you spent enough money out of state to owe $5 in sales tax? What I am afraid of is the precedent it sets. Once people get used to this, there's no telling what the legislature will do to close budget gaps with this line item. "Well, we 'benchmarked' and Amazon.com says that the average person spends $10K a year on the net, so we'll assume you owe us another $800 a year." It gets even more ridiculous. If you bought out of county- that is, if your county has an 8% sales tax, and you bought an appliance at Bait and Switch Electronics in the next county, which has a 7% sales tax, you are expected to declare and report the difference! Right, I can certainly see 100% compliance to that, and if you believe me, I have some MS-250 cents, gem mirror blast ultra cameo proof slabbed, that I'm sure you'd be interested in. I don't care about sales tax so much for stuff for Thalia, but on a Buffalo gold you're looking at an additional $56 on a $700 price tag. Instant competitive disadvantage... oops, I forgot, I was supposed to declare that I went over the border to buy that. Now, for a dose of reality, how much would gold have to go up for you to get that 8% back and just "break even"? OK, I think I can calm down now.
I imagine on a 500K house you have some serious taxes in Deleware. Something has to grease the wheels. Floyd
I stand corrected, thankfully! I last purchased coins in IA a couple of months ago and the law was still in effect, but I'm glad to see the change.
The Moderators have received complaints about the multiple posts in this thread which have wandered from the subject of sales tax on coins to the more general subject of sales tax. Those posts belong in the Politics, Religion and World Events Forum. If this thread wanders away from its numismatic subject again, it may have to be closed.
Understood... I would be guilty of straying a bit off topic. The extra 8% that I must pay for coins locally (because it's collected at the time of sale) will eventually be a cost factor I will need to consider as we inevitably more farther upmarket to complete sets. Legally, I would be bound to pay the 8% tax regardless of the place of purchase and I think that is as far as I will go in a public forum. Parallel question: Does anyone know what the sales tax situation is in California? I have a feeling that I can guess, but perhaps someone from there can offer a more official view.
Sales tax is charged on coin sales if the total transaction is <$1,000 in California. The rate varies from county to county, within a range of 7.5%-8.25%.
