So you're not able to prove what you said, and yet call it a fact. I don't see where I'm wrong when doubting if you use the word correctly. Perhaps fact is used differently than I believe (I'm no native speaker), or you mean the alternative kind.
I see no need to get silly. Obviously intertwining laws and morality is bound to fail, so we have folks that speak judgment regarding the law. What needs to be done to live moral is in the eye of the beholder.
It does look weird when people proudly claim to evade a tax in my eyes though.
And I do wonder, if nobody in the US follows some given sales tax law, what's the point of keeping up the facade?
I invite you to reread above where I wrote about the impossibility of proving a negative. No one pays state sales tax when the merchant doesn't collect. Morally, we're all equal, and no one is taken advantage of.
To answer your question, merchants invariably follow sales tax laws when they have to, and that's 99% of the sales tax due. No one cares about the trivial small percentage of unpaid uncollected tax, yet buyers of high ticket items like cameras can seek out merchants who discount to pay for the sales tax.
The rarest of enforcement situations involve situations like Portland Oregon's neighboring suburbs in Washington state, where the state tax authorities will sometimes go after wholesale tax avoiders who shop across the river in sale-tax free Oregon with carloads of building materials, liquor, etc. Not to mention registering a vehicle in Oregon to avoid paying 8% sales tax on that purchase price.
California is ferocious on certain state taxes (I had a client fly to visit me in Nevada to support his case that the plane was not in California to avoid sales tax on that).
When Ebay started collecting sales taxes they effectively raised commissions by about 70%, presumably killing some markets - I'm a fan of Fred Miranda for used buys with ethical members and no sales tax.
But normal people buying stuff on the internet NEVER send in the sales tax if the merchant doesn't collect it. NEVER. Which is why this topic arose to explain why comparing retail prices in the US with VAT-added process elsewhere is the apt comparison.
Update: Failure of one who
collects sales taxes to transmit them to government is essentially theft, and prosecuted as a felony.
Also: In my state of Texas (~8% sales tax) if I don't pay the $1000 sales tax on a big white lens, and I'm the first ever consumer they go after to collect it, my penalty is... $50. Plus $50 more if more than 30 days. Scary.
I would have hoped no one thinks I'm a bad person simply for reporting this information, but the evidence in some comments above suggests otherwise. It's telling when this kind of thing makes people upset.