florida state tax

[Stevie]

Hi folks

I'm lucky enough to be holidaying in Florida shortly, but have heard that any purchases I'll make will be subject of Florida State Tax on top of the purchase price .... I understand it's running about 7% - 7.5%.

Do any of you guys know if I'm exempt from this tax given I'm a tourist as opposed to a resident of the US and given we offer tourists tax free shopping when they visit the UK ?

If I am, is it upon production of my passport. visitors visa, etc ?

Thanks folks.

S

[mushroom25]

my boss looked into this a year or two back. apparently goods shipped out of florida are exempt from the sales tax (6%) if shipped by the merchant, the purchaser has to request this at point of sale.

however, if you do that, the shipping charge is recoverable by the merchant, and in a lot of cases this will exceed the sales tax.

[spudqueen]

Sales tax in the States is a bit like VAT here, though here it is already on the price of the goods. Over there each state has it's own rate of sales tax which is why goods are priced without the tax. I wouldn't worry about it though as everything will still be cheap!

[vehelpfulguy]

Sales tax is often added at the till.

It can fool you though. You pick something up in a shop that says 6 dollars 99 cents (for example), and when you come to pay for it they say 7 dollars and 40 cents.

You need to remember that you you look at the price of something.

[cheries]

You will DEFINITELY not be exempted from the sales tax, be aware of the fact that you can often be taken by surprise at the till, if you've budgeted to pay a certain amount.
That is the definitive answer, you will have to pay the tax and it's not generally reflected in the advertised price of goods.

[pink_chick]

If you look on Martin Lewis's website he states that if you show your passport to the cashier before he/she carries out the transaction you should get a discount of at least 15%.
However, more to the subject, the easiest way to aviod getting caught in the tax trap is too remove the labels from goods before you come home!