Cruz opposes sales tax on online buying

Dallas Morning News ^ | 18 November 2014 11:05 PM | TODD J. GILLMAN 

[SoConPubbie]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz joined other opponents of an online sales tax plan on Tuesday, calling it a giveaway to Amazon, Best Buy and other big retailers at the expense of consumers and small startups.

“The last thing we should be doing is pass a massive new national sales tax,” he said, joining a number of conservative House members and others who oppose the Marketplace Fairness Act.

The bill would let states and cities collect sales taxes from online sellers, even if those businesses have no physical presence in their jurisdiction. The change could generate $340 billion in state and local tax revenue over a decade.

Speaker John Boehner, a longtime opponent of an online sales tax bill, said this month that he won’t let it move forward this year.

Backers, including top senators in both parties, hope to tie it to a popular moratorium on taxing access to the Internet that expires next month. Texas has an exemption that lets it levy taxes on Internet access, but it would lose that authority Dec. 11 unless Congress acts.

With Republicans poised to take control of the Senate in January, Cruz said that “it would be the height of lunacy” to impose a new tax now.

Groups that support the online sales tax say the current situation gives online retailers an unfair edge because customers have no choice but to pay sales tax when buying in physical stores.

[SoConPubbie]

	"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[SoConPubbie]

Ted Cruz Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

[C. Edmund Wright]

I don’t wish off the ping, but I damned sure wish Cruz wasn’t feeling the need to weigh in on every single issue. That’s not how its done.

You weigh in on 2 or 3 big ideas OVER AND OVER AND OVER.

[Fresh Wind]

And then people accuse you of being a 2 or 3 issue candidate.

You can’t please everybody.

[trisham]

Excellent.

[C. Edmund Wright]

no body complains about that.....think Reagan.

[Svartalfiar]

The change could generate $340 billion in state and local tax revenue over a decade.

The change could remove $340 billion in spendable money from consumers over a decade.

Groups that support the online sales tax say the current situation gives online retailers an unfair edge because customers have no choice but to pay sales tax when buying in physical stores.

Huh. But then shouldn't we force bricknmortar stores to charge for individual shipping as well?

..said Joshua Baca... “The Texas small business community, tea party leaders, and state legislators support e-fairness because it closes loopholes, protects the free market” and lets states avoid raising other taxes to collect the revenue they need.

Um, I don't think so? If anything, the states should charge sales tax at the point of sale, not on the buyee. But how about the states NOT raise taxes, and instead just not spend so much money? Ever think of that?

[Eska]

So the buyer would only be charged if a state sales tax existed in the buyer’s state? Sure would make people think about state taxes. Alaska doesn’t have any state sales or income taxes; how it should be everywhere.

[2001convSVT]

“Speaker John Boehner, a longtime opponent of an online sales tax bill, said this month that he won’t let it move forward this year.”

Finally something that I am appreciative of speaker Boehner!