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ELKINS -- The City of Elkins, working with the state Tax Division, have determined how a local resident can be refunded for sales tax he was improperly charged for an online purchase.
On Feb. 9, The Inter-Mountain reported that Bion Manning, whose home is in Faraway Knolls and who has an Elkins address, and a 26241 zip code, nonetheless lives outside of Elkins city limits. In January, Manning made an online purchase of more than $1,000 from realtruck.com. When he noticed that the Elkins 1% sales tax had been applied to his purchase, he asked the company for a refund.
The company responded, writing in part "we are unfortunately not able to process your refund. We dearly apologize for this. We have determined that a refund is not due as a result of the following: Tax is calculated by zip code and using a program called TaxJar," according to a Feb. 1 email Manning shared with The Inter-Mountain.
Elkins City Clerk Sutton Stokes said at the time that the situation was being looked into by City Treasurer Tracy Judy.
This week, the city let The Inter-Mountain know that Manning has been sent a tax form he can fill out and submit to the state for a refund.
Judy asked the state Tax Division for help with the issue, and received a response from Karen A. Farris, an Acting Tax Unit Supervisor for the division.
"The material was shipped to them from an out of state vendor," Farris wrote in an email to Judy. "They can complete the attached forms and mail them back to us along with a copy of the receipt and we will be able to give them a refund of the additional 1% sales tax they were charged in error.
"I will also reach out to the vendor and let them know that they should be using our zip+4 boundary table when charging the additional 1% municipal sales tax," Farris wrote.
Judy sent Manning a digital copy of a CST-240 form, for "Claim for Refund or Credit of Sales Tax Paid to a Vendor/Reseller," advising him to fill it out and submit it to the state Tax Division for a refund.
Elkins City Council voted 7-3 to pass the new tax in December 2017, creating a 1% sales tax on businesses within the city limits, which became possible when the state approved the city's application to amend the original Home Rule plan for Elkins.
In order to implement the new sales tax, Elkins needed to give the state six months' lead time. The 1% sales tax went into effect July 1, 2018, with the advent of the new fiscal year.