Posted on 09/04/2013 6:24:46 AM PDT by Perdogg
Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration has reached a deal withAmazon.com Inc. for the giant online retailer to start collecting sales taxes in Virginia.
The agreement calls for Amazon to start collecting the taxes of purchases made by Virginians on Sept. 1, 2013.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.wdbj7.com ...
Actually, it is the exact opposite. The mental concept of “no sales tax” seems to make people ignore comparison shopping. That is something I have NEVER ignored.
When we moved here from DE 10 years ago all of my friends insisted I would be back on a regular basis to do my shopping because I can hit the DE line in an hour and back “home” to Dover in 2 hours - I told them they were crazy. We had been coming here for 3 years and I already knew everything was less expensive here than there, even after adding the sales tax. There are a couple of specialty shops where I have always shopped, but other than that I spend as little as I can when I am there. For pete’s sake, for another buck I can buy a case of beer for what I paid for a 12 pack at home than I paid in Dover.
Thanks for the info. Truthfully the most time I’ve spent in Delaware is driving through it and of course that didn’t take very long. :-)
Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!
I lived there for 21 years before moving 106 miles south to Virginia. When I go back "home*" to visit the shortest part of my trip is from Virginia to the Delaware line. The drive from the Maryland/Delaware line to Dover is interminable to me.
*I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and didn't moved to Delaware until I was 22. Back then I went "home" quite frequently and always cheered when I hit the Delaware Memorial Bridge on my way to Dover.
Maybe your problem is making incorrect associations. Maybe there were a couple other factors you missed.
1) both Dems
2) both personally associated with raising others taxes
I don't see any other freepers lining up to whine that I must write more checks to my Dem governor when I buy stuff off the internet. Most just say 'right on, me too'
Why don't you tell them that they must turn in their newly regulated guns (in lib states)because Jesus told them so? See how that goes.
Yeah that bridge was always a highlight of my trip. I spent a lot of time working in Shelton CT which I alternated between driving and flying.
Now you are really changing subjects. You brought up federal income taxes,claiming that NO-ONE would pay their income taxes if all their income wasn’t reported.
I assert that you were wrong ON THAT POINT, which has nothing to do with people paying their “use tax” on purchases. I used three examples of people who did try to not pay all their FEDERAL INCOME TAXES, and yes they were all democrats, which is why we know about the conservative complaints, but the complaints were NOT based on them being democrats or raising other people’s taxes, the complaints themselves were that people should pay the taxes they owe.
Furthermore, I am not whining that you must write more checks. I am making a factual observation that legally you are required to do so, and that by not doing so, you are committing a violation of law, and are therefore acting in an illegal manner, and are subject to fines, penalties, or imprisonment (none of which are remotely likely to happen because states are simply NOT enforcing their “use tax” laws).
I am also pointing out that the crime is not victimless, because most of us cannot avoid most of our tax burdens, so given that the state WILL collect their money, if some citizens cheat on their taxes, it will simply cause the state to raise other taxes that they CAN collect.
As a perfect example, Virginia, because of the loss of sales tax to out-of-state sales, just passed a law increasing the sales tax, with a further increase to happen automatically if the feds don’t pass the federal sales tax collection law.
That change will cause ME to pay higher taxes, in order to cover the loss in taxes from the tax cheats who are not paying their taxes.
This is NOT a case where you are righteously defending the freedom of taxpayers by denying money to your “dem governor” — it is a case where you are burdening your fellow citizens with a higher tax burden in order to have a lesser tax burden of your own.
If you really wanted to be principled about denying your “dem governor” his taxes, you could do so in the manner of the blacks who publicly broke the laws of segregation, willing to be arrested so as to make the point against the atrocities. OR you could be more aggressive in your stealth campaign by committing other illegal acts which would take even MORE money from your government, like forging a 501C (non-profit) form.
I am certainly NOT saying you should or need to do either of those things — just noting that your attempt to claim some righteous mantle of tax fighter does not match your actions.
If someone lives in a state where a gun they currently own is now illegal to own, I would point out that owning the gun was illegal, and they were risking arrest and imprisonment. But keeping such a gun would be a victimless crime, just as speeding is a victimless crime. I doubt that Jesus would be on the side of breaking the law to keep a weapon, but each person has to decide their own religion — Jesus did not seem though to be that concerned with arming the citizens against their civil government, even though the government he was under was certainly evil and oppressive, and in fact did great harm to his people.
In summary though, I would make a distinction between victimless acts and cheating on taxes. Tax cheating is not victimless. Still, I’m not trying to order you to pay your taxes, or whining about it. Some people when they learn that they actually were supposed to pay these taxes DO start paying them, but not everybody cares anymore about the rule of law.
Maybe, sadly, you are right, and most conservatives would be rioting in the streets with the liberals if they thought they could get away with it.
Once you decide that you can cheat the “bad government” out of tax money, it is a small step to cheating “bad businesses” — I mean, what part of your argument would not apply to stealing cable from an evil liberal company that takes all the cable money and gives it to liberal democratic causes? Or shoplifting from a nationwide chain of stores that is run by a liberal who supports only democrats for office and funds LGPT and pro-abortion groups?
But no, I like to live in a fantasy world where the average conservative actually respects the laws, even those he/she disagree with, and strive to obey those laws which we are expected to obey. (there are laws we are not expected to obey, like speed limit and drinking laws). BTW, maybe the “use tax” laws are another example of a law we are not expected to obey — in Virginia, I am close to coming to that conclusion, as they punish the rest of us rather than go after the people actually breaking that law.
NO-ONE??? Like zero? But you claim you would, thats at least one, maybe.
More like so few would that the system would be worthless and to avoild collapse something different would be put into law.
A perfect example is Obama-care for individuals. Following the law might cost say $7K per year. Paying the fine the first year will instead cost $95 saving ~$6900.
But the the law does not allow enforcement of the fine so noncomplying could save the individual the entire +$7K for not complying.
But you come along and lecture that the bible says we must fully comply with Obama-care because like with state sales taxes, its the moral thing to do.
99.99% will laugh at you, and that is coming in a another month FY14,
If the federal government had no way of finding out what we earn then no-one would pay income taxes,So your premise was the conservatives would not pay any of their income taxes if they thought they could get away with not paying, if they thought they could not get caught.
It was that negative impression of conservatives that I attacked by saying I disagreed with you:
Comment 50:
Your suggestion that nobody would follow a law if they could not be caught is a sad commentary.
...
But most people actually do try to pay all the tax they owe, and try to use the political system to change the laws that they don’t like, rather than arguing that everybody has the right to disobey any law they don’t like or costs them money.
Now, about Obamacare:
By ruling of the Supreme Court, the Obamacare mandate is not a law with a criminal or civil penalty. Instead, Obamacare has a tax for which you can get relief if you do what the government wants, i.e. buy insurance.
So in that case, you can legally choose NOT to buy insurance, and simply pay the tax.
Now, will anybody pay the tax? Well, for the first year anyway, Obama has waived the employer part of the tax. But while the law supposedly does not give enforcement for the individual, the IRS is treating it like any enforcement, and they will have all the information they need to hit you with the tax, plus interest and penalties.
Remember, they get to tax you UNLESS you provide information showing that you should not be taxed. They will know how much money you made, so they will know the amount of tax that applies. If you don't send them proof of insurance (realize your company will do that, and in fact is already doing that, if you get insurance through them), then they WILL tax you.
Then, a group will sue the government claiming that the IRS has no right to try to enforce the law, and it will be interesting to see how that turns out.
I bet that a majority of conservatives will be in compliance with the Obamacare mandate -- so clearly I do not think that in that instance, no one will follow that law, but that is only a small part of the federal income taxes, and I most certainly think that even conservatives who chose to try to avoid the Obamacare tax would still pay their other income taxes even if they thought they could get away with cheating.
As to religious morality, again each person must decide their own religious morality, but while I disagree with your assertion that 99.99% of the people would laugh at such a notion as regards a particular law like Obamacare, I also could care less if people laugh at me for following my Christian moral values.
I KNOW people laugh at me for paying the "use tax", but it is the moral thing to do. I cannot find a religious fault with the law, nor do I see the "use tax" as inherently unfair -- in fact, it makes taxes MORE fair by having everybody who does the same thing get taxed the same way, regardless of "how" they do it.
Amazon is making a Faustian bargain on sales taxes. They have a logistics and economy of scale advantage that won’t last.
Now you should always follow the law and pay your correct tax, but America was founded by tax cheats and smugglers. So, you’re in good company.
You mean they refused to fill out those state sales tax forms and main their Dem governors even more $$$ because they bought their sonicare toothbrush heads from Amazon?
Someone here wink-wink told me that (not complying) violates Jesus teachings. I am not convinced.
Technically, thieves who threw tea into the water, so Britain could not collect tax on it.
That was but one event. Smuggling was an American pastime before America became America.
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