Posted on 04/21/2009 5:56:33 AM PDT by suspects
Leave it to a Massachusetts politician to get taxes completely wrong.
U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt is soon expected to reintroduce the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) bill, a federal mandate for collecting local sales taxes on interstate purchases. You buy organic Oreos from Oregon or moose meat from Montana, and Massachusetts sales taxes would track you across the Internet.
Supporters argue it’s unfair to make traditional “brick-and-mortar” businesses collect our state’s 5 percent (for the moment) sales tax while a shop next door can sell the same item online tax-free.
They’re right. Every business should be treated the same. What’s wrong is Delahunt’s convoluted, big-government solution.
SST would make every small business across America a tax collector for each of the 50 states. These businesses would be forced to collect data on every Internet customer; calculate their home-state sales tax; collect and report it, and send it to each state capitol. SST would simplify this somewhat by making sales taxes more uniform across the states. But there would still be conflict and confusion.
CNET News’ Declan McCullagh uses the example of Twix Crunchy Cookie Bars. Under some state tax codes, Twix is a “candy.” In others, it’s a potentially tax-exempt “food.”
And I can only imagine what would happen with grits - considered a vital foodstuff in South Carolina but a construction-grade bonding agent in New Hampshire.
Why so complicated? The fair and obvious solution is to treat every Internet purchase like an ice cream cone on Hampton Beach.
The Ben and Jerry’s guy there doesn’t ask where you’re from. For every dollar of ice cream he sells, he collects the same sales tax, period. Why not have Internet retailers do the same?
If a business in New Hampshire sells a product, online or at the drive-thru, it always...
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
One more way to retard business.
Properity - can’t have that! Tax it...
One more way to retard business.
Yep. And one more retard to waylay business.
Can’t allow death to trump taxes!
Like DE
How will a company doing business online be able to determine if the person buying is giving their real shipping address? I guess they’ll realize something is amiss when 95% of their customers give their address as Delaware - hehe.
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
If it stops moving, subsidize it.
It’s not about revenue - it’s about power.
Look for online sales to move off shore.
I think the current proposal is such that the tax is based on the buyer's state, not the retailer.
That being said, which address do you use to determine SST? Billing address or shipping address?
I could see people opening credit cards with billing addresses of relatives in states with no/low SST...
They’ll have to change the Constitution first.
I can see more black markets opening up as well.
It's also Unconstitutional.
Article I, Section 9:
No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.
Article I, Section 10:
No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.
“One more way to retard business.” Good choice of words when talking about U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt.
Just another MA idiot.
I’m expecting a property tax bill on my grave plot when I’m a stiff...
Have the retailers collect the sales tax for their location, other than cars, sales tax is based on the location of the seller not buyer.
Let the retailers locate their businesses based on the most competitive sales taxes. Let the states compete for this business with their tax rates.
You do not need to make this complicated.
“No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress”
How long will that take?
Alright, if I drive to, say, Nevada, and buy something there, I don’t have to pay CA sales tax. Why should I have to pay it if I buy it online? I can see states charging a tax for their state for things sold online in their state, but this BS is ridiculous. The left is determined to kill off all business, some of the dumb a**es politicians actually believe they will get more revenue by doing this, many of them know it will simply cause less revenue to flow and it will hurt business. They are trying to trash our country boys and girls and be had better find a way to stop them and very, very soon.
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