Is Keurig committing fraud?

by Thomas Baird
(Plano, TX)

We just received a new coffee brewer as a gift. I went online and ordered several packs of sample coffees. When checking out and past the point when I could cancel the order, Keurig added sales tax. On line orders are not subject to sales tax unless the company you are ordering from have a facility in the purchasers state. Keurig has not facility in Texas but charges sales tax anyway. This is nothing but fraud. I will never do business with this company again and will probably trash the machine or put it in a garage sale.

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Editor’s Note: Thomas, I think you are jumping the gun a little on this. On their site, Green Mountain Coffee says the following.

“We are obligated to collect sales tax for those states where we have a "physical presence". If you're charged sales tax, then we're closer than you might think! We add applicable sales tax for goods and gifts shipped to: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, IL, MA, ME, MD, MI, NC, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA.”

As you can see, Texas is included.

This is how the law in the U.S. works for online retailers. It’s not just the location of their head office that triggers tax for buyers in that state. If they have offices, warehouses or distribution centers in other states, they have to apply taxes to buyers in those states as well. This also applies to companies owned by a parent company, and GMCR owns several coffee companies.