Sales taxes for Sweden to California
March 16, 2021 7:04 PM   Subscribe

I am considering purchasing an item from Sweden. I live in California. The company selling the product has given me the price including shipping, but says that I will also be responsible for the taxes related to the destination - CA, USA. They are not able to tell me what these taxes will be, and I am not clear if this is just normal California sales taxes or something else. I do not want to be surprised by some super high customs charge or unforeseen tax.

Does anyone here know how the taxes will be applied in this case?
posted by The Architect to Shopping (7 answers total)
 
Could you simply go to DHL online, enter the details including price, country where it was made and appropriate product category and see what the duties would be to ship from Sweden to you?

For my work, I’m sending small gift items for a virtual meeting to sixteen countries and while I go through the steps to create the label for shipping, I can see what the estimated duties should be.
posted by icaicaer at 7:34 PM on March 16, 2021


Best answer: In many states, a "use tax" equivalent to the sales tax is imposed. You have to report the purchase and pay the tax. No one adds it to your invoice.

This derives from an older rule, being phased out, that buying products across state lines cannot be subject to sales tax in the buyer's state.

Look at the California Department of Treasury web site to see if that is done there.
posted by yclipse at 8:26 PM on March 16, 2021


Response by poster: I think yclipse has the term I needed: California Use Tax. It is my understanding that all the shipping costs are being paid by the company shipping the item, but that I need to pay the local taxes. In this case, this seems to be the Use Tax, which sounds the same as a sales tax, but for out of state purchases. Evidently, the purchaser is responsible for paying this to the state, since it is not collected by the seller and sent to California.
posted by The Architect at 8:44 PM on March 16, 2021


Best answer: For many purchases, you can pay California use tax when you file your taxes by a simple estimated lookup table. It's actually a fixed amount based on your salary
posted by soylent00FF00 at 9:06 PM on March 16, 2021


For the US, any packages under $800 are not subject to duty or taxes.
posted by dripdripdrop at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2021


Best answer: You've always been obligated to pay Use Tax, and since 2017 it's been explicitly right there on your tax return form.

Sometimes the processes itself just forces you to pay the tax (like registering a car in CA that was purchased out of state), while other times it's up to tax payer.

As soylent00FF00 has up there, there is token minor amount that gets added to the return, just in case you happened to lose all possible documentation, wink wink.

And since (I'm guessing) you weren't diligently writing checks to the CDFTA for all the stuff you had shipped to your house where the seller didn't collect the tax for you (like Amazon for most of its history), you've been under paying this all along.

So, while no one is saying you should commit outright tax fraud, I'd think about all the consequences you have faced (or not faced) for all the times you haven't paid up your Use Tax up until now.
posted by sideshow at 2:14 PM on March 17, 2021


Response by poster: Added a couple of "best answers" because all helped me understand the issue further. Thanks All!
posted by The Architect at 6:59 PM on March 17, 2021


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