As many of you know, there are a lot of places in the United States where there isn't a sales tax on certain goods, e.g. here in PA, most unprepared food and clothing is tax free. While on vacation in Delaware a few months ago, everything was sales tax free, including nonessential goods such as souvenirs, jewelry, McDonald's, et al. I thought it was all good and honest, and TBH, I saved a good $30-40 bucks compared to PA.

Well, I found out that there is a catch to the mayhem. Here in PA, there is what is called a "use tax", which essentially means all the stuff I bought online - and in Delaware - is due 7% tax (6% state + 1% Allegheny County), which frankly, I lost track of At any rate, a lot of people seemingly don't know about this remittance to the state (makes a lot of accountants money to point this out, albeit probably unsuccessfully - if you remember my eBay budget from last year, plus part-time work, you'll see that I'm missing a heck of a lot of tax revenue...even though I seriously don't spend that much.)

So, anyways, although some states don't collect this, PA does, and I guess it could be said that all that "tax free shopping" in Rehoboth Beach comes at a cost. I'll see if I can dig through underneath my seat from all the useless crap I bought on vacation the receipts....plus there may be some interesting caveats to investing in gold on eBay....somehow I think I'm going to be cutting the state a fairly big check in April :P )

My question is this: How many of you folks actually knew about this before I brought it up? I talked to my mom and a few people in my social circles, and they wonder how many people actually pay the "use tax"....according to an accounting/tax agency, some $500 million is lost in sales tax revenue....)