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Posted on 04/12/2011 12:55:13 PM PDT by GreaterSwiss
Update 10:30 a.m. PT: I've heard back from Sen. Mike Enzi's office. It sent me e-mail this morning saying: "Senator Enzi plans to co-sponsor the Main Street Fairness bill with Senator Durbin. As far as a timeline or drafts, you'll have to check with Senator Durbin's office."
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20052999-281.html#ixzz1JL8wTRdz A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.
The proposal--expected to be made public soon after Tax Day--would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.
Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET.
"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?" Durbin said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February. "Out-of-state companies that aren't paying their fair share of taxes are sticking Illinois residents and businesses with the tab."
At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren't always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't pay the sales taxes at checkout time that they would if shopping at a local mall--which is what Durbin means by giving online retailers an "unfair advantage."
On the other hand, there are some 7,500 different taxing jurisdictions in the United States, each with a set of very precise rules describing what can and can't be taxed and at what rate. That makes it challenging terrain for retailers to navigate.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20052999-281.html#ixzz1JL903e1g
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
And why not? It’s the “holy grail” of tax bases. The dhimmicrats will never give up on it.
How ‘bout this - drop the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax that includes internet sales.
Here in VA we have to report our purchases on the internet and include the cost of shipping if the term “shipping and handling” is included on the invoice.
Sales tax will be the death of internet sales.
In most cases it is the only reason to buy on the internet.
Probably will happen. To be honest, I can’t understand why it hasn’t yet! Though I am not complaining.
It puts the local store at a disadvantage.
How about, we tax every moron who proposes another tax instead?
Taxes, taxes, taxes.
You make it. We take it.
Pay your fair share. April 15th is coming fast.
Oh, no worries about that! The Federal Government would be happy to take that 8 or 9 billion and divvy it up in a fair and just manner...
Not necessarily when you figure in the shipping and handling charges on many internet orders.
WTF? Here is the solution: lower state taxes or get rid of them. why is the solution always to raise taxes on other sales?
This is the level playing field....
When you purchase on the Internet, you pay shipping fees;
When you purchase from a bricks-and-mortar store, you pay sales tax.
Besides, most of the items I purchase online are NOT available in my local area....the local merchants are not missing out on any sales because they don’t carry what I’m looking for in the first place.
They are required to pay use tax if their stated has a sales tax.
Durbin is just helping his buddy Quinn out with this little pice of legislation. Amazon is shutting down all affiliates in Illinois on the 15th(or so) of this month as a FU to Illinois over their wanting sales tax from Amazon on all sales.
‘Senator Enzi plans to co-sponsor the Main Street Fairness bill with Senator Durbin.’
It seems neither have yet figured out Main Street is moving toward internet sales to boost their likely lackluster local sales. Even if they’re doing well locally its always good to expand your likely cliental. Why is it pols are so happy to dither in subjects they know little or nothing about. LOL< even better is why do we allow it? Ummm, do I hear snoring in the back ground??? :)
In my case, the local store is NOT at a disadvantage because they don’t sell the items I purchase, such as antiques and collectibles, for instance.
Many of the new items I buy are also unavailable locally.
sounds like a problem taxing authorities need to address on the disadvantage side. how is it that taxing other people is going to make them brick and mortar stores better? a better solution would be to make it more appealing for brick and mortar stores to exist. perhaps the owners of the stores could have their taxes lowered, so that they could be more competitive.
why is that so many politicians try to tax other people prosperity? It just doesn’t work. maybe the good people of wyoming enjoy purchasing things over the internet. if they don’t want to buy the brick and mortar stores, maybe the government of wyoming needs to make purchase is a brick and mortar stores more appealing to the consumers.
Speaker Boehner better step up ASAP and cut this off at the knees. Nip it in the bud.
The retail association gave Durbin (Mafia) lots of donations...
Local stores refuse to carry what I want to buy in many cases. It’s not even a matter of price, it’s a matter of ‘cannot get locally at any price.’
I should be taxed because my local stores are run by morons and refuse to stock what I want?
Its a different business model that market forces should be sorting out. IF there is a disadvantage, then why should the government be the profiteer of sorting out the difference when the market would do, and is doing, that quite well. Besides, government does NOT need any new monies that they just spend on crap. They need to be shrunken down to a manageable size.
Who'da guessed?
Clean out the scum that inhabits both bodies of Congress.
These guys qualify as scum.
This is true, but essentially nobody actually does it.
I think the argument is that the government *is* sorting out winners and losers under the current system, and this would put the government back in a "neutral" position.
That said, I don't like the bill, and would not support it unless it included substantial cuts in other taxes.
So as an Ebay seller I’m going to have to get sales tax licenses and send in taxes to all of these different jurisdictions? BS, aint gonna happen, see if they want to extradite me to each state for about $50/year.
Looks like another super-RINO has been unmasked!!
Looks like another super-RINO has been unmasked!!
You’re always paying for shipping fees, it’s just hidden in physical stores. Much like the corporate income tax.
Good ole government, always wanting to stick its nose where it doesn’t belong.
In most cases it is the only reason to buy on the internet.
Which is why big-box retailers are behind the push for this.
Thank you!! Fk. I want to blow my brains out the more I keep reading, hearing that raising taxes is the only fair solution to this or that.
This isn’t about a federal tax, it’s about congress authorizing the states to force business in other states to remit sales tax to them even thought those businesses use none of the distant states resources.
It’s just more revenue for the states to waste.
NO!
See, elections don’t matter.
No, the local store can open a website and sell on the internet. I have both a small retail shop and a website. Very common for locals to purchase and pay online and let me know they will pick it up in person. I have "local pick up" as an option.
I also ship worldwide. Anybody with something to sell can do the same. Easy peasy.
Theres that word again..It's been wafting from Dem pieholes the last week or so more than usual.
These ignorant law makers do not seem to understand that the money used to purchase items has been taxed enough already.
No politician who votes for this feces will EVER get my vote.
This has as much chance of passing the house as it does odumbo vetoing it
who do you think IS the local store?
The internet has allowed stores that were once LIMITED to main street to branch out BEYOND the serfdom of main street.
Mom and Pop stores ARE the internet.
Precisely. I buy on the internet what I cannot purchase locally. Actually, I have never thought much of Enzi. Surely he can be replaced by another mediocrity.
This is about the “equalization of opportunity act” for 20th century stores to operate in a 21st century ecconomy.
Because they are old, they “deserve” a better opportunity than upstarts.
I bet there is a union protection clause in there somewhere.
I am already paying tax at Amazon:
“Orders Subject to Sales Tax
The amount of tax charged depends upon many factors, including the identity of the seller, the type of item purchased, and the destination of the shipment.
Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax.”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=468512#which
Ok, let’s just stab the death the one thing (internet Commerce) that is helping our economy crawl along......
Politicians are money grubbing thieves, more so than the supposed “Rich Capitalists”.
Bingo. And conversely, a smart businessperson with a brick-and-morter store where they sell anything unusual or special can greatly increase their store sales by setting up a website.
[ Besides, most of the items I purchase online are NOT available in my local area....the local merchants are not missing out on any sales because they don’t carry what I’m looking for in the first place.
Bingo. And conversely, a smart businessperson with a brick-and-morter store where they sell anything unusual or special can greatly increase their store sales by setting up a website. ]
They can also partner through amazon for those hard to find items, I have bought many things this way through amazon...
Now congress wants to take away incentive on this too....
True, but increasingly there is another reason. Businesses. stores in particular, are not stocking as many products, or decreasing the number of some products, I suppose to cut down on inventory? Regardless. if you want products you are forced to get them online, or go without. This has happened to me on 4 or 5 different products. And we already report them on state tax returns, so what’s the problem?
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