geneven, I don't know where you are located, but BUY.COM (California) is now collecting sales tax on sales to me ( in New York ) which is outrageous. They have NO authority to do this, and NY State has no long arm to legally punish BUY.COM if they refuse, but BUY.COM just rolls over and voluntarily collects NYS Sales Tax now. It matters not if your purchase is exempt from the tax because BUY.COM has no clue what NY State Tax law reads like. The clueless *****s at BUY.COM in California are making a big mistake, and when the AMAZON lawsuit proves NY State is in the wrong (Constitutionally) BUY.COM will have screwed it's NY customers and will not return that money collected in error. You watch and see.

Time Warner did something similar to this a few years ago. They were collecting sales tax on Internet service when they were not supposed to, I told them about it for almost two years, then they finally stopped collecting it, and lied about it telling all their customers that NY had made a ruling saying that Time Warner no longer had to collect the tax. It was a pile of BS. NY State never told TW to collect that tax, TW did it because they were confused. TW never returned that tax money they erroneously took from people for two years either. Customers who wanted that tax money returned to them were told by Time Warner to get the tax back from the State. Lovely, huh?

Back to BUY.COM's behavior-
At least Amazon.Com, is suing NY.....what BUY.COM is doing about this is shameful, and "actionable in civil court", and driven by ignorance. BUY.COM is taking the simple way out of this at the expense of unwary NY customers. BUY.COM didn't even alert NY customers to their tax collecting actions, they just started collecting it one day.

I had spent significant monies with BUY.COM ( I purchased two Nokia N800's from them last year, and MUCH MUCH MORE ) and sent many of my family and friends to BUY.COM in the past but I have stopped doing ANY business with BUY.COM now and I have gone beyond not recommending them anymore...I now tell people to stay away from BUY.COM entirely.

I said BUY.COM is ignorant. I say that because (they are) NYS Sales and Use Tax is very complex. There is much commerce in NY where the vendors within NY don't even understand the NY Tax law. NYS Sales Tax laws are so convoluted even public accountants run the other way when the subject is raised. We have a situation here within NYS borders where both the seller and the buyer of goods and services are clueless. Neither of them knows what is taxable and what is not frequently. The way many vendors in NY handle this is, when in doubt, they collect the tax. This happens often when there is no tax due. It is a mess. Now BUY.COM is "voluntarily" entering the picture? They are insane.

I used to purchase computer equipment from BUY.COM for various activities I engage in in NY State. These activities are TAX EXEMPT activites...try telling that to BUY.COM they have no clue what that means. Nor do they appear to care. What we have here is just ANOTHER entity doing a VERY POOR job of trying to comply with laws which are not even binding on them. It is a sick situation I tell you.

If BUY.COM wanted to do the right thing, it should have not taken the easy road here, they should have teamed with AMAZON, or at least told NYS to go to Hell. What NY State is doing (trying to do) violates Federal Interstate Commerce law. It simply is not permitted ! Even if it were (which it is not), when I buy a new computer, and that computer is used as a tool to develop computer software (or most other engineering endeavors), that computer is exempt from NYS sales tax because it is an exempt use! Same goes for the blank CD media I had been buying from CALIFORNIA, and the USB Jump drives and every other peripheral, so long as it was used for software development activities.

Besides, NY State can do nothing to BUY.COM, BUY.COM has no point of presence in NYS (They admitted this to me) and therefore no legal venue to bring action against BUY.COM or any other entity that has no presence in the State.

Lame BUY.COM... I hope they die for the lazy way they handled this matter, and refused to give me back the tax they illegally collected from me.

Boycott BUY.COM and patronize Amazon (at least Amazon is fighting back). It matters not what State you are located in because if this is not stopped now.... YOUR state will be next !