Not saying I agree with it, just saying the law is probably on the books.
It wouldn’t be government if they didn’t raise taxes to cover every single incompetent move on their part.
Is it just me or are these jokers going to strangle the U.S. economy, as it is, to death?
This article makes the assumption that those of us who buy online are doing it solely to avoid paying sales taxes, and therefore are criminals.
I don’t buy online to avoid paying sales taxes. I buy online because I can find what I want that not available where I live. And yea, lost of times, those items are cheaper, even if I payed the sales taxes.
The Empire Strikes Back. And it will get worse with the Democrats in power.
My state’s declining revenue and budget shortfall has been front page for the last several weeks as the state senate worked on its new budget proposal.
Almost all (95% or so) of the serious proposals and discussion to deal with this are centered on “new sources of revenue”.
There is almost no consideration of real budget cuts. The few that are proposed are ploys, simple postponements of expenditures, or in areas where they expect, or hope for, an injection of federal funds to replace the cut funds.
Honestly I never shopped on line just to save sales taxes. I shop on line because it is convenient. They always have what I need and it saves numerous time which is much more important than saving a few dollars on sales tax. However, even though sales tax is not the reason for me shopping on line, I do know that many people do shop on line for that specific reason and for that, I don’t think that they should charge sales taxes on line.
I work for an online retailer, and we collect sales tax when we sell/deliver to someone in our state. But that’s even a nightmare because in our state, there are 60 something counties and not all counties have the same sales tax rate.
I can’t imagine the amount of hassle it would be to do this on a national scale.
Who would the money be sent to? How would the money be distributed if it was sent to a federal agency?
I won’t be buying anything from anyone in Caliphony if they are going to insist that I pay THEM sales tax for an out of state sale (and I saw it happen nearly a decade ago, if I was to assessed ANY tax, it should have been at my state’s rate and paid to MY state, Texas).
Unless they change the Constitution forced taxing of interstate commerce is illegal.
This is an issue that begs for a federal solution. Internet sales are overwhelmingly INTERSTATE COMMERCE, which the Constitution clearly spells out as subject to federal regulation. Apply a single, federally determined tax rate to all interstate transactions conducted over the internet, and split the revenue between the buyer’s and seller’s states. Eventually this could become part of a larger system to replace the federal income tax with a federal sales tax. It would also give states with very high sales tax rates incentive to lower those rates, as there would be political pressure from in-state sellers to lower the tax so as to stop incentivizing state residents to buy over the internet instead of buying locally.
Taxation without representation is tyranny.
Taxation with representation is no fun either.
for e-products that have no brick-n-mortar retail front... why bother basing in the US?
there are plenty of nations with taxes around 10-15%... what keeps a software company from moving its operations to that country?
law makers better understand this or most, if not all, IT companies will push their businesses offshore.
I had to write the software that integrated our system to a web based streamlined sales tax software provider. This “service” costs our company A LOT of money per year to “subscribe” to the service. This is the hidden cost of taxation that takes $$$ straight off the bottom line.
We send this service our invoice information including the address of the customer and what they bought and the service returns the amount of tax for each line item and the type of tax (use vs. sales). The service then keeps track of which states & municipalities we owe tax dollars to and how much. They also keep track of the tax rates nationwide.
Here’s the BIG problem. Small business. I heard a lady on a radio program that has a small business making hand-made jewelry and shipping in-state and out of state. She said it is absolutely crippling her to keep track of her where her sales are going, the tax rate for that destination, and reporting it accurately to the state. She cannot afford to pay a “service” to do what our company pays to have done. She probably will end up either folding or going underground and waiting for some compliance officer to throw her in jail. What a liberal paradise.....
Actually, there really hasn’t been a “tax-free” internet. Most states require a tax to be paid by citizens whenever they buy something, no matter what state they buy it in.
But most people simply ignore that obligation — a good example of how we teach our citizens that they only have to obey laws that are strictly enforced.
EVERYTHING that is not taxed now will be taxed soon, not just internet shopping.
Another excuse for people not to spend, putting us closer to a depression, putting us closer to passive resistance of the government by avoiding taxes any way we can, putting us closer to outright subversion of the government, putting us closer to totalitarianism, putting us closer to armed rebellion, putting us closer to re-building the US according to the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Now we have to guess just how long this devolution will take.
Another excuse for people not to spend, putting us closer to a depression, putting us closer to passive resistance of the government by avoiding taxes any way we can, putting us closer to outright subversion of the government, putting us closer to totalitarianism, putting us closer to armed rebellion, putting us closer to re-building the US according to the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Now we have to guess just how long this devolution will take.