Maybe you like the idea of someone else being forced to do your taxes for you rather then doing them yourself?
Why is it my job to pay your taxes?
Yes, I actually DO like the idea of you having to collect my taxes. It will make my life easier.
But really, if it was just me, that would be a lousy reason for a law.
But it is 150 million people. We are going to relieve the burden of 150 million people keeping records all year, and filing monthly, quarterly, or yearly reports, and the paperwork, and the government workers needed to handle 150 million+ filings, by shifting that burden to the point-of-sale, where it can be much more easily tracked and managed.
If I were writing the law, I would gladly include re-imbursement to business for performing this task. The money the state would spend on that would be less than what the state would spend processing the millions of “use tax” submissions each year.
Of course, in reality most people aren’t submitting their paperwork. Which is the real reason for burdening you with my taxes, because it is the only way to keep people from breaking the law. It is sad, but unfortunately true.
But I apologize for the burden, and can only note that if you don’t want the burden of collecting the sales tax for Virginia, you have an easy solution — refuse to sell items to anybody who lives in Virginia. You could even write to Virginia and tell them your demands — like tell them they have to pay you, and only require remittance quarterly, and should provide an online program for free that will tell you what the tax is for an address.
And I bet Virginia would work to streamline the process, if you got enough businesses to band together in this boycott.
And if not, at least you won’t be burdened. It is your choice if the cost of collecting sales tax is worth the sales to my state, just as everything in your business is based on your evaluation of the costs compared to the benefits.