Posted on 04/16/2009 9:09:31 AM PDT by Snoopers-868th
If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over.
A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a "loophole" that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.
Currently, 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 sales taxes at checkout time that they would if shopping at a local mall.
"We will have the bill ready for introduction by next Monday," said Neal Osten of the National Conference of State Legislatures. "We finalized the language and now we're working out the remaining issues and adding some new provisions at the request of various stakeholders."
This is hardly a new debate: pro-tax officials and state governments have been pressing Congress to enact such a law for at least seven years. They argue that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police, and say that, as a matter of fairness, online retailers should be forced to collect the same taxes that brick-and-mortar retailers do.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.zdnet.com ...
As we become poorer they will outlaw or tax bartering also. I can see them going after the beside the road fruit stand and the garage sales all over.
The most painful thing about paying the sales tax is that it is also tacked on to the shipping charges. Thus more taxes are paid online than in B&M stores.
You’ve made some good points there. If there’s any justification for taxes, they should be somehow related to services used.
Agree. They have to fear something.
Also the difference in what is taxed. I've lived in states where clothing wasn't taxed, or books were taxed but textbooks weren't, or food wasn't taxed so flower seeds were taxed but vegetable seeds weren't.
Why should shipping be part of the equation for sales tax? I blame Amazon for that.
Another reason not to live in the anus of the east coast. (like anyone needed another reason)
One thing online retailers do is generate numerous jobs in the shipping industry. Fed Ex and UPS both benefit dramatically from the millions of online purchases and they in turn hire additional personnel who in turn pay more taxes and pump more money into the local economies.
Right now shopping over the net is extremely efficient and fast. You can price check and accomplish as much in minutes as it takes hours to do locally without the fuel. Having to pay both shipping charges and local taxes will in turn put the online retailers at a distince disadvantage. But this is too big a cherry for these free spending states.
how about 'brick-and-mortar retailers ' not being collectors for the state in the first place ???
income, sales, property, 'usage', luxury, 'tourist' [for fast food] etc etc etc...
thats not even counting the built in 'fees' associated with most goober related exchanges...
enough already...
So it is basically as I said. The states want us to shop locally, spend our money locally, while at the same time they contract for workers out of state who spend their money earned in say my state in another state. Screw my state. If they want to go after protectionism of their state then I say hire the people of the state.
Taxes for online business will have exactly the same effect as taxes for any other business will have.
It’s like castrating an animal with one of those little rubber bands.
Perfect idea! That would encourage businesses to locate in low tax states.
What they did with cigarettes was there was some old ATF law that required the seller of cigarettes who sold to anyone other than a distributor to report the sales to the relevant agency. When they did not comply they sued and subpoenaed the records. Then the relevant State agencies went after the people for not reporting the usary. The onerous for reporting was on the business. Many businesses just shut down. Doesn’t help much because all they have to do is get one person a credit card and they can go to your credit rating and check all your credit cards for similar transactions. Bastard pigs is all I can say.
There is a constitutional provision against taxing interstate sales, so how can this be?
Yep...
If that is correct I would say that is what they are going to “fix.” With cigarettes there was a law already on the books. You can thank some Senator in Wisconsin for finding it. Can’t remember the name but the ATF law was something like a 1948 law that was never enforced.
But Bobama/Pelosi/Reid have INSISTED that most of America won't be paying higher taxes. Imagine that.
When I purchase, I noticed that the sales tax is based on the destination. When I buy something for myself, I pay less sales tax than if I buy a gift for someone in New York City.
20 years ago I bought my laserdisc player (still working, and getting constant use, it plays CDs quite well too) mailorder from a magazine.
Will ALL catalog sales now be subject to sales tax? Or just those that also own a website?
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