@hummingbird _coins. Sorry, but large corporations who are worried about offending and or losing the business of small busines owners are very rare. I have yet to run into one.
At the time they were holding up an order of mine. I was lucky just to get my manufacture rep. to get the fees halved. james
What the original invoices read would be important. Are safe harbor provisions for a buyer, with the taxing agency if invoices do not contain certain language. That would involve filing paperwork with the State if that might be the case.
Is also important to know if tax was paid by Heritage, or whether matter is unresolved and require paperwork on your part to NY State.
If Heritage pays (paid), looks to you to reimburse under the T&C, that would be a separate and distinct issue from any obligation to the State.
Not defending what happened, or stating the T&Cs are enforceable in your circumstances. I sure would not appreciate. Meant just to pass along a little info to avoid surprise if they mention during any follow up.
Do agree they should have sent you a revised invoiced---not a good look to change retro. Must be a reason, thought maybe because of the buyer premium advisory, but seems something else per your posting. Do hope you resolve to your satisfaction.
Do agree they should have sent you a revised invoiced---not a good look to change retro. Must be a reason, thought maybe because of the buyer premium advisory, but seems something else per your posting. Do hope you resolve to your satisfaction.
Typically a supplier would issue a residual invoice for the amount still owed. If that is not done, sometimes they will issue a credit for the full amount of the original invoice and then re-bill with the revised total.
The reason that they didn’t might simply be that their billing system makes dealing with this particular tax scenario difficult. Or there may have been other backend considerations that made it difficult for them operationally.
That said, a residual invoice should be issued instead of a revised one with a formal explanation as to why it’s being done….and possibly an apology.
Taxes are complicated. I am surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. And my guess is that these corrections don’t happen as often as they should.
I followed up since they weren't getting back to me (no surprise there). No apology for the mistake, just the inconvenience. No reconciliation of my invoices or other details as I requested, just a hope and a prayer it is right. Really horrible service from a senior vice president and I am incredibly disappointed by this.
I guess beware of bidding with Heritage, they might realize they sent you the wrong invoice and come after you years later without even a whisper of customer management, just an empty form response IF you follow up.
I understand your concern about receiving this adjustment well after the original auction date. The delay was due to a system glitch that caused certain coin types sold in 2024-2025 to be erroneously marked tax-free in the state of New York. Once we identified the error, we corrected the system and issued revised invoices to ensure compliance with state requirements. I assure you that you all your invoices are now correct and all invoices going forward will be correct as well.
I realize this timing is frustrating, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Please be assured this was not an oversight on your individual account, but part of a broader correction to bring affected invoices into compliance.
If you have a valid resale certificate, we can apply it to exempt the sales tax. Otherwise, the balance shown is accurate and due by October 23, 2025.
I appreciate your understanding and prompt attention. Please let me know if you have any questions.
I put this into AI to see what it thought, and this is the answer it gave:
"If a business incorrectly charges a customer too little sales tax, the business is usually responsible for paying the difference out of its own funds when remitting taxes to the state; the business typically cannot come back to the customer after the transaction and demand additional sales tax. When sales tax has been undercharged, it is considered a business accounting issue, and the obligation to pay the proper amount remains with the retailer."
@HalfDime said:
I put this into AI to see what it thought, and this is the answer it gave:
"If a business incorrectly charges a customer too little sales tax, the business is usually responsible for paying the difference out of its own funds when remitting taxes to the state; the business typically cannot come back to the customer after the transaction and demand additional sales tax. When sales tax has been undercharged, it is considered a business accounting issue, and the obligation to pay the proper amount remains with the retailer."
30 years of sales tax consulting experience checking in to confirm this AI drivel would be horrible advice to follow.
There are very few states where a purchaser could legally avoid sales/use tax because of seller error. The whole point of having use tax in the first place is for a situation where a seller undercharges tax.
Legally, OP should have known how much tax was due and self assessed use tax on the difference. Check your state income tax forms and you'll most likely find a line for use tax.
As long as a tax invoice from a seller is correct and within the statute of limitations, your options are generally limited to making loud noises.
Standard Internet Disclaimers:
1. The above is general info and not specific to any one state since I'm not spending time to research this. However, don't be surprised if the above applies in this case and in almost all states.
2. I am obviously not defending HA and how they handled this. I've worked before with people who both send and receive tax invoices and this is not how it should be done (I was just at the HA HQ last week. Maybe I should have offered my services).
@MikeD said:
I followed up since they weren't getting back to me (no surprise there). No apology for the mistake, just the inconvenience. No reconciliation of my invoices or other details as I requested, just a hope and a prayer it is right. Really horrible service from a senior vice president and I am incredibly disappointed by this.
I guess beware of bidding with Heritage, they might realize they sent you the wrong invoice and come after you years later without even a whisper of customer management, just an empty form response IF you follow up.
I understand your concern about receiving this adjustment well after the original auction date. The delay was due to a system glitch that caused certain coin types sold in 2024-2025 to be erroneously marked tax-free in the state of New York. Once we identified the error, we corrected the system and issued revised invoices to ensure compliance with state requirements. I assure you that you all your invoices are now correct and all invoices going forward will be correct as well.
I realize this timing is frustrating, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Please be assured this was not an oversight on your individual account, but part of a broader correction to bring affected invoices into compliance.
If you have a valid resale certificate, we can apply it to exempt the sales tax. Otherwise, the balance shown is accurate and due by October 23, 2025.
I appreciate your understanding and prompt attention. Please let me know if you have any questions.
That really sucks. With the commissions you pay you would expect some spectacular service if needed. I’m sure with most buyers the last thing they would have on their mind would be checking accuracy of sales tax!!
Maybe the last update on this from me at least, I received a call from a partner at Heritage and have accepted their apologies on the matter. A couple of days late in my opinion, but I am accepting of it as resolved and amicable.
@MikeD said:
Maybe the last update on this from me at least, I received a call from a partner at Heritage and have accepted their apologies on the matter. A couple of days late in my opinion, but I am accepting of it as resolved and amicable.
Did they agree to pay it themselves or are you still on the hook for paying?
@MikeD said:
Maybe the last update on this from me at least, I received a call from a partner at Heritage and have accepted their apologies on the matter. A couple of days late in my opinion, but I am accepting of it as resolved and amicable.
Did they agree to pay it themselves or are you still on the hook for paying?
I am still paying. By all accounts it does seem like I paid little or no tax originally and it was never really the amount due that bothered me assuming it is correct, just the way it was presented and the implications of it all. I haven’t confirmed the amounts yet and that will probably be an exercise for this weekend, but I owe something.
@MikeD said:
Maybe the last update on this from me at least, I received a call from a partner at Heritage and have accepted their apologies on the matter. A couple of days late in my opinion, but I am accepting of it as resolved and amicable.
Did they agree to pay it themselves or are you still on the hook for paying?
I am still paying. By all accounts it does seem like I paid little or no tax originally and it was never really the amount due that bothered me assuming it is correct, just the way it was presented and the implications of it all. I haven’t confirmed the amounts yet and that will probably be an exercise for this weekend, but I owe something.
That still stinks but at least someone reached out. It would be nice for Heritage to take some responsibility too; the “tuition” would be a good lesson for them.
Comments
@hummingbird _coins. Sorry, but large corporations who are worried about offending and or losing the business of small busines owners are very rare. I have yet to run into one.
At the time they were holding up an order of mine. I was lucky just to get my manufacture rep. to get the fees halved. james
What the original invoices read would be important. Are safe harbor provisions for a buyer, with the taxing agency if invoices do not contain certain language. That would involve filing paperwork with the State if that might be the case.
Is also important to know if tax was paid by Heritage, or whether matter is unresolved and require paperwork on your part to NY State.
If Heritage pays (paid), looks to you to reimburse under the T&C, that would be a separate and distinct issue from any obligation to the State.
Not defending what happened, or stating the T&Cs are enforceable in your circumstances. I sure would not appreciate. Meant just to pass along a little info to avoid surprise if they mention during any follow up.
Do agree they should have sent you a revised invoiced---not a good look to change retro. Must be a reason, thought maybe because of the buyer premium advisory, but seems something else per your posting. Do hope you resolve to your satisfaction.
Typically a supplier would issue a residual invoice for the amount still owed. If that is not done, sometimes they will issue a credit for the full amount of the original invoice and then re-bill with the revised total.
The reason that they didn’t might simply be that their billing system makes dealing with this particular tax scenario difficult. Or there may have been other backend considerations that made it difficult for them operationally.
That said, a residual invoice should be issued instead of a revised one with a formal explanation as to why it’s being done….and possibly an apology.
Taxes are complicated. I am surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. And my guess is that these corrections don’t happen as often as they should.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/https://www.ha.com/c/ref/terms-and-conditions.zx
and specifically from August 8th, 2024:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240807173231/https://www.ha.com/c/ref/terms-and-conditions.zx
Which have May and June 2024 revision dates...
Also https://web.archive.org/web/20211026011816/https://www.ha.com/c/ref/terms-and-conditions.zx
So, yes, these terms were in effect for a 2024 auction
ANA 50+ year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Author: 3rd Edition of the SampleSlabs book, https://sampleslabs.info/
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
FWIW, the two screenshots appear to differ with respect to 'interest/penalties'.
I followed up since they weren't getting back to me (no surprise there). No apology for the mistake, just the inconvenience. No reconciliation of my invoices or other details as I requested, just a hope and a prayer it is right. Really horrible service from a senior vice president and I am incredibly disappointed by this.
I guess beware of bidding with Heritage, they might realize they sent you the wrong invoice and come after you years later without even a whisper of customer management, just an empty form response IF you follow up.
I put this into AI to see what it thought, and this is the answer it gave:
"If a business incorrectly charges a customer too little sales tax, the business is usually responsible for paying the difference out of its own funds when remitting taxes to the state; the business typically cannot come back to the customer after the transaction and demand additional sales tax. When sales tax has been undercharged, it is considered a business accounting issue, and the obligation to pay the proper amount remains with the retailer."
30 years of sales tax consulting experience checking in to confirm this AI drivel would be horrible advice to follow.
There are very few states where a purchaser could legally avoid sales/use tax because of seller error. The whole point of having use tax in the first place is for a situation where a seller undercharges tax.
Legally, OP should have known how much tax was due and self assessed use tax on the difference. Check your state income tax forms and you'll most likely find a line for use tax.
As long as a tax invoice from a seller is correct and within the statute of limitations, your options are generally limited to making loud noises.
Standard Internet Disclaimers:
1. The above is general info and not specific to any one state since I'm not spending time to research this. However, don't be surprised if the above applies in this case and in almost all states.
2. I am obviously not defending HA and how they handled this. I've worked before with people who both send and receive tax invoices and this is not how it should be done (I was just at the HA HQ last week. Maybe I should have offered my services).
“I assure you that you all your invoices are now correct and all invoices going forward will be correct as well.”
…hard to be assured by someone who had a typo in the sentence where they were assuring you…
That really sucks. With the commissions you pay you would expect some spectacular service if needed. I’m sure with most buyers the last thing they would have on their mind would be checking accuracy of sales tax!!
Maybe the last update on this from me at least, I received a call from a partner at Heritage and have accepted their apologies on the matter. A couple of days late in my opinion, but I am accepting of it as resolved and amicable.
Did they agree to pay it themselves or are you still on the hook for paying?
I am still paying. By all accounts it does seem like I paid little or no tax originally and it was never really the amount due that bothered me assuming it is correct, just the way it was presented and the implications of it all. I haven’t confirmed the amounts yet and that will probably be an exercise for this weekend, but I owe something.
That still stinks but at least someone reached out. It would be nice for Heritage to take some responsibility too; the “tuition” would be a good lesson for them.