Amazon UK pricing for US customers

[RBBrittain]

Just had my first Amazon UK order in years ship to the States, Doctor Who Season 2 (2025, Ncuti Gatwa's last season as The Doctor) on BD. Overpriced yes, but I imported the earlier installments of the "Disney Who" era from the UK before those episodes' U.S. BD release terms became known (after 1 year from air date, but still thru the BBC instead of Disney), I wanted this one to complete my Disney Who set (other than The War Between the Land and the Sea, plus last Christmas' ultimately duplicative early BD of Joy to the World -- made that mistake a year earlier with The Church on Ruby Road), I particularly wanted to support Gatwa’s run (both years I had to fight off hordes of "anti-woke", etc. activists disguised as Whovians attacking Gatwa, mostly coded but sometimes open, in even worse ways than they did Jodie Whittaker & probably contributed heavily to his early exit), and I even paid a little extra for expedited shipping (now DHL, arriving Wednesday, even faster than Amazon itself promised ) as the only way to absolutely guarantee it arrives before the impending August 29 end of de minimis importing for all shipments to the U.S. (already gone for China) which will likely kill what's left of Royal Mail / USPS shipping from the glory days of Amazon UK orders from the U.S.

(Sidebar: It appears Amazon UK is probably better prepared for the end of de minimis than most UK sellers; they already run physical media shipments thru their AmazonGlobal program which enables prepayment of tariffs at the proper rate before shipment, instead of the overcharging & CBP "pay up or else" mentality likely on future imports IF they go thru at all. Those kind of issues have been seen already with the end of LVCR to the UK years ago, the end of de minimis from China to the U.S., and even U.S. boutique importers like Orbit having to pay tariffs on physical media even though an exemption in the Act of Congress used by the President to impose them appears to squarely exclude physical media -- CBP imposed onerous requirements to claim that exemption, which Orbit initially didn't meet though I'm not sure what has happened since.)

Anyway, in checking the pricing of my order I noticed that I was charged £45.62 even before going in the cart, instead of the £49.99 listed here. At first I thought that was just newfound transparency, reducing the advertised price by the usual UK VAT (20% of pre-tax price), as per usual U.S. pre-sales tax pricing, instead of including it in the advertised price as is done in the UK. Still, the amount looked a little high to me, so I calculated the difference between £45.63 and £49.99 the usual UK way (as a percentage of £45.63), and it came out to almost exactly 9.5%, the total rate of state & local sales taxes charged where I live. (As outposts of a U.S.-owned company, all overseas Amazon sites are now required to collect sales taxes upfront on all shipments to states with sales taxes due to "economic nexus" & "marketplace facilitator" laws; this also applies to foreign companies with U.S. operations like Zavvi US, AliExpress, and I believe even Temu & Shein.)

Americans who've ordered from Amazon UK & are logged in there, compare the price for a UK BD shown here (the UK price) to what you're shown when you click the link to Amazon UK. If they're different, divide the UK price by the price you're shown, then make it a percentage by dropping the 1 in front of the decimal point & moving that point two digits to the right (i.e., in my case 1.095... becomes 9.5...%). Is that your local sales tax rate? Or if they're the same, are you in a "no sales tax" state like New Hampshire or Oregon, or is there some other reason why sales taxes are never due on imports to your state, such as it neither participates in Streamlined Sales Tax (roughly half the states do including AR), nor enforces its sales tax laws directly on out-of-state vendors as many big states like California do? (Though some states calculate sales taxes for some or even most shipments based on place of origin instead of the more common place of destination, according to one trusted source ALL sales tax states MUST tax imports based on destination if at all, presumably to avoid the U.S. Constitution's ban on state-imposed tariffs.) And might it be 10% (IIRC the tariff rate from the UK), *plus* your local sales rate if any, if it ships after the 29th, still usually within the 20% UK VAT allowance but it allows them to collect the tariff as an upfront deposit (with a fine print promise to "eat" any excess, but if the actual tariff is less they refund the difference) and avoid having to charge sales tax on the tariff itself (since the importer -- YOU -- nominally remains legally responsible for all tariffs)?