31 May Some businesses still charge the wrong sales tax. What to do?

Q. Every once in a while I see a business charge the wrong sales tax. I tell them, but no one ever seems to make the correction. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s wrong. Can I report this to someone?
– Unhappy shopper

A. There have been changes to the sales tax in the past few years.

With the changes, all New Jersey merchants must charge the correct sales tax.

The tax was lowered from 7 percent to 6.875 percent in 2017, and lowered again to 6.625 percent in 2018.

You said you’ve pointed this out to the businesses making the errors, and that’s a good first step. But if the business is a national chain, you may find the local managers can’t change the register systems on their own. Try contacting the corporate owner to report the issue.

If that doesn’t work, you can report it to the Division of Taxation on the website for Citizens Against Tax Cheats, or CATCH, or by calling (609) 292-6400.

You can even ask for a refund by filing Form A-3730.

Note that not all items are subject to sales tax.

Check this list from the Division of Taxation to see what items are subject to the tax.

If you want to read more about resolving sales tax mistakes, check out this Bamboozled column.

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