How to handle local sales tax for online sales regarding unincorporated city/town limits I have a client Located in Louisiana performing online sales inside Louisiana which is in a destination-based sales tax state. I have run into an issue where they are using the town name from the delivery address to collect town sales taxes; however, some towns have unincorporated zones where the residents use the name of the closest town for address reasons, but they are technically outside of town limits meaning that the sales tax should not apply to them. Below is a map of one such town where the red-dotted line is the town limits, but the yellow line represents the unincorporated zone where people use the town's name in thier address. Due to how these lines fall, how do destination-based sales tax states expect sales tax to be collected when the City and Zip code of an address can not be used to determine if a particular address is inside of a local tax area?
There are vendors providing software to facilitate this sort of task. Avalara is perhaps the best known, but I don't have any experience with it and couldn't say whether it's actually any good or not. But the bottom line is that in a destination-based sourcing regime, sales taxes must be computed based on the address of the destination, not city or ZIP code associated with that address. As Avalara has noted, this is a giant hassle, but it's nonetheless the current state of the law. Of course, this assumes the seller has sufficient nexus with Louisiana to trigger a duty to collect sales taxes in the first place. From the question, it is not clear whether this is true.
In New York State, towns are not &quot;part of&quot; cities; they are distinct political entities with their own separate borders, and they do not overlap or contain each other. You can see on this map (Wikipedia but I couldn't find an official one that was as easy to read) that the Town of Henrietta and the City of Rochester are separate. In fact, they do not even share a common border (the Town of Brighton is in between). The laws and municipal code of the City of Rochester do not apply in the Town of Henrietta, nor vice versa. Henrietta has its own Town Code, linked from its official website, but I could not find any regulations on towing vehicles from private property, nor in the Code of Monroe County in which the Town is located. So I would assume that New York State law applies.
Failing to pay a required tax is both a civil and a criminal offense. In a case like this, the buyer should have known that there was something suspicious going on, and so had a duty to look into things. In any case ignorance is not a legal defense to an accusation of non-payment of a tax properly due. By the way, it is not a question of a court learning something, but of a tax official, The tax official could refer to matter to a prosecutor, who could bring charges and take the matter to court. However, relatively minor tax issues are most often handled as civil matters with a tax penalty or fine being imposed, and even if it were handled as a criminal matter (unusual for a first offense) the Judge would have the option to impose only a fine. The California sales tax rate on autos is currently 7.25%, so the tax due would have been something less than $725. The Californium Sales And Use Tax Law section 6476 specifies a penalty of 6% of the tax due but not paid. However, this applies to: Any person required to make a prepayment pursuant to Section 6471 who fails to make a timely prepayment ... That would normally be the seller. Remember these taxers are normally collected by the seller from the buyer, and the seller, particularly one whose business is such sales, must make regular payments to the state. I have not found a law or regulation specifying a penalty rate for the buyer in such a situation, but it is probably a similar rate. Note that a later section specifies a 10% penalty instead of 6% when the non-payment is negligent or willful. The official page &quot;Sales And Use Tax Regulations&quot; from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) summarizes a number of regulations and sections of law, particularly Regulation 1703. It reads in part: (c) (1) (B) Other Late Payments. A penalty of 10 percent of the amount of all unpaid tax shall be added to any tax not paid in whole or in part within the time required by law. (c) (1) (C) Vehicles, Vessels and Aircraft. A purchaser of a vehicle, vessel or aircraft who registers it outside this state for the purpose of evading the payment of sales or use taxes shall be liable for a penalty of 50 percent of any tax determined to be due on the sales price of the vehicle, vessel or aircraft. (c) (3) (A) Negligence or Intentional Disregard. A penalty of 10 percent of the amount of the tax specified in the determination shall be added to deficiency determinations if any part of the deficiency for which the determination is imposed is due to negligence or intentional disregard of the Sales and Use Tax Law or authorized regulations. Generally, a penalty for negligence or intentional disregard should not be added to deficiency determinations associated with the first audit of a taxpayer in the absence of evidence establishing that any bookkeeping and reporting errors cannot be attributed to the taxpayer's good faith and reasonable belief that its bookkeeping and reporting practices were in substantial compliance with the requirements of the Sales and Use Tax Law or authorized regulations. (c) (3) (C) Fraud or Intent to Evade. A penalty of 25 percent of the amount of the tax specified in a deficiency determination shall be added thereto if any part of the deficiency for which the determination is made is due to fraud or intent to evade the Sales and Use Tax Law or authorized regulations. In the case of a determination for failure to file a return, if such failure is due to fraud or an intent to evade the Sales and Use Tax Law or authorized regulations, a penalty of 25 percent of the amount required to be paid, exclusive of penalties, shall be added thereto in addition to the 10 percent penalty for failure to file a return. Fraud or intent to evade shall be established by clear and convincing evidence. (c) (3) (E) (8) Relief from Penalty for Reasonable Cause. If the Board finds that a person's failure to make a timely return, payment, or prepayment, or failure to comply with the provisions of section 6074 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is due to reasonable cause and circumstances beyond the person's control, and occurred notwithstanding the exercise of ordinary care and the absence of willful neglect, the person may be relieved of the penalty provided by sections 6074, 6476, 6477, 6480.4, 6511, 6565, 6591, and 7051.2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code for such failure. Any person seeking to be relieved of the penalty shall file with the Board a statement under penalty of perjury setting forth the facts upon which the claim for relief is based. Section 6592 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, providing for the relief of certain penalties does not apply to the 10 percent penalty imposed for failure to make a timely prepayment under section 6478 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. The page lists contact info for the CDTFA I cannot judge which of these regulations would apply to the case describes in the question -- they are generally aimed at failures by the seller. But it looks as if 10% to 50% of the tax originally due would be a likely amount. Penalties, fines, and jail terms imposed should not depend on citizenship or immigration status t all. Response to PS First of all, the IRS is not a court. Courts are not law enforcement agencies nor prosecutors in the US. Secondly, this is a state tax, not a federal tax, and the IRS will not be concerned. The California tax authorities may be. (They are not courts either.) The page &quot;Tax Guide for Purchasers of Vehicles, Vessels, &amp; Aircraft&quot; from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) reads: However, if you purchased a vehicle without completing registration and paying the use tax to the DMV, you must pay the use tax directly to the CDTFA. You can report your purchase of a vehicle and pay the use tax by using the CDTFA's online services and selecting the option to File a Return or Claim an Exemption for a Vehicle, Vessel, Aircraft, or Mobile Home under the Limited Access Functions. Your tax payment is due on or before the last day of the month following the month of purchase. Penalty and interest charges will begin to accrue once the due date has passed.
In all likelihood, the judge's order related to data collection and reselling is not legally enforceable. They weren't parties to the expungement action, so the judge doesn't have jurisdiction over them. And, the First Amendment protects the right to say truthful things pretty absolutely. Arguably, if the sites provided the information without making clear that it might not be current because records were expunged or corrected, there might be a claim for negligent misrepresentation, false light, or even defamation, but I seriously doubt that even those claims would hold up. The language in the order might cause sites to comply out of not legally justified concern, or just a desire to be accurate, even if it is not enforceable. So, it doesn't hurt to bring that information to the attention of such sites and ask them to take down the information. But, when push comes to shove, I very much doubt that you would prevail in court enforcing that order against them. Certainly, if you do nothing, they will do nothing, because they are not psychic and have no idea that the court order related to those records has been entered. Even a valid and enforceable order directed at a party over whom a court has jurisdiction is not effective until the person ordered to comply with it has notice of the order. And, there is no system that gives sites like that notice without you taking action to inform them of an order.
I make a copy of any important receipt printed on thermal paper, since the terms of many sellers and manufacturers require receipts for disputes. But I'm not aware of any law that says they have to make it convenient to maintain a receipt or other proof of purchase. However, when a company makes their terms unclear, unexpected, or difficult to comply with it seems there is often a lawyer ready to step up and file a class action lawsuit. Here's one archive to give you an idea of what companies will settle. In the United States the FTC is also empowered by law to "protect consumers," which means that if "disappearing" receipts become a widespread problem for consumers they could take action on the government's authority: The Federal Trade Commission Act is the primary statute of the Commission. Under this Act, the Commission is empowered, among other things, to (a) prevent unfair methods of competition, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce; (b) seek monetary redress and other relief for conduct injurious to consumers; (c) prescribe trade regulation rules defining with specificity acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive, and establishing requirements designed to prevent such acts or practices; (d) conduct investigations relating to the organization, business, practices, and management of entities engaged in commerce; and (e) make reports and legislative recommendations to Congress. Given the above, I wouldn't be surprised to see either a class-action lawsuit or FTC rule that requires retailers to provide "durable" receipts, or some convenient substitute.
Whether GDPR applies does not depend on the country of residence. Instead, GDPR applies to a non-EU site or service if the data controller offers products or services to people in the EU (see Art 3(2) GDPR). This depends solely on the behaviour and intent of the data controller / the provider of the website – compare also the discussion of the “targeting criterion” in EDPB guidelines 3/2018 on the territorial scope of the GDPR. While your proposed measures might not be entirely ineffective (in that they document an intent to not serve people in the EU), they are both unnecessarily restrictive and overly lax. For example, they would unnecessarily prevent EU tourists in the US from registering but would nevertheless allow US tourists in the EU. For the targeting criterion, it matters whether the data subject is in the EU at the time of the offer, not at all what their residency is. Even if a person who is currently in the EU registers with your service, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are targeting people in the EU. Instead of implementing signup restrictions, a better strategy might be to clarify in the copy on your website that you are only targeting the domestic US market, not the European market with your services. I have discussed this in more detail in an answer to “How can you block GDPR users from US based sites?” If you have a site where GDPR doesn't apply, and you receive a GDPR data subject request, you shouldn't deny it on the basis that the user must have lied – instead you can deny it on the basis that GDPR just doesn't apply to you.
Because the prohibition of selling to a resident of another state isn't a state law, but rather a Federal law. ATF explains May a licensee sell a firearm to a nonlicensee who is a resident of another State? Generally, a firearm may not lawfully be sold by a licensee to a nonlicensee who resides in a State other than the State in which the seller’s licensed premises is located... In addition, a licensee may sell a rifle or shotgun to a person who is not a resident of the State where the licensee’s business premises is located in an over–the–counter transaction, provided the transaction complies with State law in the State where the licensee is located and in the State where the purchaser resides. [18 U.S.C. 922(b)(3); 27 CFR 478.99(a)]
You will have to pay import toll and taxes. There is no way around that unless you get only tiny deliveries, and that would be tax evasion. Atop that, make sure your wares are declared properly and are not regarded as counterfeit or not importable. Fashion products might require to follow some special rules on ingredients that are allowable. You can get the information you need at your customs office or at the customs office website