Can you buy online during Tax Free Weekend and be exempt?

Question

Tax free weekend in NC is the first weekend of Aug, and I was just curious if you could buy something online (laptop and have it shipped to my home, in NC) and be exempt from tax? Thanks!

Answer 1

Technically, yes.  The official language from the NC technical tax bulletin is pasted below.  However, most online merchants will not be aware of the tax free weekend and I seriously doubt any of them will bother to reprogram their systems to automatically comply with the tax free weekends.  If you decide to order a laptop online, I would call and talk to a real person when placing the order.  You will most likely need a supervisor to override the sales tax.

You have to be careful to make sure the purchase is actually made during the weekend and many online sites do not have live customer service folks available on the weekends.

Here's the detail on the policy for NC:

Sales by Remote Sellers

Sales of eligible items by mail order, telephone, Internet, or other remote means qualify

for the exemption. For the purpose of the sales tax holiday, an item is eligible for the

exemption if the following occurs during the holiday period:

a. The customer orders the item and pays for the item. A customer pays for an

item when the seller receives a credit card number, a debit authorization, a

check, or a money order.

b. The retailer accepts the order and takes an action to fill the order for immediate

delivery. The actual delivery can occur after the holiday period. Actions to fill an

order include placement of an “in date” stamp on a mail order or assignment of

an “order number” to a telephone order. An order is for immediate delivery when

the customer does not request delayed shipment. An order is for immediate

delivery notwithstanding that the shipment may be delayed because of a backlog

of orders or because stock is currently unavailable to, or on back order by, the

seller.

Most retailers are only able to change their tax application systems for an entire day and

not for periods during the day. The time zone of the seller’s location determines the

authorized time period for the holiday when the purchaser and seller are located in

different time zones.

Answer 2

Not all states have a "tax free weekend"  and the states that do may not hold it on the same weekend that NC does.