Posted on 04/26/2013 10:11:02 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Internet sales tax bill to hit roadblock in House By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | Associated Press – 42 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to require Internet shoppers to pay sales taxes for online purchases may be cruising through the Senate but it will soon hit a roadblock in the House.
"There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., one of the main sponsors of the bill in the House.
The bill would empower states to reach outside their borders and compel online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. Under the bill, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
Womack says the bill is not a tax increase. Instead, he says, it simply gives states a mechanism to enforce current taxes.
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales taxes when they file state tax returns. But governors complain that few people comply.
The Senate voted 63-30 Thursday to end debate on the bill, though senators delayed a final vote on passage until May 6, when they return from a weeklong vacation. Opponents hope senators hear from angry constituents over the next week, but they acknowledged they have a steep hill to climb to defeat the bill in the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Good point!
Don’t everyone forget it was a Republican (Mike Enzi, Wyo) who introduced this bill. The GOP is just as duplicitous in government expansion as the Dems just wimpier about it.
>> getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase
I’m having trouble getting through the fog of this (R)epresentative’s breathtaking asininity.
At least some states (including mine) require residents to report purchases on which that state’s sales tax was not collected on their yearly state income tax return and pay the sales tax on them.I buy many things online...expensive things (TVs,laptops,cameras,etc) and I also buy many such things in nearby New Hampshire (no state sales tax).Over my lifetime I’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars in state sales tax and state income tax alone,enough to fund thousands of foreign jihadis’ EBT cards.As a result I do not report *any* of these purchases to the state and never will.
And it’s nothing but greed. Cities and counties want to get their sweaty hands on as much tax money as possible because every commissioner, sheriff and county department head wants nothing more than to enlarge his fiefdom and panel his office.
Its’ disgusting.
TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY!!!
Walmart was looking to build a second location in our town of 85,000. The city did not wish to give them the tax breaks they gave them when Walmart build the first location.
Our much smaller neighboring city (about 25,000 people) is the county seat. The county needed a new courthouse and, by law, it needed to be built in the county seat. Our town ceded a thin strip of land that snaked into our city to facilitate building the new courthouse.
Walmart, just to show us who is boss, built their new location on part of the strip of land that our city had ceded, giving the sales tax revenue generated by the Walmart to the smaller city, even though most of the shoppers are from our city. We estimate that refusing to give them the requested $1.2 million in tax breaks will cost the city over $500K a year in revenue. Wonderful that I get to pay higher property taxes because we wouldn't give Walmart the incentive.
Boehner’s on it:
Hopefully, he’ll make a better decision than his daughter.
I can only imagine that the Founding Fathers would tar, feather, and hang each one of these over-taxing traitorous SOB's by their necks on the steps of the Capital should they pass something like this in their time.
Once a system like this is in place, it will not stop at merely collecting sales taxes. Bet on it.
They could repeal the sales taxes instead. That would level the playing field. That should be the 'Pubbie position.
Hey, Womack, a**hole, if it collects taxes, it is a TAX.
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