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 Your
Order and Sales Tax
You will not pay sales taxes on your purchases if you live outside state
of Texas. Texas residents pay 8.25% sales tax. International taxes such
as VAT may apply depending the country of destination.
Inflated
Prices and High Discount Gimmicks
The price gimmicks to
deceive consumers or at least confuse him/her is commonplace in today's
online business. You may have seen eBay's merchandise where a lot of
items are listed at $0.99 but you will be made to pay $20 just for
shipping while making you think the item listed is really inexpensive.
We wanted to present you a price model that is easy to understand and
easy to compare elsewhere.
How Costs
are Added up Unfairly - An Example
We all know how most
businesses in every industry pass various costs to the consumer. The
mortgage industry is the best example. Have you ever wondered why would
your mortgage company want you to pay the application fee and
loan processing fee and documentation fee and a service
charge and so on - on top of making a heavy profit with high interest
rates? Shouldn't their profit from interest cover these costs and don't
you think these expenses belong to their income statement rather than to
your check book? We do not subscribe to such unscrupulous business
practices and we decided to include all costs in one low price. This way
you know what the real price is. That's what we call Straight Low Price
- which is without surcharges or fees or unexpected expensive shipping
costs and not to forget - without inflating the prices to accommodate
deceptive discounts.
The
Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA)
The ITFA
was signed
into law on October 21, 1998, does not, as some have asserted, preclude
sales & use taxes on any and all commerce conducted over the Internet.
State governments are allowed to impose sales and use taxes on all such
electronic sales. Currently, most e-commerce companies use the same
taxation rules used by mail-order companies, which are based on
constitutional guidelines for interstate commerce. Generally this means
that states can only require companies to collect sales tax in states
where they have business operations, and as a result, a company will not
collect sales tax in states where they have no business operations.
So What
is My Final Price?
The prices you see with our
products are the final prices you will need to pay. Texas
residents pay 8.25% sales tax.
Wth free shipping over $200, you have no add-ons - whatsoever! No
surprises, no confusion, no gimmicks and no hidden charges. Unlike many
internet businesses, we do not consider shipping and handling a money
making option. We consider it as useful service that we execute
efficiently.
Tax and
Shipping Charges on International Orders Depending upon your country
of origin, there may be additional duty or VAT fees due. The purchaser
is responsible for any fees that may be incurred. US Post Office
services are used to ship to APO/FPO addresses.
Supreme
Court and Internet Sales Tax
A Supreme Court decision in
1992 said that mail-order merchants, and, by extension, online
retailers, need not collect taxes on behalf of their customers' local
jurisdictions unless those customers were in a state where the business
operated. However, that may be changing soon.
The United
States Supreme Court has exempted most Internet and mail order firms
from collecting state and local sales taxes, citing its adverse impact
on interstate commerce. (National Bellas Hess v. Illinois and Quill v.
North Dakota) The Court specifically noted that Congress has the ability
to change that situation. To date Congress has not done so. The result
is a public policy with at least three pernicious impacts.
 Does
this Survey Result Surprise you?
Whatever
tax burdens are placed on online businesses, consumers are not likely to
notice, said Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst at Jupiter Research. She
said retailers like Wal-Mart and Macy's already collected sales taxes
for online purchases, since they wanted to offer services like in-store
returns for their dot-com customers, and use their stores to help
promote their Web sites. Just 9 percent of consumers surveyed by Jupiter
said they would buy less or stop buying from an online store if it
charged sales tax.
Big
businesses capitalize on what consumers can tolerate while we want to do
what is right - which is minimize confusion and make it easier for
consumer to compare prices without worrying about various add-ons.
Internet
Commerce Nuisance
Once
thought to be a monster waiting in the shadows, poised to bludgeon
online commerce, Internet sales tax is proving to be more of a nuisance.
Early this year, a half-dozen major multichannel retailers, including
Toys "R" Us, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target, began collecting sales tax
on online purchases. The transition came quietly, without much fanfare
and, so far at least, without much fallout. Meanwhile, the
pure-play giants like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)
still not on the sales tax bandwagon. We as a small retailer are not
either!
Beware of Mall Jewelry and Other Expensive Jewelry Stores
Common sense should suggest
that the only way such stores can make high profits is to cover all high
costs (of the glitter, lighting, display, advertising and aggressive
salespeople paid with high commissions on your sale) in your prices. In
today's commerce with the rise of online shopping, these stores are
facing stiff competition from online stores that offer certified diamond
jewelry of quality at lower prices by keeping their operating costs down
and being able to turn over larger volume. Please take the time to
compare prices, quality and and take advantage of....
Read about High Price Stores and their Price Gimmicks...
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