Retail sales tax question

[cjj]

Musician's Friend doesn't charge sales tax unless you are in Kansas, I think, but Guitar Center does. I guess that's because they are treated as different entities even though they are owned by the same parent company. This all gets too confusing.

This is an interesting situation that has to do with the seller's operational characteristics. I'll give an example that really pushed the envelope back when I lived in Idaho. A sporting good company, Cabela's, opened a retail store in Idaho, which one would think would mean that now all those Idaho outdoorsmen who had been ordering from Cabela's would have to pay Idaho sales tax. Not so. Cabela's successfully argued that their mail order/internet business was a separate entity from their retail stores, and so, do not have to collect Idaho sales tax and send it to the state. Note that this has nothing to do with trying to save their customers money on taxes.

I suspect the same situation exists for Musician's Friend/Guitar Center. Guitar Center has retail stores, Musician's Friend is internet/mail order only. Since MF's distribution center is in Kansas, the state charges its resident's sales tax because the retail operation is in the state...

[Scastles]

The tax is supposed to be based and paid to the state you live in not where it was shipped from.

Not really. This is one particular item and only available from a 'walk in' retailer in Texas even though it was shipped. The item is subject to Texas' state sales tax. It's not like buying mass produced items from say, Walmart. They have distribution centers and retail stores all over, but when you buy something online from them they charge you the sales tax for the state you reside in, no matter where the item was shipped from.
Amazon and MF avoid retail sales tax because they are distribution centers only, no walk in business. A practice many state governments would like to see changed