Sales tax on purchases internet verses shop
Hi Being a European we are not used to having the tax added at the end and not on the as seen price of an article. Coming to the states this year to buy an RV and looking at all the extras we will ne...
Forum Discussion
If buying RV parts or accessories, there are something like 8 or so popular online RV vendors in the US such as tweetys.com, RVupgradestore.com and makariosRV.com which for the majority of our purchases, have been cheaper, and sometimes by quite a bit compared to Amazon, ebay and CW. If you have a particular item in mind, do a google search and do comparison pricing of item cost + shipping + taxes. It can save you a bundle of $$. Prices for RV items can vary substantially online. As mentioned above, some vendors are required to collect tax and some aren't. I thought Amazon always includes "estimated taxes" on their invoices.
We have bought a lot of things online in the US and get it shipped to a mailbox in Washington. One thing that has become commonplace with online shopping in recent years is "free shipping". Nothing is ever "free" of course but some vendors include free shipping in the item cost (sometimes only above a certain amount) and some do not, so you have to check carefully. If it's "free" shipping, it has to be buried in the item price. And if shipping is included, if you have to pay tax, it will be on the item + shipping cost which could have more of an impact if it's a bulky or heavy item. That's what ebay takes advantage of when you are "forced" to pay via paypal.
Also check a vendor's return policy. I have never had any problems whatsoever with the online RV vendors I mentioned above, but have with Amazon and ebay.
I think you'll generally find that buying RV items online will on average cost significantly less than in a store because they have overhead costs that online vendors won't have. Some online vendors "drop ship" items and will have an item sent to you directly from a manufacturer which saves the costs of warehousing inventory in the supply chain.
There's also the option of moving to one of the 5 tax-free states in the US. :)
We have bought a lot of things online in the US and get it shipped to a mailbox in Washington. One thing that has become commonplace with online shopping in recent years is "free shipping". Nothing is ever "free" of course but some vendors include free shipping in the item cost (sometimes only above a certain amount) and some do not, so you have to check carefully. If it's "free" shipping, it has to be buried in the item price. And if shipping is included, if you have to pay tax, it will be on the item + shipping cost which could have more of an impact if it's a bulky or heavy item. That's what ebay takes advantage of when you are "forced" to pay via paypal.
Also check a vendor's return policy. I have never had any problems whatsoever with the online RV vendors I mentioned above, but have with Amazon and ebay.
I think you'll generally find that buying RV items online will on average cost significantly less than in a store because they have overhead costs that online vendors won't have. Some online vendors "drop ship" items and will have an item sent to you directly from a manufacturer which saves the costs of warehousing inventory in the supply chain.
There's also the option of moving to one of the 5 tax-free states in the US. :)
