sales tax jurisdictions. That could make accounting a very messy issue, to say the least. 
Now, if we have each state designate a single sales tax rate for online sales, then it would be easy to implement.
Posted on 06/21/2018 7:58:37 AM PDT by Reno89519
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says states can force online shoppers to pay sales tax.
The 5-4 ruling Thursday is a win for states, who said they were losing out on billions of dollars annually under two decades-old Supreme Court decisions that impacted online sales tax collection.
The high court ruled Thursday to overturn those decisions.
snip
“Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States. These critiques underscore that the physical presence rule, both as first formulated and as applied today, is an incorrect interpretation of the Commerce Clause,” he wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
significant revenue losses to the States.
Those “revenue losses” in reality power the economy.
Money taken by the state, notice I said TAKEN, seldom
makes a justifiable return.
sales tax jurisdictions. That could make accounting a very messy issue, to say the least. Now, if we have each state designate a single sales tax rate for online sales, then it would be easy to implement.
It is a nightmare for small businesses. It would be better to have a national sales tax that is centrally collected and then disbursed to the states. Trying to collect for not only state but local option sales tax is a great burden when your sales are nationwide.
Why not make stores collect sales tax from out of state buyers? We can be sure they are not paying the use tax when they bring the items they buy back home. So they must pay the onsite tax as well as the tax for their state.
If this is implemented then states that do so must eliminate their use tax.
That description of how it split makes me nauseous.
An entrepreneurial programmer or group of programmers could create a database of all state and local sales tax formulas, put it online, and then let small businesses subscribe to it for a small price.
Set it up so a point of sales systems (POS) can log in, automatically put in the buyer’s zip code, the web site computes the tax, and send it back as data to the POS to finish the customers charges.
It wouldn’t take a lot of work, and could make the developers/web site owner lots of $$$.
They key would be to charge very little for a long-term subscription and get lots of subscribers.
Any FReeper programmers out there, feel free to develop my idea, but just give me credit! :->
The description of how it split makes me suspicious.
This will potentially help fund tons of illegal alien freebies. An untimely counteraction to Trump’s border security measures.
Me too. It seems to make no sense. But without knowing how it was argued...will have to check that out later. Sometimes they get handcuffed by how something is argued, or the focus, especially if it is very narrow.
Think about this for a moment. As a consumer, where I buy the product determines the cost. As a consumer in Tulsa, I cannot get the tax rate in a low tax state unless I go there to shop. Or move there.
Funny that Roberts was against this Tax but made the decision that the Obamacare Mandate was a Tax, not a Penalty. He’s not just a Justice, he’s a Legislator.
While I despise Taxes in general, a Retail Internet Site is just a Virtual Storefront that gets to undercut local Businesses by not tagging on the Sales Tax.
Then again, there are the Shipping Costs...
Whatever, the Black Robed Tyrants have spoken.
Is the tax rate calculated against the zip code of the shipper or the end purchaser?
ETSY stock likely drops.
This strikes me as one of the few genuine "interstate commerce" situations.
I'm NOT OK with this. In fact I'm NOT OK with sales taxes at all. I grew up in supposedly high tax NY State with ZERO sales tax. We had roads, schools, police, etc. In fact I doubt that the people who now live in the house I grew up in get a single government "service" that my family didn't get. In many cases State Governments "profit" more from the sale of an item than does the company that produced that item. This is OBSCENE.
In addition, back then (50s & 60s) NY State didn't receive any money from the Federal Government. (Nixon started this with "revenue sharing." Now these payments are called "block grants, " but they are effectively the same thing.)
(FTR, Sales Tax began in NY State on August 1, 1965. Before that NYC had a 3% Sales Tax.)
ML/NJ
The government can never do with one cent less!
“If I sell on eBay am I required to collect (and remit) sales tax for each location I sell to?”
Not likely.
Amazon FBA already collects taxes without any work from the seller, so it is likely that they will just set up a system that will look at the shipping address and tack on the tax to the final price, and then Ebay will just pass it on to the appropriate state.
I don’t know how this even got to court. It’s freaking mail order. The mail order rules were well established over 100 years ago, and yes you’re supposed to self report and pay the sales tax, and nobody does.
It seems to me that since States will be collecting taxes on out-of-state businesses, those same “foreign” companies should be able to require those same states to provide the services afforded all in-state brick-and-mortar businesses
Or they will be forced to be vendors under the Amazon umbrella.
Services would be covered by income tax. If you provide services to other states, you need a resident agent at a minimum. Typically, states will exempt out of state income tax on services when income tax for that revenue is paid to the home state.
To sort out sales rates, you’ll have to buy a service to provide you the rates associated with addresses or use someone like amazon instead of your own website shopping cart, whereby amazon will probably sell you that service.
The real problem comes with filing. Most states require monthly reporting. They make quite a bit of money from fining out of state filers when they make a mistake on those forms they’re not familiar with.
So you need an accountant now too.
Or, you could do your own research and roll the dice that way.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.