Paying VA Use Tax on Purchases Made Abroad

[fernwehuo615]

I travelled to another country and made some purchases there (around $600) and wanted to ask if I was required to pay Virginia use taxes on them. From my understanding, I would need to pay use taxes on domestic purchases and online purchases, but I haven't found anything on purchases that I made outside the country and then brought back with me. 

[MaryK4]

The Use tax applies to items that you would have been required to pay Sales tax on if they would have been purchased in Virginia, there is no distinction for if the items were purchased in another U.S. state or in another country.  You would have to determine if you paid a comparable sales tax if it was a different country, as many countries have sales tax built in to the purchase price.  

[fernwehuo615]

Thanks for your reply! In response to that, if the country had a VAT of like 20% on their goods, does that mean that I wouldn't need to pay use tax in Virginia since Virginia's state tax is only 6%?

Adding on, what if I bought something at a flea market? Should I assume that they sold me the items with the taxes already included?

And lastly, if I were to buy something online from a UK website, would I need to pay use tax if their taxes were included?

If possible, would you mind telling me the documents you used to get your answers? Much appreciated!

[MaryK4]

Yes, if you paid the VAT, you (probably) paid much more than the sales tax in Virginia so no use tax is required.  

If you purchased something at a flea market, you would have to look at the same criteria- would sales tax be required if you had purchased it as a flea market in Virginia?  In most cases, casual sellers of used personal goods (and this is  generally) are not required to collect the sales tax so the same rules would apply.  

Yes, if you purchase items are were charged a sales tax rate smaller than Virginia, you would have to calculate the difference and pay that amount as the use tax.

@fernwehuo615