Tax-free Internet shopping may be at an end

CNET News ^ | April 15, 2009 | Declan McCullagh

[cizinec]

The Oklahoma Tax Commission has auditors that travel about looking for garage sales, although many don’t comply. As I recall, you had to get a permit to hold a garage sale and then file a casual filer sales tax return.

It’s actually quite easy to be in compliance.

Oklahoma does, however, have an outstanding manufacturer’s exemption.

You’re going to find little quirks like this in any state. Out East they seem to have a penchant for real property transfer stamps. Nothing like a good old tax stamp.

As a matter of fact, what I *wish* people understood at the Tea Parties is how much they actually pay to the government in taxes, fess and surcharges.

People don’t know how much they pay because it’s nearly impossible to track annual sales tax, motor fuels tax, telecom taxes, other fees and surcharges, etc. I noted one fellows sign with a list of taxes. He had it right. The problem is that people don’t freak out about an increase in a DEAF surcharge on their phone bill. Why should they? Everybody wants to help the deaf, the blind, the lame, the poor and the . . . you get the idea.

Do you know how much you pay in USF surcharges on your phone bill? The USF surcharge is designed to be paid by your telecom provider, not you. The FCC allows them to pass it along as a “reimbursement.” I used to work for one of these telecom companies. They used to charge 5x the surcharge as the reimbursement to “offset the costs of compliance.” Let me tell you, the amounts they collected and the amounts the people in compliance were making in salaries were vastly different. Do you have any idea how much your employer pays of this nonsense?

The USF is total BS. It’s about paying for “high cost” areas so that they don’t have to pay too much to get phone service. I could build a network around the world and provide phone access for free with the amount collected from the USF. Oh yeah, it pays for internet access in libraries, schools, etc. They pay top dollar too.

I really don’t think people have half a clue as to what they are really paying in taxes. Throw away your 1040, because that’s just the beginning.

[CottonBall]

As a matter of fact, what I *wish* people understood at the Tea Parties is how much they actually pay to the government in taxes, fess and surcharges.

Here's my sign at our 2 Tea Parties:

I could've kept going and going, like the energizer bunny, finding more taxes. I needed a few more to fill up the sign, so just googled airline taxes. A whole bunch showed up. In every industry we could think of, I'd bet there are taxes, or taxes hidden as fees or surcharges.

I used to get pretty frustrated trying to explain just how much in taxes (income alone!) some women I worked with were paying. They were either pretty dim bulbs or didn't want to know. It's pretty simple to figure all of a 2nd income is taxed at least at the highest rate of the first. They couldn't get: add 28% fed + 9.3% state + 7.65% SS and medicare = almost 50%. And like you said, there's all the other taxes on everything purchased on top of that. I've been meeting some much smarter (conservative, of course!) women these days who don't work because the taxes are confiscatory.

[CottonBall]

You’re going to find little quirks like this in any state.

Well, I won't take OK off my list then.

[cizinec]

I love your sign. The sad thing is that almost all those taxes are state and local taxes.

[dfwgator]

It’s been at an end for some time, it’s called “use taxes”, it’s just that they haven’t been enforced.

[Fu-fu2]

#161—good post! I don’t think people realize what a “big business” government is! And that includes city, county, state, federal, etc. I don’t feel its about political parties and idealogies. Its about each taxing agency looking out for their “turf” and getting their “piece of the pie.” When I hear that over 50% of people don’t feel we are taxed too much, I fear we have already reached the tipping point as a nation that we have reached in Illinois....protect the Democrat system because people feel they are getting more out of the system than they are putting in. If government continues down the path of confiscating as much as they can, then the whole thing will collapse....

[GSWarrior]

How many times has the phrase “in a little noticed move” shown up in the first sentence of press releases lately? Isn’t the mainstream media supposed to “notice” these things?

[CottonBall]

I love your sign. The sad thing is that almost all those taxes are state and local taxes.

Thanks. But why is it sad? I mean, whether we're getting screwed by the feds or the state or both? ;(

[Mikey]

The last time I was back in NY, the same crap. Also one was forced to get a "permit" to hold a yard sale.

I wonder when we're all gonna need a permit to take a $hit. Maybe we'll have to wear a haz mat placard on our @sses and pay a fee for that as well?

[Mikey]

"Tax, tax, tax. Spend, spend, spend. For the people are too stupid to understand."

FDR