Selling to someone in a state with sales tax

[EUGENE the REALTOR]

I sold a gun online to someone from a different state (not Washington), and the guy is saying he has to pay me more for the sales tax. I've sold guns online for over 10 years and this is the first time someone has offered to pay me more for sales tax.

Has anyone experienced this before? I have never really bothered to research each state's sales tax laws before and definitely have never gone through to pay the sales tax.

He is insisting to pay the extra for tax, which is a couple hundred dollars more. Just take it and call it good?

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[GWS]

No, his ffl should collect the sales tax in his home state. How would you be expected to give that money to his state, anyway. Just tell him to let his ffl take care of it.

 

[EUGENE the REALTOR]

No, his ffl should collect the sales tax in his home state. How would you be expected to give that money to his state, anyway. Just tell him to let his ffl take care of it.

It was through Gunbroker and the invoice they sent on my behalf included the sales tax.

 

[GWS]

Don't know what to tell you about Gunbroker . Are selling this as a private seller? If yes then you are not under any requirement to collect taxes for another state. As far as that state is concerned it is a new gun being brought into that state, the importing ffl is the agent making that "sale" in that state. Tell your buyer to give his ffl the sales tax and get a receipt for it to have proof he paid it. He owes the sales tax to his state, not you.

 

[EUGENE the REALTOR]

Isn't his FFL only doing the background check? Yes, I'm an individual. But he is paying me for the gun, not his FFL. I don't understand why his FFL would pay the sales tax for a gun I sold.

 

[tdawg]

Gunbroker is a marketplace facilitator therefore they collect sales tax for you. Recent Supreme Court ruling says they have to. Same reason that eBay charges sales tax even if you are a private seller. Gunbroker will tack the sales tax onto your bill as the seller as far as I know.

 

[titsonritz]

If he drove to Oregon to buy anything else in a store whould he do thing the same thing? People drive across bridges from Washington everyday to avoid sales tax.

 

[aasbra]

i recall hearing about a change in policy a while back. I haven't sold on GunBroker much, but their website has some info on this:

Marketplace Facilitator Sales Tax Collection

Note: GunBroker.com will update this document as new information is available. The whole document may have changes but specific sections added or with major updates are indicated by an asterisk (*)...

support.gunbroker.com

 

[CLT65]

Yes, he will pay the sales tax to you, and then when you get billed monthly by Gunbroker, you will have to forward that tax money on to them. Gunbroker then forwards it on to the state.

If you don't collect the tax money from him, you'll be on the hook for it out of your own pocket.

 

[L84Cabo]

I don't understand why his FFL would pay the sales tax for a gun I sold.

History: The way this was supposed to work is that buyers were supposed to self submit their sales tax (called "use tax") to the state. But that wasn't working because nobody in their right mind is ever going to voluntarily self submit sales tax to the money grubbing government.

So the government decided that they could put the burden of tax collection onto FFL's, since they're involved in all sales and the government can exert a bit of "influence" on them.

It's messed up but the government want's its pound of flesh and they'll get it any way they can.

 

[User 1234]

Gunbroker does not care if you are same state residents meeting at a local FFL for the transfer. They'll still collect the tax from you and send it to the state. Sending them the state's own statement that no tax needs collected does no good.

 

[GWS]

Ok
The process has apparently changed and my info is out of date.
Apologies