That's weird I have seen a more recent case here in this section and he only had taxes when he sold his imported miners to others but not for the use of it. The sales tax involved in the state was not necessary when he was just using it and it only came when he resold it. Are you missing something with your story or are you talking about a different tax involve? Because taxes on imported goods should be only paid by the seller and not by the user. I know this is an old thread but I hope the OP updates us about his current situation.
I ended up going used, still had to pay sales tax but at least not the 30% import tax. Pretty sure with Trump tax that they'd be sure to collect on China imports. (no chance of getting lucky and not getting a bill for it)
And by the way, you're not correct - taxes on imported goods are ALWAYS paid by the recipient/buyer. It's only if it's a return item or something like that you can get around it, like someone is returning something you sold and shipped out of country (or if you're licensed as a repair shop and someone is sending you something to get fixed, and you're sending it back).
Same goes for sales tax - you owe it even if it's not collected, unfortunately. It's the opposite - you owe it if it's for personal use; if you're a wholesaler, then you can get around it if you show the chain of custody to another wholesaler. (Varies state by state probably on the exact implementation... since it is "state" sales tax after all...
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