State laws require that we charge applicable sales tax on orders shipped to addresses in the following states: NY. We do not charge sales tax on the purchase of Gift Cards and Online Gift Certificates. Items paid for with Gift Cards or Online Gift Certificates will be taxed if shipped to addresses in the states listed above. Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) To be clear, the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which was signed into law on October 21, 1998, does not, as some have asserted, preclude sales and use taxes on any and all commerce conducted over the Internet. State and local governments are allowed to impose sales and use taxes on all such electronic sales, provided that the tax (and its rate) are the same as that which would be imposed on the transactions if they were conducted in a more traditional manner, such as over the phone or through mail order. The ITFA is intended to prevent any jurisdiction from imposing special taxes on Internet transactions, other than such taxes that a jurisdiction already has the ability to impose (e.g., sales tax; see below). The ITFA prevents the imposition of any such taxes through November 1, 2003. Currently, most e-commerce companies use the same taxation rules used by mail-order companies, which are based on constitutional guidelines for interstate commerce. Generally this means that states can only require companies to collect sales tax in states where they have business operations, and as a result, a company will not collect sales tax in states where they have no business operations. If someone were to order something from one of our catalogs, that person would only be charged sales tax if he or she shipped his or her order to a state where Nordstrom has physical operations. Example: If a person shipped something to Wyoming, Laurela.com would not be required to collect sales tax because it has no business operations in Wyoming. The ITFA also prohibits state and local governments from imposing taxes on Internet access charges, protects against the imposition of new tax liability for consumers and vendors involved in commercial transactions over the Internet, and creates a temporary commission to study taxation of Internet commerce and to report back to Congress in 18 months on whether the Internet ought to be taxed and, if so, how taxes can be applied without subjecting the Internet and electronic commerce to special, discriminatory, or multiple taxation.