The District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) is changing its consumer use tax filing process effective November 20, 2019.
States (and Washington, D.C.) that have a sales tax also have an equivalent use tax, which consumers must pay when they didn’t pay sales tax on taxable goods and services purchased for consumption or use in their home state. This typically occurs when:
- Merchandise that’s taxable in the home state was purchased or rented in another state or country and delivered to the home state
- Merchandise that’s taxable in the home state was purchased in a jurisdiction that doesn’t tax it and brought home
- Merchandise that’s taxable in the home state was purchased from a catalog or internet seller who doesn’t have nexus (an obligation to collect sales tax in the home state)
Individuals are required to remit use tax in D.C. when, during a tax year, they purchased more than $400 worth of taxable merchandise, rentals, or services on which they didn’t pay sales tax. If their untaxed purchases total less than $400 annually, they get a lucky break.
Examples of products subject to use tax in D.C. include but aren’t limited to:
