Sales Tax on Returns?

Question

I bought an item at Wal-Mart in a nearby city where the sales tax is higher than in my city. I returned this item in my city. When I was given my refund, I was given the sales tax for the city I live in, not the city that I bought the item in. Does anyone know if I should have been refunded the sales tax that I paid since it was higher?

Answer 1

I have to disagree with bostonian here.

You should have received the entire tax that you paid when you returned the item to the store. The reason that you did not receive the entire refund was due to a flaw in Wal-Mart's (and virtually every other companies) sales tax system. The flaw is that the computer system is only designed for that particular location. Therefore, it can't calculate sales tax for any other location whenever you return a product.

You have 2 options to correct this. First, ask Wal-Mart for the rest of the tax that you paid. They may give it to you, they may not. Make sure that you have the reciept for the original purchase and the receipt for the return. Second, file a refund claim with your state for the difference if Wal-Mart is unwilling to give you the additional tax. When you file the claim, you should send copies of the original purchase receipt and original return reciept along with the refund application.

The best way to avoid this is to return the goods to the location that you actually made the purchase.

This flaw can be exploited at any retailer for a while. That is, until you become a serial returner and the retailer no longer accepts your returns.

Answer 2

You should have recieved the amount of sales tax from the place you purchased, if you had the reciept. If you did not have the reciept the cashier would have scanned the item and the local sales tax will come up. There would be no way of knowing how much sales tax you paid. If that's not the case, the cashier did not look close enough at the reciept. The store is not allowed by law to keep any sales tax for an item they are claiming to the IRS as a return.

Answer 3

"little78lucky" is exactly correct. I returned an engagement ring in a different state and received substantially MORE sales tax than I paid, oddly enough. Sales tax is collected at the point of sale and is refunded at the point of return. That's the way that the sales tax returns are processed.

Answer 4

nope you get the prices where you returned it at not only the tax but lets say the item was on sale when you returned it, they would refund you the sale price not the price you pay

not very fair huh

Answer 5

You should receive the full amount you paid including tax with a valid receipt.