TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin 7.5 sales tax proposed on web purchases

Showing my ignorance here, but how do they enforce that? Only if it's shipped direct to SXM??

Not sure how or if it is enforceable (or applicable) for goods ordered from SXM, but not shipped to SXM. Amazon certainly charges the appropriate federal and provincial sales tax here in Canada, based on the province of residence, for any goods purchased online. It's also our experience with any other online vendor.

It makes no difference as to whether the goods are sourced here in Canada, or shipped in from somewhere else, such as the USA. I've never tried ordering online for shipment to some other country, so not sure how that would work. Certainly anything we have ordered online from retailers for use here at home, the tax is always applied. I believe that is the case in many other countries, too.

Travlr--I don't think they can tell where it's ordered FROM, only where it's delivered TO?? I think.. And it's my understanding that a lot of folks who live on SXM don't have things shipped there directly from the supplier.. But I could be wrong..

If shipped via Miami, by Tropical Shipping for example, it will be taxed at the SXM port.

OK

Hi Carol,

Well, they can certainly tell when I'm on Amazon.com, since they will redirect me to Amazon.ca (the Canadian site). I've had similar experiences with many other retailers that have both American and Canadian websites, so at least some of them can obviously tell where I'm located!

In any case, it's a legal requirement in Canada that tax must be collected by the retailer if they want to sell here. I also believe that most European countries have similar laws. Most nations' tax departments are pretty experienced in enforcing tax regulations!!

Certainly for imported goods, it is easy to assess the tax at the port of entry, if it has not already been prepaid. So it really appears not to be any different than what is being proposed by the St. Maarten government. Most of their goods have to be imported, so it would be relatively easy to set-up a control program.

An anecdote - sometimes controls are easy to evade too. I have a friend who sailed into an island which shall be unnamed, with his boat stuffed with household goods for his condo. The Customs Man met him at the dock well after dark, took HIS household goods, and disappeared for the night. My friend cleared in the next day, with an all-but-empty boat.

Canuck--you said "Most nations' tax departments are pretty experienced in enforcing tax regulations!!" But SXM is not MOST nations! It appears they are not very good about collecting taxes..

In any event, it doesn't really affect me, one way or another, but it appears that the only ones who will have to pay it is the 'little guys' and those with a bit of money will find it very easy to evade..

Carol: That's why I deliberately said "most" nations!! My reply was primarily in response to your comment about "I don't know if they can tell where it is ordered FROM...". Most Americans have little to no experience with this, so thought it might be informative to have an "outsider's" experience. Obviously, if officials are corrupt or look the other way, or people are prepared to break the law (e.g. smuggling), tax controls will not work. That's no different than anywhere else in the world. But that is more of a political, than a program discussion, so I wasn't going to go there.

We order goods from US sent to St Maarten on occasion. Their statement about encouraging purchases on the island is bogus. We only order things we can't get here and most friends do the same. Think they will tax my meds that come mail order?

Yes, island residents order things they cannot get on SXM. Some things are sent to Mailbox type place, shipped to SXM by them and picked up at local office.
Plenty of things we couldn't get on island that we ordered online. Some stuff was better quality online also.
Cheers
How does this work on a tax free island? I got stuff from IKEA etc. And brought stuff down in my suitcase. Took a flat screen on plane when they had non on island.