Posted on 10/10/2009 3:40:11 AM PDT by Leisler
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators will look into complaints by AT&T Inc. that Google Inc.’s free messaging and calling service, Google Voice, blocks calls to rural communities where local phone companies charge high connection fees.
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday sent a letter to Google requesting information about its Voice service, which lets people sign up for one number that can route incoming calls to cell, office or home phones. The service also lets users place calls, including international calls, at low rates.
As part of a broader quarrel with Google, AT&T has complained that Google Voice blocks calls to phone numbers in some rural communities to reduce the access charges it must pay. .........
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
No, it doesn’t, which is why the statement after “but” provides the reason I want to impose the collection of state sales tax on companies selling into the state from out of state.
Each state can set their own tax rate; they can’t simply slap higher sales taxes on the people (or else they would do so), the people control the government a little more at the state level, and so can fight back.
A state might well lower the sales tax rate overall if they had the additional revenue from internet sales tax. That’s how I’d urge MY senator and representative and local government to react to the law.
I believe taxes should be as minimal as necessary to fund required government services, and should be applied equally to all, not used as incentives or payback or subsidies for favored activities at the expense of unfavored activities.
In this case, the lack of sales tax collection for internet purchases gives internet sales (out of state, employing people out of state) an ADVANTAGE over in-state stores employing people in the state.
Note that most states require their citizens to pay sales tax on internet sales (usually as a “use tax” on your state tax form). And any internet company which also has a single store IN a state is required to collect sales tax on ALL sales to addresses in a state.
Who forced him to open a store in a state that has sales tax?
If you would like to send the government more money, then work to create a "voluntary" tax. That way, you and the others out there who would like to pay even more taxes can do so, voluntarily.....and you can leave us the heck alone.
I would LOVE to know what you propose to do to people like me who cross state lines to shop in a no sales tax state.
Ummmm, finding and utilizing an advantage over your competition is called DOING BUSINESS. If you can't compete then perhaps you shouldn't be in business.
But the "local" gov't does not supply those services for the internet company. Why should they be paid for services they donot provide?
Most people, even here at FR, frown on following those particular tax laws. I dislike taxes, but feel that so long as government has passed a law which requires a tax to be paid, if I deliberately and knowingly fail to follow that law, I would be a tax cheat, and others who aren't cheats have to pay more taxes to make up for my lack of paying taxes.
Which would make me no better than Geithner or any of the other liberals in this administration who failed to pay their taxes and had excuses.
If you are lucky, you live in a state that does not require you to file tax on yourself if you buy stuff in another state. Virginia has a use tax.
Consumer Use Tax for Businesses (ST-7 PDF 132 Kb)The use tax applies to the use, consumption or storage of tangible personal property in Virginia when the Virginia sales or use tax was not paid at the time of purchase. The use tax is computed on the cost price of the property, which is the total amount for which the property was purchased, including any services that are a part of the purchase, valued in money or otherwise, and includes any amount for which credit is given the purchaser or lessee by the seller.
As far as "finding and utilizing an advantage", when the advantage is a business advantage, that IS good business. When the advantage is due to government laws that apply inconsistantly, favoring some over another, that is government intrusion in private business, and as a conservative I oppose it.
And to the degree a state wants to encourage people to set up businesses IN the state, where they employ people, and provide business tax, states certainly don't want to have a system where their tax code encourages companies to set up out of state and sell things over the internet.
Sales tax is not a tax on business, it is a tax on people buying things from the business. Businesses in the state pay business taxes for the services provided.
Sales tax is for services provided to the people who LIVE in the state. How would you feel if you found out that your next-door neighbor didn’t have to pay government anything for all the services they get, while you have to pay extra taxes to cover both your and his services?
Actually, I don't know if it does, nor do I care. I will certainly not be looking into tax laws to see how much more taxes I can pay.
"When the advantage is due to government laws that apply inconsistently,'
Not government laws, state laws. Each state has it's own right to apply sales taxes or not. And every American is free (for now) to travel to any state and purchase goods.
The government and it's excessive taxation can kiss my hiney.
That does appear to be a majority opinion here at FR. Just know that these are not voluntary laws, and if you are caught, since you aren't an Obama appointee, you will be punished.
But as many have noted before, there's no chance you could get caught. For myself, I feel character is what you do when nobody could know the difference. But it is taxes, so most people feel it's there job to violate as many tax laws as they can get away with.
Tell me....what will you do when the government forces all of us, I mean, "passes a law", that states everyone must get the swine flu vaccine? Take it? Or fight the excessive, intrusive, unconstitutional government?
And yes, I do think the "non-tax state laws" you are referring to are excessive, intrusive and unconstitutional. They get plenty of tax dollars from the gasoline I use for my travels, as well as the exceedingly high bridge crossing fees.
Just because I won't allow my government to bleed me dry does not mean I don't have character.
I don’t know what I’ll do if the government says we must all get the swine flu vaccine.
I’ve been vaccinating my children with every vaccine they have required for school, because my doctor has concurred.
If the swine flu vaccine is made mandatory, but my doctor says it is dangerous, I’ll probably refuse and write a column about it. Then the government can do what they want with me. Of course, I wouldn’t risk getting myself and my children thrown in jail just so I could say $10 on a mattress.
If you want to justify tax evasion by asserting that your state has no constitutional right to impose a sales tax on you, that is your right. And if you want to make that “stand” in secret, that is your right as well.
Most people don’t make the constitutional argument on this matter, as there is little question that state sales tax violates no federal constitutional provision, and no state constitutional provision. And I would imagine such an argument would not only fail in court, but would fail in the court of public opinion.
But I only speak for my own opinion about taxes for which the government requires you to volunteer your information (except occasionally states will go to neighboring states and get information on big-ticket sale items, so they can make examples of people).
I don’t bedgrudge my state it’s sales tax. I want to have police and firemen and roads and zoning laws, and I realise they have to be paid for.
LMAO!!! Just call me Charlie!!
Actually, I don't know if it does, nor do I care. I will certainly not be looking into tax laws to see how much more taxes I can pay.
Ignorance of the tax law is not a legal justification for not paying taxes that are owed. Nobody is likely to turn anybody in, but as citizens, we are called on to understand and follow the laws passed by our elected representatives.
Any time we argue that it is acceptable to ignore the law, or willfully not learn the law, in order to avoid a law we don't feel like following, we weaken the argument for the rule of law. That it happens to be a tax we are discussing doesn't change the principle.
We don’t have the rule of law. We have the rule of men and they pass “laws” to give the appearance that their looting is legal.
Think on your point that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law. That applies to obvious and objective things like theft or murder or battery, but you’ve likely broken arcane laws that are not a part of natural law - the law you should know.
They make up the legislative nightmare that faces every free person in America. They seek to criminalize normal human behaviors to the benefit of the few with the power to pass laws.
Government is a transfer system. It transfers wealth from those without political power to those with political power. Paying for this process isn’t some honor.
You’d better read up on our Founders and how our nation came to be. This is not the America they envisioned.
Secondarily, a tax-free Internet provides a bulwark against additional capricious tax increases against brick and mortar stores. Think about it. As a conservative, do you really believe that government as it exists today is a) necessary and b) that by giving it more of what it craves (power/money) it will reform itself?
And just what do you suggest? That we check into the new laws, passed on an almost monthly basis, to see what we're doing wrong this time? THAT is absurd!
You go live in that kind of world. I'll stay in my "free for now" one.
They get enough from me already. Sometimes, you have to grow a spine and say enough is enough. If I choose to go to another state for tax free goods, my states police and fire persons will not go without.
As I've said, they get PLENTY from me already. Enough is enough.
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