You received an Instant Savings Cost. This is like a rebate not a discount. Think of it as you bought the product at regular cost and receive a form to fill in and mail to the company to get fifteen dollars back. Instead Sams gave you the 15 back right away. Of course you had to pay tax on the amount of your pre-rebate purchase. What exactly, if you still have it, does your receipt say?
Here is the operative language from Sam's Club website
" Instant Savings items are subject to availability and dates. Select Instant Savings are available online. For Click 'n' PullŪ purchases, Instant Savings can be redeemed at point of sale at the club with the primary membership card. State and local laws may require sales tax to be charged on the pre-discounted price of an item with an Instant Savings offer"
The mechanism here is that Sams is receiving not just the 55 dollars you paid, as they are submitting the 15 rebate for you to the Turbo tax company which remits the 15 to Sams. Thus the sale is really the 55 Sams got from you and the 15 from T Tax, or the full listed price of 70 dollars. So Sam's needs to collect sales tax on the 70 it gets.
If however, there was no rebate coming from T.Tax and Sams was only getting the 55 from you, then the tax would be on 55 dollars. If you ever use a manufacturer's coupon (not a store coupon) the tax should be on the pre-coupon rate.
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