Encouraging you to Buy Locally!

I'll stick with not paying tax. That's always a deal breaker. I order everything online.

I gave a local shop the opportunity to price match a local big box store on an accessory for a S2, they didn't have to do anything except pull it out of the display case and ring it up. Wouldn't do it. They are no longer around.

I would shop the local stores in Seattle that are still around, but it's hard for me to pay 9.5% sales tax and still not get the same return policy as B&H and Adorama.

I work in an industry that has been hammered by online selling, so I understand the brick and motor pain.

I hope folks realize that unless you are a resident of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon where this is no sales tax, you are legally obligated to report your purchases on your taxes during the year in which it was purchased. This is not a new phenomenon. It is the equivalent of living in Massachusetts and going to NH to make a purchase. When completing your state taxes you have to report purchases made out of state that the state did not collect taxes on.

In other words, it is probably not a good idea to use a public forum to say you buy online to avoid taxes. Especially for those that list their website, etc, making it much easier for for municipalities to track you down, if they were so inclined. I do not know about you, but I would not want to have to defend purchases on my debit and credit card to state or municipal auditors, and I claim purchases. Federal audits are a walk in the park compared to state.

ImCBParker wrote in post #11925054
I hope folks realize that unless you are a resident of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon where this is no sales tax, you are legally obligated to report your purchases on your taxes during the year in which it was purchased. This is not a new phenomenon. It is the equivalent of living in Massachusetts and going to NH to make a purchase. When completing your state taxes you have to report purchases made out of state that the state did not collect taxes on.

In other words, it is probably not a good idea to use a public forum to say you buy online to avoid taxes. Especially for those that list their website, etc, making it much easier for for municipalities to track you down, if they were so inclined. I do not know about you, but I would not want to have to defend purchases on my debit and credit card to state or municipal auditors, and I claim purchases. Federal audits are a walk in the park compared to state.

You must be kidding, right?! I never heard something like this, do you have a link from IRS that can confirm?

ImCBParker wrote in post #11925054
I hope folks realize that unless you are a resident of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon where this is no sales tax, you are legally obligated to report your purchases on your taxes during the year in which it was purchased. This is not a new phenomenon. It is the equivalent of living in Massachusetts and going to NH to make a purchase. When completing your state taxes you have to report purchases made out of state that the state did not collect taxes on.

In other words, it is probably not a good idea to use a public forum to say you buy online to avoid taxes. Especially for those that list their website, etc, making it much easier for for municipalities to track you down, if they were so inclined. I do not know about you, but I would not want to have to defend purchases on my debit and credit card to state or municipal auditors, and I claim purchases. Federal audits are a walk in the park compared to state.

keyframe14 wrote in post #11925216
You must be kidding, right?! I never heard something like this, do you have a link from IRS that can confirm?

Google can be your friend too keyframe...check it out yourself. You'll find that you owe some back taxes...

Please re-read. It is not an IRS issue as IRS governs only federal taxes. It is a state and municipal issue. And yes, I am 100% serious. Refer to your state's 1040. For example, in IL, it is line 22. CT, line 7, and so on. For Florida, where you reside, refer to the Department of Revenue site

I will sum it up using the DOR FL exact quote:

"If you buy a taxable item outside Florida and bring or have it delivered into this state and you didn't pay sales tax on the item, you owe use tax."

A few years with that form not filed may just set off flags. May want to talk to an accountant.

ImCBParker wrote in post #11925736
Please re-read. It is not an IRS issue as IRS governs only federal taxes. It is a state and municipal issue. And yes, I am 100% serious. Refer to your state's 1040. For example, in IL, it is line 22. CT, line 7, and so on. For Florida, where you reside, refer to the Department of Revenue site

I will sum it up using the DOR FL exact quote:

"If you buy a taxable item outside Florida and bring or have it delivered into this state and you didn't pay sales tax on the item, you owe use tax."

A few years with that form not filed may just set off flags. May want to talk to an accountant.

You're right I saw on that link, it's funny none of the accountants ever asked me that question. I'm wondering if anyone paid that "use tax" ever. So I guess buying used is the only way to avoid paying taxes.

keyframe14 wrote in post #11921163
I really don't believe in this overpay to support "local economy", buy a poor build, overpriced american car to support american economy when for the exact same money I could get a reliable well build japanese or german car.

Everyone in my city feels the same way and we have count this ZERO new full-time employers or new anything opening up in the foreseeable future. We have Walmart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Ross and some other big box stores. Most of them only hire part time employees and they will cut you off at whatever point allows them to not pay full time employment benefits. Plenty of people are moving here too but sadly the houses they buy go right back up for sale once they realize there are no jobs here.

Most people have to drive over 50 miles to Daytona or even greater distances to Jacksonville and Orlando to find work. Then people cry at city meetings where they blame the city managers for not creating enough incentives that will invite new business to create local jobs. So the city is supposed to let new businesses come in tax free while the city is already broke. Just to create jobs that will disappear once the owners first rent payment is due.

There were hundreds of smaller stores but all of them closed up over the past few years. The few who remain have to charge much higher prices to remain in business because nobody wants to pay retail or tax anymore. It's much different then buying an American car simply because it's American. Local stores have costs associated with running them aside from the cost of merchandise and they don't have 1/100th the foot traffic or the higher overall profit margin of a merchant the size of B&H, Adorama or Amazon.

Yea, all online for me too. Every time (on the extremely rare occasion) I have been into any of the remaining photography shops in my area, I have been treated poorly and thought them ridiculous for trying to charge what they charge for gear and on top of that they all seem to be Nikon pushers big time. So you go in looking for Canon stuff and they have a biased attitude. And if theres one thing I truly HATE, its salemen trying to talk me into buying ANYTHING. User reviews from websites like Amazon is pretty much all Ill let influence my decision making these days. Well that and the fine people in forums such as POTN

Support my local economy by getting my hair cut at a small shop, my gas at an independently owned station, my food at the smallest grocery chain (the mom & pop sold out years ago), and my coffee at a local shop. I also use a locally owned bank and bought my car at a locally owned dealer.

I can do this because I buy my photography equipment online.

isoMorphic wrote in post #11927543
Everyone in my city feels the same way and we have count this ZERO new full-time employers or new anything opening up in the foreseeable future. We have Walmart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Ross and some other big box stores. Most of them only hire part time employees and they will cut you off at whatever point allows them to not pay full time employment benefits. Plenty of people are moving here too but sadly the houses they buy go right back up for sale once they realize there are no jobs here.

Most people have to drive over 50 miles to Daytona or even greater distances to Jacksonville and Orlando to find work. Then people cry at city meetings where they blame the city managers for not creating enough incentives that will invite new business to create local jobs. So the city is supposed to let new businesses come in tax free while the city is already broke. Just to create jobs that will disappear once the owners first rent payment is due.

There were hundreds of smaller stores but all of them closed up over the past few years. The few who remain have to charge much higher prices to remain in business because nobody wants to pay retail or tax anymore. It's much different then buying an American car simply because it's American. Local stores have costs associated with running them aside from the cost of merchandise and they don't have 1/100th the foot traffic or the higher overall profit margin of a merchant the size of B&H, Adorama or Amazon.

The "artificial" support to local businesses will not have any positive long-term impact as it will only take the pressure off the business owners, and not force them to try working on more competitive business models. Take camera stores for example; throughout this thread we've established that equipment sales might be an uphill battle for them. People are generally willing to wait 1-2 days for delivery to save 20%+ of the cost. Equipment rental, on the other hand, is something a local store can have an edge on since they can offer same day, 1-2 day rental services and that's generally not something online rental stores are willing and able to offer. Let your local businesses come up with ideas to win you as a customer; don't support them out of pity.

DiMAn0684 wrote in post #11930617
The "artificial" support to local businesses will not have any positive long-term impact as it will only take the pressure off the business owners, and not force them to try working on more competitive business models. Take camera stores for example; throughout this thread we've established that equipment sales might be an uphill battle for them. People are generally willing to wait 1-2 days for delivery to save 20%+ of the cost. Equipment rental, on the other hand, is something a local store can have an edge on since they can offer same day, 1-2 day rental services and that's generally not something online rental stores are willing and able to offer. Let your local businesses come up with ideas to win you as a customer; don't support them out of pity.

A rental store in my city would be nice and I'll definitely use it.

FStop7 wrote in post #11887979
I am lucky in that Calumet and Canoga Camera are both local to me. The downside is that because they're local to me, they charge sales tax. So that kills much of the benefit. So I find myself more often than not opting to purchase from B&H or Amazon.

+1 on this..I often go to Canoga Camera to try things..but buy online if theres a better deal..if not ill buy it right then and there.

Here I live in CA, I also blame the rediculous 9.5% sale tax. Sale tax is one (lousy) way to fix the CA debt issue, but it is is sure way to deter consumer from buying locally, causing local economy collapsing.

TooManyShots wrote in post #11887735
I do and that's why I always shop at Adorama....sometimes BH too...

+1