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They are saying I need to pay for taxes since they failed to charge customers, or to sign a paper and send it to them??? my husband said good luck with that..I'm so confused. Did anyone else get this notice and what are you going to do..sheesh they didn't even give you a pre paid envelope.
Mandy
I did not receive anything from them, however they are based in California and you should have been charged sales tax on your order if you live in that state. Don't know how many people will actually pay up.....
This sounds like one of those mistakes that the company will have to eat themselves. I mean, they can hope that some of their customers are willing to fork over the tax after the fact, but I don't think they have a way to force them.
Yes I agree...there mistake, how can you do that big of an oversight? and to send out letters, wouldn't it have been cheaper to just pay it instead of sending letters that they want you to pay taxes they forgot to charge...I bought products from them through a bag share and how many people do that, I'm sure lots, so if your the hostess you have to pay back taxes..I don't think so :( ...I'm sorry but I also bought my products in Feb from them...eeesh! I hate this..and it's not the money butttttt.... :(
Mandy
The company is required to collect sales tax on orders that are shipped within their home state. I imagine they are probably going through an audit right now, which is why this is being brought up.
In most states, you are required to pay sales tax on purchases that you don't pay at the time of purchase. For example, I buy something from Papertrey Ink in Ohio and they don't charge me MN sales tax because they are not required to. I'm still required by law to pay the sales tax to MN on my own.
I don't know what the law is specifically in CA, but I would be hesitent to mail anything back to them taking ownership for the sales tax you did not pay.
Was it an e-mail notice? Just a thought but make sure if it was an e-mail you got that it is legit and not a spoof. It may be that somebody hijacked Clear Bags logo and other elements of their website to look like them and maybe trying to either get your money directly and/or your credit card info. So much of that has been going around and the e-mail you got may not be actually from Clear Bags. If there is a link provided in the e-mail, do not click on the link but open another window and go out to the web and go to Clear Bags' website. Go back to your e-mail and scroll your cursor over the provided link nd look at the status bar on the bottom of your screen. The address will appear and you can check and see if it matches the legitimate Clear Bags website address. If it contains any other strange wording or characters, it is not legit. If it is a legit e-mail from Clear Bags, I think it is wrong to go back and charge customers retroactively for the companies error. It is something they should just bear and pay out of their own pocket. Expensive lesson for sure.
Have any of you thought of calling the company to see if in fact they did send out this letter? Seems like a quick resolution to me. Thankfully I have never ordered from them so I have not seen this letter. I hope y'all get this resolved in YOUR favor soon.
I got one last year and the next time I went to pick-up my order I paid the extra. If you don't pay they don't bug you about it but if you offer to pay it helps them.
It's all about Calif trying to force companies to collect tax on internet sales.
The first time I ordered from them I didn't pay attention to where they were located. It was not until my box arrived and I looked at the return address did I realize they are only about 5 min from my house. The gas to drive over is a lot less than shipping - boy did I feel a bit dumb!
I didn't know that companies can retroatctively collect sales tax from customers. That just sounds wierd but if it is a small company and the state is breathing down their neck to pay back sales tax, I guess it would tough financially on the company and could put them out of business. Especially with how bankrupt the State of Califorinia is, I can believe they would expect companies to do this.
I "Googled" the retroactive sales tax issue and found another forum discussing the issue. I copied this from one of the comments: "Frame vendors collecting back taxes from California optical shops for CA state board!
This is one of the most outrageous things I've seen in a while. As we all know, CA has been cash strapped for a long while. Therefore, they recently instituted a "use tax" program which essentially is an effort to get California business owners (such as myself) to pay back taxes for all items that were purchased from out-of-state vendors and in which taxes were not paid by us at the time of sale. They wanted us to go back as far as 2006 and collate all the purchases that we had made out of state and pay them 9% taxes on these. Many of my colleagues simply laughed at this nonsense and assumed that there was no way that the California State Board of Equalization could figure out exactly what he had bought from around the country. Nonetheless, I just received a letter from UltraPalm (based in Florida) in which I am told that ultrapalm wants me to pay them $500 in back taxes based on purchases of $5000 I made from them since 2006. They state that they will send the money to the CA state board based on instructions from California's state board. I anticipate I will get similar letters from all the vendors that I deal with. I find it outrageous that California can try retroactively to inflict additional taxes on us that we had never anticipated...and that they are reaching nationwide to muscle vendors into enforcing this. Unbelievable. Any other members get this type of letter? " http://www.optiboard.com/forums/show...ck...?p=351797
What gets me is that I was used to paying sales tax if I was buying from a Calif company since I live here but charging sales tax for out of state buyers is just wrong.
Hey Stamper for fun - where are you located in Sac? Folsom here and if you want to save on shipping, Clear Bags is in El Dorado Hills. They have a small showroom where you can look at all the products and they are really nice folks. They will fill your order while you wait.
Hey Stamper for fun - where are you located in Sac? Folsom here and if you want to save on shipping, Clear Bags is in El Dorado Hills. They have a small showroom where you can look at all the products and they are really nice folks. They will fill your order while you wait.
Wow, thanks for this information stamphappy1650!!! I had in the past wondered if they let us pick up orders but never thought there would be a showroom (large or small) where I could look at their products. I live in Pocket-Greenhaven area of Sacramento so it is probably as far south as one can get before getting to Elk Grove but I think a trip up to El Dorado Hills is worth it if I can see their stuff. I mean I have a friend who lives in El Dorado Hills and drives to downtown everyday for work and I am not too far from downtown.
And they will fill my order while I wait.... gosh, I can't lose.
Thanks again for this info. One thing I like about ordering from them is that when I order from them in the morning my package is here the next day via UPS.
I just spent 15 minutes typing a response and my computer ate it. So to be quick......I'm an online retailer in California. I went to a class at the Board of Equalization and they explained the rules. Retailers are required to pay sales tax and they are allowed to collect this sales tax from their customers. Meaning they have to pay it regardless of if they have collected if from their customers or not.
Use tax is the tax on items in which sales tax was not charged on items that will be used in California. All Californians are required to pay use tax on items they buy in other states, they are supposed to claim it on their Ca. State income tax form. A customer service rep with the BoE told me that it is really hard to enforce and no one hardly ever does it. As a business I like to keep everything on the up and up so I do pay it on the items I buy for my business like shipping supplies and such. I claim it on my sales and use tax form when I pay my sales tax.
I don't believe that this company named above can make you pay the sales tax (don't know for sure if they can send it to collections if you don't pay - I would think not). The company is responsible for paying this and if they have not then I think they should just eat it. I have had to do that when I have made mistakes.
As far as I know, internet retailers are not yet required to collect sales tax on sales made outside of their home state for their state or for the other individual states although I'm sure the states are pushing for this. eBay and probably Amazon and others are fighting to keep this from happening as it would be a paperwork nightmare and would possibly reduce internet sales.
Anyway those are my thoughts. Not sure if I'm wrong or right, this is just what I think is right.
I work for a world wide company and we sell through our websites.
There are now about 13 states that require us to collect sales tax on items ordered.
Colorado was just added to this last week. 1 year ago there were only a couple but the list is growing as the stat laws change.
Regarding the use tax that Mousie was talking about - I know Wisconsin has a line for this on our tax forms as well. A company I used to work for went thru a sales tax audit and had to pay back use tax on some office supplies that we ordered from a company that didn't charge sales tax.
I would think it would be a nightmare for a state to try to enforce this for every single person who has ever made an online purchase - but I would bet that a lot of states have this same policy.
It seems like it would be a nightmare for small companies to collect and pay taxes for many different states. Hopefully their accounting software has those capabilities.
Did Anyone Get A Notice From ClearBags.com?
