Is What My Company Doing Legal? Importing Medical Grade For Non-medical Use To Dodge Import Taxes.

Hello,

This is a pseudo-throwaway (I'm using a friends second account so this won't be connected to me).

I am a US citizen located in California, but I recently started working for a company in Japan. I am their salesman for the US and the only overseas employee. There is the expectation that I will relocate to Japan once my visa finishes processing. There are a few things that have raised question marks for me and I would appreciate your advice if what I'm contributing to is against US law.

My company sells gloves to the restaurant/hospitality industry. We currently import containers full of Nitrile gloves as medical disposable products (that I believe are taxed at 8%). When I asked for clarification on this since we were procuring the gloves for obviously non-medical companies; I was told that it's because importing them as non-medical would nearly double the import tax. I would be surprised if that's really a legal loophole, but I don't have the knowledge of import/exports to fact check it. My company has a bank account in New York, but does not have a physical location within the US. We outsource our warehousing and shipping to a 3rd party.

On top of this, I noticed we don't charge sales tax to any of our customers (whether it be an independent restaurant or a reseller). I asked about this and was told since we are importing and don't have a physical location we are exempt from charging sales tax. I would again be surprised that that's the case, but I just don't have the experience to know.

Are either of these things something I need to be concerned about legally? Should I be jumping ship ASAP?

Thank you in advance, happy to give more information if needed.