Jim Adney said:
Chuck Harris said:
[...] Sales tax rules differ from state
to state. Some require tax on services, some don't.
Yep. Here in WA state, at least the last time I asked the tax authority and
to the best of my understanding of their answer, shipping cost is considered
part of the total sale price, so it's taxed (give or take a few loopholes
that don't generally apply). But then we have all kinds of weird tax rules
here.
I was surprised to find out a few years ago that WI sales tax was also
levied on the shipping & handling charges.
Up until recently, I became acutely aware that other states were doing
this. In Calif, it seemed to me that it just makes common sense that
sales tax would _not_ be levied on services, such as 'transportation' as
the tax code calls it, and any service that isn't actually the goods
itself. See, labor (AKA services) is _already_ taxed thru income tax.
Back years ago, _all_ food was not taxable. Then Sacramento came up
with what was called the 'Twinky Tax'. Some foods such as those sold in
vending machines became taxable. (It sure hasn't slowed people down
from eating them! Sunday Morning on CBS this morning had a piece on how
everything is being made larger to accommodate larger people. Subway
seats used to be 17", now they're in the low 20's. Dress sizes of a
certain number have become larger, etc.)
I'm not sure how they draw the line between Twinkies and cupcakes.
