More on Personal Tax

Hello,

I called the Excise Tax office today and asked the questions that PH, SailAway and others had inquired about concerning the Personal Tax.

I asked whether it was imposed on all shipments (business and personal) as SailAway had mentioned prices of items going up because of it.

ANS - NO the tax is Personal - it is charged only to individuals. Businesses already have their own taxes to pay separate from this Personal Tax.

Is it imposed only on items brought in via barge?

Ans -No its imposed on all items brought in for personal use.

How would you collect taxes on items shipped through the postal service? Is there a new form that goes with packages and will the post office collect on your behalf similar to customs fees?

Ans - No the recipiant has an obligation to come in to our office and say they received items by mail that are taxable and pay the tax.

How do you determine the tax? If I were to order an expensive item and had it mailed to me and I ordered from another company 20 items each less then $1000 but invoice totally more then $1000 - what would be taxable?

Ans - You are taxed per invoice not per item. So if an invoice for one item is $999 - there is no tax. If an invoice for 40 items is $1500 you are taxed on the invoice regardless of if the items within the package are all nominally priced.

What about people shipping all their household items that they already owned, things like coffee makers, rugs ect - that are all likely less then $100 but all together could be several thousand in value?

Ans - for people shipping large quanities of items you must have a packing list, with the packing list an estimated value for each item and a total for all packed items - the tax will be imposed on the total of the packing list for the container of items shipped not an each item.

Hope that helps, seems to me the tax is to try and to keep residents buying locally rather then buying from away and bringing it in.

--Islander