Sales Tax and Implications to Numismatics (US Topic with Implication to Cross Border Trades)

[*tada*]

As some of you may know, last year due to the ruling of South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc., et al, a US state can now require online retailers beyond its borders to collect the state’s sales-tax revenue from the state’s consumers. Coin Auction houses follow through and now major players (Heritage, Legend, and Stacks) all charge sales tax on the items sold with destinations to most US states. eBay as I heard is rolling out these rules in 2019. Some groups are fighting these new rules but I doubt they will success.

The burden is definitely felt in the online numismatics market, while the rules are still confusing for many. US Dealers (defined as $100,000 in-state transaction or more than 200 transactions) are now required to collect different state taxes from their customers (which is a logistics nightmare). Now, someone in NYC needs to pay 8.8% sales tax if he buys anything from a dealer online in US.

From the broader perspective, this ruling clearly disadvantages US buyers/sellers in especially high value US auction biddings/offerings, but will likely booster international transactions that are not subject to these new rules. It's definitely interesting to see the eventual consequences, if any. I was told by a well-known dealer in US that people who love coins just pay up but...