Posted on 04/25/2013 5:55:21 AM PDT by sickoflibs
WASHINGTON (AP) — You don't see this very often: a majority of Senate Republicans voting to make people who buy stuff on the Internet pay state and local sales taxes.
The Senate could vote as early as Thursday on a bill to empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
On Wednesday, the bill passed a test vote in the Senate, 74 to 23, with 27 Republicans voting in favor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., vowed to pass the bill this week, before senators leave for a scheduled vacation.
"This is a matter of equity and fairness," said South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican. "The same people who are selling the same products should be paying the same taxes."
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
It is part of GOP orthodoxy to oppose higher taxes, a central issue that divides Democrats and Republicans. That's why the bill faces an uncertain fate in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase.
But supporters of the bill insist it is not a tax increase. Instead, they say, the bill merely provides states with a mechanism to enforce current taxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Democrats try to increase federal government spending for their favored constituents.
Republicans try to increase local government spending (including spending from federal funding) for their favored constituents (see teachers, social workers, planners, building inspectors, other regulations for NGOs, emergency/rescue, etc.).
Republicans tell us to vote for their candidates to avoid legislative attacks against our freedoms, but Republicans don’t repeal bad laws that were already passed.
Remember that, and see where politics will go in the future (more into the socialist toilet, until there’s no more production or money of value for anyone to spend).
Both parties love internet sales tax bills.
Not a shock.
Obama will sign it Monday.
Find software engineering an interesting field, but outsourcing kept me from pursuing any technology career despite a passion for it.
Robert J. Dole started that in 1982 with one of the Reagan tax hikes, yes there were tax hikes under Reagan too.
Once again we find Linda voting against our best interests and Sen. Scott taking care of his constituents.
South Carolina Ping
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I am sure they can find a way to automatically calculate the taxes through databases when the customer enters their info on checkout.
Still, I don’t like the bill. Already have to pay shipping. Paying tax too really makes online shopping unattractive.
The retailers will also have to pay for access to the databases.
Just a general comment.
This bill will eventually have to go to the House. Since it appears to be a lost cause in the Senate, the time to start bothering your House Rep about this is NOW, TODAY. And everyday until the House takes it up. Let’s start building the firewall now instead of waiting till the last minute.
To be most effective, hand write, no computer printer needed, a short, legible letter expressing your misgivings about this, put it in a hand addressed letter size, not business size, envelope and send it to your Rep’s local office. Mail sent to DC gets delayed due to scanning for anthrax and other bad guys, etc. Mail to local offices is not scanned, yet.
“States already have the power to do “origin” based sales tax. Federal legislation is not required for this idea.”
I know full well why states like NY and CA oppose such a change: they want to tax their residents who buy stuff out-of-state to avoid paying high sales taxes. Well, I think we can get this passed in the House even without any votes from CA or NY (there are only 21 Republicans from those states in Congress, and some of them would be willing to vote for the proposal).
I got an email from Ebay asking to help lobby Congressrats against this.
$1million and under are exempt, but I’m sure that will be downgraded quickly till it’s $1 or under.
We buy nothing we don’t absolutely need. Well except good red wine. :)
Yes I had an online site for 3 years. It still going to be a pain in the azz. Plus it will up the cost of the online products. Its not going to be good. But of course neither is the cyber security bill they just passed.
Your proposal is “origin” based sales tax, that is what it is called in the think tanks and the corridors of power and it doesn’t need congressional approval. A state has the right to regulate the retailers in their state.
The reason no state has pursued origin based sale taxes is no one wants to be first because it will disadvantage their local etailers. So they have come up with this mutual we will all do it together simultaneously plan that requires federal permission because the states are essentially agreeing to give each other jurisdictional authority over each others businesses in regards to sales tax.
Origin based sales tax would create downward competitive pressure on sales tax rates because buyers and business would tend to gravitate toward lower or no tax states.
But if buyers are forced to pay their own states rate regardless of where they shop, then their is no incentive to shop for lower tax rates or for business to relocate to lower tax rate states. That’s why the state legislatures have come up with this skunk of a bill, a sort of mutual assured risk sharing come vote time.
It is business getting screwed here, because we are being made tax collectors for 45 states at our expense of time and money and are liable for audits and fines and punishment to states where we don’t reside and can’t vote.
Bastards!
Both parties are all in for crony capitalism. This is all about keeping the little people from starting businesses.
Except when I buy something at Amazon on my Chase card then Maryland has no record of that to use against me. ‘
I have read that CA brow beat Amazon into charging the tax for CA residents by threatening their other businesss interests,
I think you misunderstand how origin based sales tax works. Your state wouldn’t be regulating the citizens to pay the Use tax anymore. They would simply regulate businesses located in your state to collect sales taxes on all sales whether the buyer was physically present or on line.
If you bought from AZ you would be charged WA sales tax instead of no sales tax unless you were actually purchasing from an affiliate seller located in some other state and then you’d be paying that state sales tax.
You would probably start looking for sellers that live in one of the five states with no sales tax or one that was much lower... that is why states don’t want to go their.
It would cause huge demand to lower the sales tax to a lower rate in order for their retailers to be competitive with other states and then there goes the cash cow.
The MFA lets them keep their high rates and prevent you from avoiding the sales/use tax.
We are where Europe is right now with both major parties looking for tax revenue to keep up the spending pipeline.
No talk from the supposedly conservative party of a quick balancing of the budget.
I hear the platitudes of Senator Pat “One Term” Toomey about trimming “fat” after he said last year he wants to balance the budget in ten years.
The crisis is here that demands real spending cuts, government agency (EPA, OSHA and more) total shutdowns and more to put the fiscal house in order.
The GOP plays to our resentments about items of wasteful spending without balancing the budget. Toomey played that game on the radio this morning and I’m not taking RINO bait anymore.
BALANCE THE BUDGET NOW.....
Then Wyoming needs to go after its own citizens who aren’t paying their use tax or get a state income tax.
Bingo and worse this will end of hurting Brick and Mortars. What is stopping their localities from raising taxes? The Internet.
Once that’s gone they’ll all raise taxes up. We’re ready to do just that right here in Illinois.
It hurts federalism as well. We need states to compete on price. That price or cost of living in one state or another is partly a function of local, county and state taxes. This is a power grab by large, urban dominated states that are in a death spiral over “right to work” and low tax states.
Let them die or change.
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