We're supposed to pay sales tax on everything, but varies from state to state. I'm only vaguely familiar with Louisiana though, but most major websites now collect sales tax on all physical and digital goods in Louisiana. BBTS doesn't... yet.william-james88 wrote:How dos the US tax law work on books? In Canada, they are a major exception to everything. Only federal tax can be charged for books, not provincial/state.
We also have different/no tax on food. In some places I go I'll see several different taxes on a receipt. The easy version is there is a reduced food tax and then the full tax on non food. Some cities charge a tax as well. Some states charge no food tax.
I just found out recently (because they are trying to change the law) that in Louisiana the parishes (counties for the other 49 states) collect the tax. This is why our state has a hard time with tax and internet sales. I'm not sure of the details, but they want to change that so it's easier to get the state taxes from online sales. The parishes are fighting this because they use that money for their budget before giving the state the collected tax.
EDIT: Oh if I remember correctly (in Louisiana) we are supposed to report tax we didn't pay on our tax return. But I didn't buy anything online that wasn't taxed

Your a money guy, take a look at this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_tax ... ted_States
TL;DR - its a mess in the states.