TULSA, Okla — Myron Harris and Scott Averill could not believe their eyes when they received letters with invoices for unpaid sales tax on their hearing aids.
Harris bought his more than three years ago. His letter asked for more than $500 in unpaid sales tax. Averill's letter asked for even more. He bought his hearing aids two years ago and claimed they changed his life.
He told 2 News he damaged his hearing shooting guns without hearing protection in his early teens. "When I put these on for the first time, I was hearing sounds that I'd never heard."
The letters asking for those unpaid sale taxes came from American Hearing Audiology. It's CFO, Wcott Weidemeyer told 2 News his company operates in several states, and most states don't charge sales tax on hearing aids. He admits misinterpreting Oklahoma's law requiring sales tax on hearing aids.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission told 2 News state law requires collecting sales taxes on hearing aids unless Medicare or Medicaid pays for them.
"We realize we screwed up." Weidemeyer said.
He told 2 News an audit of three years sales of American Hearing Audiology and The Scholl Center clinics in Oklahoma found they failed to collect sales taxes amounting to about $300,000.
Weidemeyer told 2 News the letters sent to patients are his attempt to now collect and remit taxes that should have been collected from patients and paid to the state at the time the hearing aids were purchased.
"I certainly won't be getting out of paying it to the State of Oklahoma," he said, "so I am going to try to make as good of accommodations as I can to as many patients and customers as I can."
The letters imply if customers don't send American Hearing the missing taxes within 30-days it and the State of Oklahoma could pursue collection of the balance.
The State Tax Commission told 2 News:
68 OK Stat § 1357 (2022) states that hearing aids are not sales tax-exempt prosthetic devices when sold to taxpayers, unless they are paid for by Medicare or Medicaid. Vendors selling hearing aids are responsible for collecting sales tax from their customers and remitting applicable sales tax on their sales to the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Any tax not collected at the time of sale does not make it an exempt sale and the vendor can be liable for it. If that vendor later attempts to collect the tax from their clients, it then becomes a civil matter between the two parties, and it is no longer in the Oklahoma Tax Commission’s jurisdiction to comment on.
Averill said, "It should have been collected at the point of sale - it's a mistake that they made - it's their responsibility to settle up with the the tax commission which I'm pretty sure they will and they're just trying to recover that debt is my opinion."
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
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