Sales Tax on Subscription Renewal

Quincy

For my recent annual subscription renewal, I was charged 10.25% sales tax. When I chatted with customer service (a singularly unsatisfactory experience, basically they just stone-walled me), I was told that the sales tax rate is "based on each state". Well, in Menlo Park, California, where Quicken is headquartered, the sales tax rate is 9.375%. In the state of my account address, the sales tax rate is 8%/ Either way, I was overcharged. I wonder if other users have similar experiences. (Apparently, I am not the first customer to make note of this. See:

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7906323/sales-tax-charged-me-on-q-renewal-is-incorrect

). Maybe we should consider a class-action suit?

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20402053#Comment_20402053

Thanks for confirming the sales tax rate for your locality. Sorry that overcharge has happened to you. I think if this was a common occurrence this Community would be filled with posts by angry or frustrated users complaining about it. But I just don't recall ever seeing any.

I can only suggest that you try to contact Quicken Support, again. Most of the Quicken Support folks are pretty decent and helpful people but every once in a while we come across one that provides bad advice instead of forwarding you to someone else who might be able to help. Maybe the next time will provide you with better results.

Boatnmaniac

Which city and state do you live in? Sales tax charged by Internet businesses are based upon not only the state sales tax rate but also upon any other sales tax rates that are applicable to the locality you live in. For instance the total sales tax rate for Chicago is 10.25%….6.25% (IL State sales tax rate) + 1.75% (Cook County sales tax rate) + 1.25% (Chicago city sales tax rate) + 1% (Regional Transit Authority tax rate).

Chris_QPW

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20401329#Comment_20401329

No matter how you cut it, 10.25% is wrong.

EDIT: Note there isn't any state that charges 8%, @Quincy has to be talking about all the tax in his/her area including state and local taxes. The highest state tax is 7.25% which is in California.

jacobs

I'll say that the original poster in the thread you linked was to blame there, not Quicken. If your address in their database is X, they're going to charge sales tax based on X — just like every other company you can order from online. They moved four years ago but hadn't updated their address on file, yet somehow expected Quicken to charge sales tax based on their current location.

Now, your case appears to be something different, assuming you don't have any address other than your current one on file with Quicken. I don't know what state you live in, but I know California has some goofy rules for sales taxes. For in-state purchases, I believe it uses a rate based on state, county and city taxes at the point of origin plus district taxes based on the destination. Because sales taxes across the country are so complex due to county/city/town variations, some of which change at different times, almost most companies use some third-party service to calculate taxes; it's always possible that whatever service Quicken's e-commerce provider uses could be wrong in your case. I'd guess that Quicken Customer Support representatives don't have access to any tool to see how the sales tax rate on a particular transaction is being calculated.

Quincy

Thank you all for your comments. I am aware that sales tax is not just per state (despite the comments of Quicken Customer Service). In my locality (as listed in my Quicken account), the total sales tax is 8%. So, I was definitely overcharged. But, if I understand correctly, none of you have been similarly overcharged. So, a class action suit might be off the table. Any suggestions for how I can get Quicken to look into this?

Boatnmaniac

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20402053#Comment_20402053

Thanks for confirming the sales tax rate for your locality. Sorry that overcharge has happened to you. I think if this was a common occurrence this Community would be filled with posts by angry or frustrated users complaining about it. But I just don't recall ever seeing any.

I can only suggest that you try to contact Quicken Support, again. Most of the Quicken Support folks are pretty decent and helpful people but every once in a while we come across one that provides bad advice instead of forwarding you to someone else who might be able to help. Maybe the next time will provide you with better results.

Chris_QPW

I have never been overcharged by Quicken Inc/Intuit because I have never bought Quicken directly from them. I have always bought it at a retailer. If I had to guess the 10.25% is the highest in the nation and their sales system to stupid to figure out the local tax so they went with the max.

As for class action suites. Easy to say, hard to do.

jacobs

If I had to guess the 10.25% is the highest in the nation and their sales system to stupid to figure out the local tax so they went with the max.

It's not the highest in the nation. From my Google search, there are some areas in California which hit 10.75% when combining various state and local sales taxes. But Quicken's sales system undoubtedly uses some third party service to calculate sales taxes, like almost every e-commerce system. A small company like Quicken can't keep up with changing sales taxes in the more than 13,000 sales tax jurisdictions in the US!

As for a class action suit, it's an empty threat. Even if they overcharged every customer who buys direct from Quicken by $1, you're talking about less than $2 million per year. The costs for a lawyer investing in a class action suit is considerable; perhaps a lawyer could make a bit, but the settlement to individuals would be what? A dollar or two off your next Quicken renewal? It's just not realistic. 😉

Jon

There are areas in St Louis County in Missouri where the total sales tax is almost 11.75%. I agree with @jacobs that they're using a third party to calculate sales tax, probably the same firm that processes the credit card payments.

Chris_QPW

Yeah, if I had thought about it more than a microsecond I would have come to the same conclusion. 🤣

Quincy

Just to follow-up and close this thread.

Thanks to all for your comments and sharing the wisdom of your experience. Thanks to @Boatnmaniac for your suggestion to try again with Customer Service. Indeed, a second experience with Customer Service yielded satisfactory results: a possible answer as to the source of the issue as well as a refund of the erroneous amount. It seems that Quicken had an old address on file (where the sales tax rate is indeed 10.25%), although the old address was not visible online in the My Account > Personal Info screen, which in fact contains my current address (where the sales tax rate is 8%). I am guessing (as did the Customer Service rep), that the old address had not been deleted because the new address was only partial (only zip code and country; no street address, city or state). I'm not sure how that may have happened, but it is what it is). And the rep assured me that entering the full address (which I did) would wipe the old address from the system. We'll see next year!

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who participated in this thread. I am grateful for your responses.