How does White Flower Farm charge sales tax?
As you may or may not have noticed, White Flower Farm used to only collect sales tax only on items shipping to Connecticut addresses. This was consistent with long-standing precedent that online retailers are responsible for collecting sales tax on transactions to states where the seller has a physical presence, such as a store or warehouse. White Flower Farm has a physical presence only in Connecticut; therefore, we collected sales tax only on Connecticut-bound merchandise.
Last summer this precedent was changed by the Supreme Court’s ruling in S. Dakota v. Wayfair. The court decided that the “physical presence rule” was outdated, and that states may charge tax on purchases made with out-of-state sellers, regardless of whether the seller has a physical presence in the state.
Since this ruling, many states have implemented new sales tax policies for out-of-state sellers, and White Flower Farm has begun collecting sales tax on sales to many states beyond Connecticut. Our aim is to comply with all applicable laws and also do our best to minimize confusion for our customers.
With that latter objective in mind, here are a few further details:
Different states have different sales tax rates; they also have different rules regarding whether shipping & handling charges are taxable, and what kinds of products are taxable at all. For example, in Connecticut a tomato plant is not considered a food item, and therefore is taxable – different states may handle that sort of item differently.
Taxes are applied by the state the merchandise is shipping to, not the state that the buyer is in (if the two are different). Our website displays sales tax as a single dollar figure in your order summary. If your order includes shipping addresses in multiple states, any applicable sales taxes will be combined at checkout. The same calculations are applied to orders placed over the phone.
We welcome any questions you may have – please contact us at [email protected] or 1-800-503-9624.
We are required to collect sales tax on shipments going to the states listed below:
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District Of Columbia
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
West Virginia