Press release from the Indiana Department of Revenue:
Hoosier Online Shoppers Should Check Receipts for Sales Tax
(INDIANAPOLIS, November 30, 2010) – Hoosiers who took advantage of online deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and throughout 2010 will want to check their receipts to see if Indiana sales tax was collected as part of those purchases. If not, those Hoosiers will need to total the amount of those purchases and report the sales tax due on their 2010 Indiana income taxes in the spring.
Indiana has had a law on the books since 1969 requiring Hoosiers to pay use tax, which essentially is state tax for any purchases where Indiana sales tax was not collected.
Last year, more than 24,000 taxpayers in Indiana reported use tax, amounting to more than $1.4 million. However each year, more than 3.1 million people file individual income-tax returns in Indiana.
“With so many people shopping online these days, we realize there are far more who probably owe the use tax from online purchases,” Revenue Commissioner John Eckart said. “At this point, we’re trying to educate Hoosiers about the law so they’ll know about it and follow it as the state requires.”
Many online businesses starting to collect sales tax
To avoid the uncertainty that pending Congressional legislation could create for out-of-state online businesses, more than 1,800 of them have voluntarily begun collecting sales tax on behalf of states through a program called Streamlined Sales Tax.
Businesses already having a physical presence in Indiana are required to collect sales tax from their online sales.