Tax reality starts to clobber coin collectors
It does not pay to be a coin collector in Wisconsin. Or a paper money collector, for that matter. As the phrase goes, “reality bites.” Stack’s Bowers Galleries has issued…
It does not pay to be a coin collector in Wisconsin.
Or a paper money collector, for that matter.
As the phrase goes, “reality bites.”
Stack’s Bowers Galleries has issued a statement to its clients of what it needs to do after the Supreme Court decided that business needs to collect sales taxes on behalf of all the states of the Union who levy them.
Other numismatic firms will soon follow.
What does that mean?
I’ll quote the words of the Stack’s Bowers' statement:
“The Supreme Court recently ruled that states may collect tax on purchases made from out-of-state sellers, even if the seller does not have a physical presence in the taxing state. Unfortunately this ruling affects our clients that reside in states that do collect sales tax and do not have exemptions for the purchase of coins or currency.”
Worse, this is not some theoretical exercise for some point down the road.
It’s now.
That’s right, it’s now.
“As a result, effective immediately, Stack’s Bowers Galleries is required by law to collect the applicable state sales tax for items delivered to the following states.”
There are 12 states where unhappy coin collectors might be found.
In alphabetical order, they are:
California, for invoices less than $1,500
Connecticut, for invoices less than $1,000
Kentucky
Louisiana, for invoices less than $1,000
Massachusetts, for invoices less than $1,000
Minnesota
Mississippi
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Tennessee
Wisconsin
For the four states with minimum sales figures, you can thank the Industry Council for Tangible Assets for their hard work in getting sales tax exemptions in whole or in part in 38 states.
Unhappy Wisconsin is one of eight states where coin collectors will bear the full impact starting with the first dollar spent.
For paper money collectors, the news is worse.
The list of states levying sales taxes on purchases numbers 19.
All levy the tax on any amount. None has exemptions for large transactions.
They are:
Alabama
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Washington
Wisconsin
With winter approaching and perhaps retirement, too, collectors now have more reasons to move to Arizona, Florida, Texas, or other sunny and exempting states.
Those collectors who have faithfully paid use taxes levied by their home states will not notice the change in their wallet.
How many collectors do you think that is?
Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017. He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."
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