Alameda County (CA) Sales Tax

Sometimes, people have a hard time figuring out the math behind sales taxes. This is especially true when people have the total transaction cost and the total sales tax. To figure out the sales tax percentage, we must do a bit of math, which is very simple and can be done via a phone calculator. Let’s assume that your total transaction with taxes is $106.25 and you know that the shelf price of the products purchased is $100.

The first thing that you do is subtract the cost of the goods from the total. In that case $106.25-$100=$6.25. Now you know that the sales taxes are $6.25. Then you divide the total sales tax by the shelf price of the cost of the goods bought, hence $100. So, ding the math, we have $6.25/$100 = 0.0625. We take the ratio number, and we multiply by 100%. Hence, we get : 0.00625*100%= 6.25%, which is the rate.

Sales taxes add up and increase your costs. Everybody would like to save on costs. There are legal ways that you can use to avoid paying sales taxes. The first detail to know is a court ruling of 1992. According to the supreme court, you are not liable for sales taxes when you buy out of state. This means that if you do some research and buy from sellers that are established out of state, you will be able to avoid sales taxes.

Another great way to avoid sales taxes is to shop at eBay or other eCommerce stores where items are sold by individual sellers. We need to remember that companies that sell on these platforms are liable to charge sales taxes. The same strategy can be used to find big companies or established merchants that have their eCommerce business separate from their brick-and-mortar shops. Such is the case of Barnes&Nobles and Borders. Also making small research on how the sales tax is handled by the seller is a great way to save money, as the merchant may have special agreements with the government.

Another great way to avoid sales taxes is to purchase from states that do not incur sales taxes. If you cannot eliminate the sales tax, then why not reduce it. Since sales taxes depend on location, then choosing the right place to buy the car, will affect your sales taxes, as each county and zip code have their own applicable sales tax rate. The type of car also affects your applicable sales tax rate. A good way to reduce your sales taxes is to choose the right permanent address.

Some areas have very small sales taxes. Starting, we have Alaska, which has a sales tax of 1.76%. We need to be mindful that products and services are very expensive in Alaska. Moving on with the list, we have Oregon, Delaware, Montana, and New Hampshire that have a 0% sales tax rate. If you need information regarding the ranking of states based on sales taxes, you can check this page.

A sales tax certificate is a document that allows a business to make sales-tax-free purchases of goods and services that it intends to reuse for business and to later sell and collect sales tax on. Some states allow buyers and businesses that engage in frequent transactions to create a blanket certificate. This is a simplified version of the sale certificate, and it is valid for a specified amount of time.

Sellers that do not have a large volume of transactions do not even need a sale certificate. Such is the case of garage sales. Some states offer direct payment certificates, which allow for the purchasers to not pay any sales tax to their sellers, but they pay everything to the government directly. There are numerous intricate scenarios and for this, you need a good CPA or a sales law specialist to better guide you.

The first detail to know about sales taxes is that some states imposer the sale tax on the vendor, some to the buyer, and some states place sales taxes on both entities. It is important to know who pays the tax, as this affects whether you can claim the taxes as a refund or not.