sales vs use tax

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[quote="bluephoenix"]Strange that.  In florida taxes are for the bill to.  If I l am temporarily  in New Mexico and I buy an item from a store in Florida and I live in FL  (bill to) then I am taxed as the purchaser and not because of the address it is going to.[/quote]

Are you [b]sure[/b] about that? I don't think that's legally possible, since you might then end up paying double state sales tax. For example, you live in Florida (bill to), and you buy something from a Florida-based mail order company, but you have it sent to your summer house in New Mexico (where you are liable for New Mexico use tax).

I think there is a lot of confusion on this because of the concept of Use Tax. Use Tax is almost always equivalent to your local sales tax, but the onus is on the customer to pay it (not the merchant to collect it). This is generally the way that states/localities assert their right to collect taxes on things bought from outside their jurisdiction, but regular consumers almost never report and pay it (or even know they're supposed to).

I could be wrong, since there's little that varies as much or is as complicated as tax law. But I've been trying to figure this out for a while now and talking to state agencies and others in a position to know. I guess I should stop assuming that the correct answer will be logical, though, since that seems to be the only one ruled out.