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 ...
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?
How so?? When someone shops online, they are paying MORE for shipping than they would for sales tax. Stock the items people want to buy and local stores will have no problem.
Politicians finding a way to eat the golden goose. Discouraging internet sales is not the same thing as encouraging brick & mortar sales. What it WILL do is damage internet commerce, further grow the barter system, and slow the recovery because people stop spending.
Just wish these taxing politicians would get out of our life already. Hope it hurts the poor and minorities. They vote for these pigs.
Ditto what you said!
Excellent idea from 5thGenTexan — eliminate income taxes, and implement sales taxes in their place.
Not taxing internet sales hurts local businesses, but there are plenty of people who think that’s a good thing, while at the same time pissing and moaning about “new world order”, “crony capitalism”, the Jews, and other incoherent paranoid crap.
If you order from a company that has brick and morter in every state, such as JCPenney, Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, K-Mart, Sears and others, you pay sales tax to your state AND you PAY SALES TAX ON YOUR SHIPPING & HANDLING in the majority of states. Illinois I know is an exception to that rule as of this time. Illinois’s sales tax for the entire state is 6.25%. Where I am at in Michigan is 6% and I have to pay the sales tax on the shipping.
If there is a sales tax charged on the item, some states do not have sales tax (Oregon, Delaware), then you also pay sales tax on the Shipping & Handling, unless the state law says otherwise. There are very few states in which this is the case.
I sympathize ladyvet, same here.
So?? Why should there be fairness??
By the time this is all over, online shoppers will pay tax in every state between the seller’s and the buyer’s location, plus a federal tax too.
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