Posted on 04/12/2011 12:55:13 PM PDT by GreaterSwiss
Update 10:30 a.m. PT: I've heard back from Sen. Mike Enzi's office. It sent me e-mail this morning saying: "Senator Enzi plans to co-sponsor the Main Street Fairness bill with Senator Durbin. As far as a timeline or drafts, you'll have to check with Senator Durbin's office."
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20052999-281.html#ixzz1JL8wTRdz A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.
The proposal--expected to be made public soon after Tax Day--would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.
Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET.
"Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?" Durbin said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February. "Out-of-state companies that aren't paying their fair share of taxes are sticking Illinois residents and businesses with the tab."
At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren't always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't pay the sales taxes at checkout time that they would if shopping at a local mall--which is what Durbin means by giving online retailers an "unfair advantage."
On the other hand, there are some 7,500 different taxing jurisdictions in the United States, each with a set of very precise rules describing what can and can't be taxed and at what rate. That makes it challenging terrain for retailers to navigate.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20052999-281.html#ixzz1JL903e1g
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
The retail association gave Durbin (Mafia) lots of donations...
Local stores refuse to carry what I want to buy in many cases. It’s not even a matter of price, it’s a matter of ‘cannot get locally at any price.’
I should be taxed because my local stores are run by morons and refuse to stock what I want?
Its a different business model that market forces should be sorting out. IF there is a disadvantage, then why should the government be the profiteer of sorting out the difference when the market would do, and is doing, that quite well. Besides, government does NOT need any new monies that they just spend on crap. They need to be shrunken down to a manageable size.
Who'da guessed?
Clean out the scum that inhabits both bodies of Congress.
These guys qualify as scum.
This is true, but essentially nobody actually does it.
I think the argument is that the government *is* sorting out winners and losers under the current system, and this would put the government back in a "neutral" position.
That said, I don't like the bill, and would not support it unless it included substantial cuts in other taxes.
So as an Ebay seller I’m going to have to get sales tax licenses and send in taxes to all of these different jurisdictions? BS, aint gonna happen, see if they want to extradite me to each state for about $50/year.
Looks like another super-RINO has been unmasked!!
Looks like another super-RINO has been unmasked!!
You’re always paying for shipping fees, it’s just hidden in physical stores. Much like the corporate income tax.
Good ole government, always wanting to stick its nose where it doesn’t belong.
In most cases it is the only reason to buy on the internet.
Which is why big-box retailers are behind the push for this.
Thank you!! Fk. I want to blow my brains out the more I keep reading, hearing that raising taxes is the only fair solution to this or that.
This isn’t about a federal tax, it’s about congress authorizing the states to force business in other states to remit sales tax to them even thought those businesses use none of the distant states resources.
It’s just more revenue for the states to waste.
NO!
See, elections don’t matter.
No, the local store can open a website and sell on the internet. I have both a small retail shop and a website. Very common for locals to purchase and pay online and let me know they will pick it up in person. I have "local pick up" as an option.
I also ship worldwide. Anybody with something to sell can do the same. Easy peasy.
Theres that word again..It's been wafting from Dem pieholes the last week or so more than usual.
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