Posted on 04/18/2009 10:00:00 AM PDT by sheikdetailfeather
Friday, April 17, 2009
Print ShareThisThe free ride may soon be over.
For the past decade and a half, most Internet shoppers haven't been forced to pay sales tax while buying goods online.
But now, according to CNet News, an alliance of "brick-and-mortar" retailers and state governments has teamed up to end that — and they've crafted federal legislation that may be introduced in Congress as early as next week.
Previous attempts in past years to do so have flopped.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This is going to put a lot of online sellers out of business.
Well they can go back to the brick/mortar locations, stand in line, use gas to drive around, fight the traffic/parking, etc. I really don’t think people are that dedicated to being inconvienced.
You said — Online monitoring and recording is the only conceivable way to enforce this.
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I don’t get that. From what I’ve seen *in practice* thus far, is that the sales taxes are *enforced* one of two ways. One way is the shipping address. One pays the appropriate sales taxes for the shipping address given.
For other kinds of purchases, one is charged sales tax for the zip code of the credit card given.
It’s that simple. Nothing more is needed — and in fact — this is exactly what has been done thus far. I should know, as I’ve run into this exact situation on both instances I just mentioned...
You said — Bye bye Miss American tax free pie.
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It was never *really* tax free — it was more like “no one can catch me”... LOL...
You were still supposed to pay the appropriate sales taxes for your own area, regardless, and even if you didn’t do it...
This will also cause the loss of 10’s of thousands of jobs for the shippers. FedEx, UPS and USPS.
Not really, since the retailers will have your zip code for mailing they will just charge the applicable rate for your zip code. Alternatively, they may charge the same rate (
the average of all sales taxes nationwide)for everyone. Some states would gain under that idea (those with low rates) while high rate states would lose.
I would.
Online shopping is convenient enough NOT to have to wait in Wal-Mart for 20 minutes just to check out or fight the crowds in the mall etc.
Unless you have a huge amount, the taxes aren’t that big a deal. What, a dollar?
Oh that’s gonna kill it for me.
You would spend five times the tax just DRIVING to the store.
That said, I do hope the bill fails. Even though many sites already charge tax anyway. Amazon does for many states.
Well, there is a basic paradox here. The Feds don’t collect sales taxes. Only the states do.
So, how can the feds pass a law making people pay taxes to the states?
Silly question, of course. These days, the feds can do anything they want, especially when it comes to taxes. They will invoke the “commerce clause,” no doubt.
But maybe not entirely silly. They’ve tried this before, and failed. The question is whether things have now changed under Messiah Obama and his gang to the point where they succeed.
Also, at least for technology things, sites like NewEgg or Buy.com have deals so far lower than Best Buy or even Wal-Mart you still will save a bundle even with taxes and shipping.
Liberty is such a pain to these people.
You said — This will also cause the loss of 10’s of thousands of jobs for the shippers. FedEx, UPS and USPS.
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Well, those jobs have already been lost because of the drastic slow-down and Great Depression we’re in. They’ve already gone through a big contraction.
BUT, as to whether more of it will happen — I think not. That’s because there’s a convenience factor there.
Let’s take Amazon and books, for example. Now, even if they collected sales taxes there, I’ve found that they are a lot better priced than the local book stores. So, one can just about always save money there.
But, in other instances on some other products, Amazon will be actually higher-priced than the local stores, even without sales tax and shipping considered. So, it can vary.
However, there is one factor that I like — even — if the prices were higher. I don’t have to go out and drive down to the store, look around and then buy it there and drive back home. Just sitting at the computer and I never have to leave for that particular purchase, and in about two days, it’s there at my doorstep.
That’s something that a lot of people would *continue* to pay for, taxes or no taxes....
I was thinking about that the other day. They can say with a straight face, we are giving a tax cut. Which is true. The problem is, everything else will be taxed more. Look at what they’ve done to cigarettes. Not that I smoke mind, but, if they do that with one product, why not a bunch more? Obama is already saying he’s going to add taxes to utilities. The excuse is protecting the environment. I’ve heard the the cost of electricity, for example, could go up as much as 50% more.
The internet has been pretty much tax free so far. When I buy out of state they seldom add taxes. So there really is a big deal here. And the on-line places like QVC and HSN are going to have a lot of customers angry over this.
No they're not supposed to be paying it.
You said — No they’re not supposed to be paying it.
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LOL..., well then, you’ve got a dispute with the local taxing authorities, in your respective states, as they say that the consumer is responsible for it themselves, to pay it...
Hey..., all I’m doing is telling you what your own authorities say. I don’t make the laws...
I’m sure people in Mexico would love to have those jobs. There are so many poor there. Send all the junk you order online to Mexico, have it shipped from Mexico, save taxes. More Americans will lose there jobs. This is our government at work, destroying America one piece at a time.
I use Amazon and I see that they’ve kept my records for years on years... LOL.. It doesn’t appear that it will change anything with them. And that has never stopped me from buying anything from Amazon.
Another one I buy from “online” is the Apple iTunes store. Heck, they’ve got my records from when the iTunes store *started* LOL... It doesn’t make any difference with them.
I’ve got another website that I’ve got some books and tapes from (a ministry site and they’ve got my records from more than five years ago; I can still access them...).
Then, there are all the software sites that I do business with, and I can contact them for something like the serial number again, give them my name and they can look it up in their records and find me and give me the serial number again. Those are (many times) just a one-man operation, and nothing much more than that.
So, far, it doesn’t seem to be a problem, with records, for all the people that I’ve done business with. I don’t really know what the problem will be, if all these people that I’ve done business with all these years have had no problems at all, and they’ve never been *required* to do so...
BUT, if I were to go into my local newspaper office and pay for an advertisement, even “in person” — I would not be paying a sales tax for this. Likewise, if one advertised on Craigslist, they would not pay sales tax on any charges by Craigslist (but only a certain few have charges, not all ads...).
And furthermore, if I were to go to a garage sale or buy something from my neighbor, I wouldn’t be paying sales tax for buying something like that. And on Craigslist, if I bought that “yard sale item” there, I wouldn’t be paying sales tax.
So, it really doesn’t seem to be a big problem, at least not as far as I can see... from my own personal experience in the past.
I live in New York and already pay sales tax on most Internet purchases (a few sellers have sued NY to avoid it)
Leave it to the douchebags in Albany not to let a chance to tax something get by them. We are now, by far, the most overtaxed state in the union but the voters keep voting these politicians for life in. It’s getting so bad in NYC that even the illegal aliens are having trouble finding off the books jobs.
The Republic is already dead, unless we manage to take it back and revive it.
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