Chad's News

You may be in trouble if your credit card bill has an unexpected 25¢ charge from “Adele Services”.

Link: http://www.boston.com/…
(via Kim Komando)

When buying over the internet, if the seller asks you to pay via wire transfer, then it’s most likely a scam. This is because wire transfers cannot be canceled or disputed. The best practice is to use a credit card for internet purchases.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

US citizens are entitled to a free yearly credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies. The official site for this is www.AnnualCreditReport.com. Do not confuse this with www.FreeCreditReport.com, which tries its best to separate you from your money.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

Politicians have been fuming for years over the significant amount of sales tax lost to internet sales. Case law states that an internet business must have a physical presence in the state in order to be forced to collect sales tax for that state. In the case where the sales tax is not collected by the business, a use tax usually applies. But individual consumers rarely pay use taxes for internet purchases.

The state of New York believes it has found a loophole. Some online retailers, such as Amazon, have affiliate programs. If Chad’s News was an Amazon affiliate, for example, I would have special links on my site to Amazon products, and I’d receive a percentage of any sales made via someone clicking on those links. New York legislators contends that my (theoretical) status as an affiliate constitutes a physical presence, and (if I lived in New York) allows them to require Amazon to collect sales tax. It’s convoluted. Expect court challenges.

Link #1: http://www.internetnews.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Link #2: http://www.news.com/…

A class action lawsuit has been brought against members of the DeBeers Group for inflating the price of diamonds. You can get part of the settlement if you belong to this group: “All persons located in the United States who purchased any diamond or diamond jewelry or other products containing gem diamonds for personal use and not for resale between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006.”

Link: https://diamondsclassaction.com/
(via The Consumerist)

If you purchased a Seagate hard drive in the United States between March 22, 2001 and September 26, 2007, then you are part of a class-action settlement and can get useful stuff or money. Note that you have to have purchased the hard drive by itself—it doesn’t count if it came with a pre-built system.

Link: http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/…
(via engadget)

Turns out that you can get better deals on certain items by purchasing them on specific days of the week. The linked article has the details.

Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/…
(via digg)

A furniture store in Plano, Illinois held a promotion over the Labor Day weekend: If the Chicago Bears shut out the Green Bay Packers on their opening day football game, then any furniture purchased during the holiday weekend would be free. The final score was 26-0, and there were a lot of happy people after the game.

Link: http://msnbc.msn.com/…

For us netizens who reside in the United States, “use taxes” are starting to become an important topic. Essentially, a use tax is a sales tax on purchases for which you didn’t have to pay sales tax. I know that sounds confusing, so let me give an example:

I live in Denver, Colorado but travel to Oregon (which has no state sales tax) and purchase a car. When I return home, I am required to pay a use tax of 7.6%:

• Colorado state: 2.9%
• Denver city: 3.5%
• Regional Transportation District: 1.0%
• Scientific and Cultural Facilities District: 0.1%
• Metropolitan Football Stadium District: 0.1%

This happens to be exactly the same amount I’d pay in sales tax had I bought the car in Denver. If the car were to be delivered to my location in Denver, then the seller should collect the use tax. Otherwise, it is my responsibility to pay the taxes to the appropriate authorities.

So why is this important? It’s all about the internet. When I purchase a “tax-free” product online and don’t pay the appropriate use tax, I’m breaking the law. As internet sales have become more popular, the states have begun to realize they’re losing use-tax revenues—so they’re cracking down. Some states, Colorado not among them, have put a line on the state tax form for honest citizens to declare any use taxes they owe. As the linked article states:

“If you’ve written zero or left [the use tax entry] blank, during the audit we’re going to make you produce your financial records, bank statements, credit card statements,‘ said Michael Bucci, a spokesman for the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

Over the past few years I’ve heard various mutterings about the collection of use taxes for internet purchases, and I expect it to become more of an issue as time progresses.

http://news.com.com/…