Posted on 04/22/2009 5:27:11 PM PDT by Comparative Advantage
If you're planning a major purchase via the Internet, you might want to do it quickly. Congress is expected to introduce a bill this week that would require Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, Cabela's and other online merchants to collect sales tax on all online purchases and return that money to the state in which the purchaser resides.
Online Sales Tax?Tony Avelar, AP12 photos Congress will soon introduce a bill requiring sales tax on all online purchases. To read the latest on credit card changes, click through our gallery.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
I was recently shopping for a TV for a relative, and found that I could save $70 by buying it online and having it shipped to her address. That savings was primarily in sales tax. And while my state requires taxpayers to claim all online purchases and pay the sales tax on them, it doesn't seem to be able to enforce the tax. This is good for bargain hunters, but terrible for local merchants.
For those used to buying $.99 iTunes or other more tangible items, this will be an immediate price hike. Californians, for example, will pay an extra 7.25%. We'll see when the bill is introduced it if also included local sales taxes, which can bump this up to 8% or more for many of us.
(Excerpt) Read more at walletpop.com ...
but but 95% of the American people are getting $3.57 back this year
taxes + shipping will destroy the golden goose.
I haven’t seen one in a long time that didn’t include sales tax.
My senator is ARLEN SPECTER, and never listens to me.
This is ridiculous. Net shopping is like catalog shopping—the cost of shipping and handling is made up for by the lack of sales tax. But no seller can compete if the customer has to pay BOTH.
Are congressmen stupid? (Don’t answer that...)
Thank goodness I make under $250,000 a year. None of my taxes will be raised... phew. /sarc/
The Commonwealth of VA already requires a sale tax. Would this be a national sales tax?
I think it’s more than just a state sales tax. If your county and city has a sales tax you’ll pay that too.
So what if the retailers relocate their offices and servers outside the US and tell the taxman to stuff it?
US Customs.
Only point to buying online is the savings. If we can’t do that, then Wal-Mart it is
Unless Wal-Mart is forced to unionize...
I am NOT spending money on anything. I am on a sales tax revolt.
That might work for digital products but it won't work for tangible physical items that have to be warehoused and shipped. You going to move that outside the US?
This bill is basically providing the necessary authorization for the Streamlined Sales Tax Initiative that governors (mostly dems) have been pushing for the last 8 years or so.
It still stinks and people should contact their representatives now and try to stop the bill from passing.
No, one of my main reasons is the variety of stuff available that local stores don't carry, even in big cities. Wal-Mart has a very limited selection compared to the whole internet.
Craiglist and other private sales. Also it is amazing to find out you really can live on less. Like back in college?
Hmm. I don’t think I’ve ever paid sales tax online.
This puts puts an enormous accounting burden on every single merchant who sells online. Every single State (that collects Sales Tax) has individual Sales Tax Laws, reporting and remittance requirements and forms to be filled out properly. Can you imagine trying to keep the records straight for 35 or more different State Sales Tax Reports??
This will be another difficult sell in the US Senate, but will probably fly through Nancy Pelosi’s House...
There is this amendment - no tax or duty on trade between the states.
Go after them on constitutional grounds, and make it an election issue.
“It still stinks and people should contact their representatives now and try to stop the bill from passing.”
Yes, definitely contact your Congressional political whore and let him or her know how you feel. Otherwise, special interest groups will tell them how to vote when this bill is voted on.
YEP....UNDERGROUND Economy.....such Idiots the Obomba Admin are....
I’ve only paid sales tax on online purchases from vendors in California.
I was charged tax on sunday for books from Amazon.
Here’s what such a place could do:
People list stuff on it, ebay-style, but their actual addresses are not disclosed. The outside server takes payment and puts it into the sellers’ account which is also out of the gov’s reach. It then sends the seller an encrypted message on where and to who to send the article. The burden would then fall entirely on the gov to track down these people, which would be quite a challenge if the info was encrypted and buried in .JPG files or something like that. Just sayin.
And if the merch in question is electronic files, good luck stopping that.
I just ordered books from Amazon today and was not charged sales tax. Maybe it depends on the state.
My company doesn’t charge sales tax on interet purchases. This will be a record keeping nighmare for small companies, and will be an intrusive increase in cost.
I’m not even sure it will be worth continuing on the internet.
"Wait a minute now, I didn't authorize ATTACKS on the Pirates,
I authorized A TAX on the pirates"
Not really underground, as it is legal. It’s not like people don’t do this anyway, it’s just going to have more and more people doing it, more often.
And imagine the headache trying to calculate and remit the taxes for thousands of different tax jurisdictions.
I pretty much expect to have everything that I need for the next 5 years or so within the next couple of months, so this will only minimally affect me.
My hoarding has more to do with the massive price increases just around the corner as Obama tries to inflate away our debt.
For electronics, of course the obvious thing to do is go to Oregon or other states that don’t have sales taxes.
I think you've hit upon something there. I know the solution: Tax everyone at the same rate at the federal level and reimburse the states.
Heck, it will even "create" more jobs.
See, even I can think like a deranged, greedy politician.
Article I, Section 10
No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on
Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection
Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or
Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall
be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.
We don’t pay sales tax in OK unless the retailer has a store in the state. That means Amazon gets most of my business — no tax and I use their Prime Shipping so over a period of time I save a lot by shopping Amazon plus the selection is really good.
The Supreme court made it clear in the Quill decision that that congress had the power to do this.
The SSTI has been developed and polished specifically to conform to the various issues of unconstitutionality brought forth in that decision in order overcome the eventual court challenge.
This bill is being introduced into congress as part of the overall SSTI plan now that Obama is in the white house. Bush signed several extensions of the moratorium on internet taxes and McCain supported a permanent ban.
They want this rammed through now and signed ASAP before any voter backlash in 2010 that might undo the Democratic majority and prevent passage. They certainly don’t want to take a chance on Obama losing in 2012.
They are in a hurry to make this happen now. It’s the only chance they’ve had, ever.
Yes Walmart has a HORRIBLE variety of items. Their things are truly the lowest common denominator.
If I want basic cooking items then they are ok. But try to buy semolina flour there at a decent price. Their choices scare me. I am afraid that if that gets to be the only place to shop I will not be able to cook nice meals for my family.
Your system would be taken over almost immediately by fraudsters selling non-existent product. Shortly after it would experience a cascade of credit card chargebacks, followed by Visa and MC shutting down your ability to process credit cards.
Now you’re bankrupt and Interpol is after you for international credit fraud.
You have to design a system that avoids the criminal element both in and out of government. It’s not as easy as it looks.
Most buyers would prefer to pay sales tax rather than take chances on a shady site rife with fraud.
It would seem the hog trough in Washington isn’t sufficiently deep or broad to satisfy the bottomless appetite of our current administration for the cash of American citizens.
Why must this be inevitable? Smoot-Hawley wasn’t inevitable. People just let it happen.
My husband sells on ebay. If he has to figure taxes and keep records for every state he ships items to (most sales are just small ones anyway), it will be just too much of a headache and not worth it for him to continue. Ebay has enough rules and regulations by itself without Congress penalizing us for trying to do something to make a little money. (Many of our items are collectibles and have already had taxes paid on them to begin with.) This bunch is coming after us until eventually we’ll have to put a coin slot, or dollar bill slot, on our commodes for each time we use them and flush. I suppose then that one of Obama’s community “volunteers” will have a good job coming by our houses and removing the coins on a monthly basis.
Right. The Founding intent was that states would compete, both economically and politically, thus dampening bad ideas.
Hence, a limited Federal government.
That could be, living in NY, seems everything is taxable.
Yeah, Thats true. Does this tax go to telephone purchases also? I’ll call them instead.
It wasn’t too bad because I got free shipping, which would have been twice what I paid in tax.
Atlas Shrugged and Liberty and Tyranny were half price. Bonus!
Our water bottles, which we used to save and recycle will now have to be saved and returned for the nickle deposit.
I would hope the law would require that states provide an online database by zip code that would provide immediate percent needed to collect, and an online auto-transfer funds capability.
I strongly doubt that this is going to happen to eBay purchases. The really big online sites will get hit with it, but they’re established enough to deal with it. Let’s face it, if you’ve been hooked on buying books on Amazon.com for the last seven or eight years (without bothering to check the “little guy” on Half.com) you’re not going back to Barnes and Noble’s brick and mortar store just to save at most 8-10%.
These are state and local taxes. Not Federal. Why should the local merchant have to charge their customers a tax that internet merchants don’t?
So that’s why you call them now and say “We will make this an election issue if you don’t leave off.”
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