Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Oceanside, CA
Posts: 5073

My wife and I were doing our taxes last night, and we found something interesting on the California state tax. I had never heard of it before.

There's something called "Use Tax". According to the instructions, it's been around since the 30s, but it looks like this is the first year it has been possible to pay it on the income tax form. Previously, you were supposed to actually go the the Board of Equalization and pay it.

"So what is this?", said I.

Apparently, we are supposed to keep track of everything we bought out-of-state (via Internet, mail-order, phone, or even in person) which is used in California, figure out the sales tax we would have paid on it if we *had* bought it in California, and add that to our taxes. You are allowed to deduct any sales taxes paid to other states (so if I drive to las Vegas, buy a Coke, and drink it back in California, I'm allowed to discount the $0.07 I paid in Nevada sales tax).

For some reason, I find this hilarious. If they are serious about this, they might want to make this somewhat more public knowledge.

As it is, because we have such a budget crisis, and because I felt bad about laughing about it, we figured out what all we'd bought on Amazon.com, calculated the CA sales tax, and deducted it from our refund. I suspect we will be the ONLY people in California to do so.

So from now on, anytime anybody complains about our budget crisis, I'll look at them sternly (yet smugly) and say "Well, did YOU pay your Use Tax?"

Do all y'all poor souls not in CA have anything like this?

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Last edited by Talarohk on 02-04-2004 at 08:31 PM

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Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 8658

Sucker.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 5526

Great. Oh freaking great.

Now I'm afraid to look at the forms. Did they change anything else, or was that it?

Last year I got all this extra money back because the feds had mysteriously decided that I did something wrong. Either that, or everybody got extra money back, and I hadn't been paying attention.

Question: was there some general megafederal refund last year, or do I need to pay more attention this year because I there were loopholes I was ignoring or what?

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Oceanside, CA
Posts: 5073

I did the 540A, and most of the rest seemed the same. The federal forms (1040A) look pretty much the same, except that it seems to me that the Married Filing Jointly standard deduction and child tax credits are substantially larger.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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Posts: 5526

Unfortunately, I have to do the long forms, but that's reassuring they aren't that different.

(I'm not really afraid, I'm just trying to get in the mood a little earlier this year.)

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 862

I completed mine online last night and when I completed the state form, it told me that due to the combined salary of my wife and I, we don't qualify (or something similar) for the "use tax" and it omitted anything that I had put into it...

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