All taxes suck. What really sucks is property tax. I could see charging a one time tax when you buy property but to make you pay every year as long as you own it is highway robbery.
I ordered a few things from Musician's Friend in the last year. Today I got a letter from them (not the state of Louisiana) saying I may owe Louisiana use tax on purchases I made in the last year. And it listed the amounts of my purchases. I also order quite a bit from Amazon, very few of which there was any tax charged. I haven't heard from them yet. The Louisiana tax rate combined with the city of Baton Rouge taxes are 10%. If I was physically in another state that doesn't charge sales tax and bought, say a $500 phone at a Best Buy or something the state of Louisiana would never know about it. Duck, you said you live 12 miles from the California state line. Do a lot of people from there drive to Oregon to buy stuff?
K Falls is an isolated community surrounded by mountains,.. there are about 1,500 people living just into California that are for all purposes part of us, they shop here. About 80-100 miles south is Yreka, Mt Shasta and Weed, total pop. maybe 15,000.. I don't think it's worth their trip to avoid sales tax. On autos, motor-homes and RV's,.. "if purchased out of state and brought into California it is regarded as having been purchased for use in this state if the first functional use of the vehicle is in California. In this case, the buyer is generally liable to pay use tax on the purchase price of the vehicle".
