Posted on 08/21/2008 9:16:36 PM PDT by Sammy67
Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce.
Washington, D.C. -
Update: Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley is pushing the bill.
Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government. Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035 FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."
"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as
“I wonder if Congress funded all that.”
Absolutely! /s
Although this is a total invasion of privacy (tacked on to the Housing Bill), that most Americans aren’t even aware of, the implementation will leave it dead in the water, imo.
But as life time jobs go...it could be a bird’s nest on the ground.
I agree with you about the invasiveness of this. There should be a line item veto to preclude such legislation that is “packaged” with other bills, but there isn’t.
I know there is no federal sales tax, today. I can’t see the implementation of a system to monitor the massive amounts of data involved being on the horizon at the federal level.
State level (for sales tax), perhaps.
Even more at risk than E-Bay would be the big mail order operations that don't charge sales tax. So this whole thing could be aimed at the large corps, not the consumer.
In ordering cigarettes on line, the seller, when asked about applicable sales tax states that it is the buyer's responsibility to remit the sales tax to the appropriate taxing authority. Like that is going to happen. I'm sure the same applies to any mail order company.
Really off topic comment...Several years ago I used to EBAY a lot. I loved the auctions and the interaction with sellers all over the country.
I checked out the site a year or so ago...pretty much “big box” retailers and most of the interaction between buyer and seller has been computerized.
Pretty sad, but it sure has saved me a lot of money. :)
The rule is that if a company has a physical business presence in the state of the buyer, then they are liable to collect and remit the state and local sales taxes.
If the selling company has no physical business presence in the buyer’s state, then they are not responsible to collect sales tax. Of course, state and local taxing authorities have the hots for a revenue stream off these transactions, and I believe that the laws will sooner or later remove this “loophole”, so to speak. Then we all get to pay more sales taxes. Local businesses support this change, since they have to collect and pay local sales taxes.
There are a few mail order companies that charge sales tax anyway, like Dell, who irritate me when I buy a computer by charging me some sales tax, but not the full local amount. I have no idea how or why they are collecting those taxes, as they have no business presence in my state.
But I could see where the brick and mortar businesses that have invaded E-Bay could be at risk. At one time, EBAY was pretty much a Mom and Pop garage sale. I think you said, yourself, that the little seller is being squeezed.
So I guess, as more Amazons and (insert company name here)On Line companies utilize the internet, it becomes a problem with the Tax Man. So, if the government can figure out a way to compile the data from credit cards (not likely)for purchases from brick and mortar on-line companies, they will be able to track unreported revenue...and collect sales tax.
Don't get me wrong..I shop on line all the time. I really hate that a lot of smaller internet companies may go out of business because of this.
Some states require that mail order businesses collect state sales tax at point of destination, as opposed to point of origin. But are not liable to collect MTAs or county tax for that point of destination. Not that most follow that. That could be what Dell is doing.
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