this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Samsung seems to be overcharging sales tax (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by sargunv@lemmy.world to c/askandroid
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So I've just ordered the newly announced Z Fold and Watch, and noticed after ordering that the sales tax on Samsung's invoice is higher than my local sales tax rate. My billing and shipping address are both in Seattle, WA, which has a state+county+city sales tax rate of 10.25%, but Samsung charged 11.275%.

Posting here (1) as a PSA for others to check their invoice, and (2) wondering if there's some obvious thing I missed.

The order is as follows (payment summary screenshot attached to this post):

  • Galaxy Z Fold 512GB: $749.99
    • original $1919.99, -$120 free storage upgrade, -$1000 for iPhone 14 Pro Max trade in, -$50 for reserve credit
  • Samsung Care+: $167.30
    • original $239, -$71.70 "limited time" discount
  • Galaxy Watch 6 Classic 43mm LTE: $225
    • original $449.99, -$224.99 bundle discount

So, subtotal is $1142.29 as expected. Sales tax in my location is 10.25% (verified here), so the sales tax should $117.08, but instead it's $128.79, $11.71 higher than it should be.

Oddly, it's off by exactly 10% (of the expected sales tax amount).

I contacted chat support and all they could do was file a ticket internally and tell me they'll follow up in 2 business days. Screenshots of chat support: https://imgur.com/a/bdAaot7

Screenshot of payment summary

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[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Is it being shipped? Some jurisdictions require sales tax in the origin and destination.

Also sales tax is a nightmare 😭

[–] sargunv@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It is being shipped. I'm not sure where the origin is, but if they're in an origin based state then I'd expect it to be the same 11.275% for everyone. Afaik CA is the only hybrid one where state, county, city are origin based and district is destination based. I don't think any of my 10.25% is a district rate, so even it that case it should effectively be the origin rate if I understand how this works correctly (which I probably don't because sales tax is really a nightmare)

[–] ijeff 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

if they’re in an origin based state then I’d expect it to be the same 11.275% for everyone

Is it based on the originating warehouse location or the corporate HQ? I know Samsung ships things from multiple locations here in Canada (but our sales taxes are based on where the customer is).

[–] sargunv@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

it's complicated πŸ™ƒ (see the bit about remote sellers)

[–] ijeff 1 points 2 years ago

That definitely seems unnecessarily complicated!

[–] ijeff 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

FWIW, I ran this through the GPT-4 Code Interpreter and it couldn't find an obvious answer. Trying out different combinations of taxable discounts also couldn't produce the same result. I do know Samsung has been criticized in the past for charging tax on various pre-discounted values though.

In case you're curious: https://chat.openai.com/share/5536fb1b-c04b-456e-bc65-24d898712774. Ignore the latter parts though and beware it can hallucinate (although Code Interpreter does better than regular GPT-4).

[–] sargunv@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

this is pretty cool! I'm tempted to give it some manufactured scenarios and see if it can correctly identify the cause

[–] ijeff 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Thanks for posting it over here! Is it possible that any discounts are being applied after taxes are calculated? I know this can be the case for certain transactions in general.