Posted on 05/06/2013 4:31:33 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
The US Senate on Monday passed a bill aimed at ending tax-free shopping on the internet but the move looks set to face fierce opposition before it becomes law.
The Marketplace Fairness Act, which has cross-party supporter and the backing of powerful retailers, would give states the power to require retailers with sales over $1m to collect state and local sales taxes for online purchases.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
We need someone to introduce an amendment that also requires brick and mortar stores to collect and remit sales taxes based on each purchaser’s place of residence. Retailers in states with high tourism (top 10 = California, Florida, New York, Nevada, Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia) will crash this legislation so fast your head will spin.
I'm not torn about this. If this passes the House, they have now put a cap on every small business in the country. Any who dare reach for a million dollars in sales will now have to think twice about if that's a good idea or not. It takes about 25 minutes to handle all the digital paperwork for filing California sales taxes for our business, and each time it is done at a loss, not only in time, but also in money, as our business pays high fees for transactions, and that includes the money collected for sales taxes.
To do that for each tax jurisdiction? Won't do it. Can't even come close to affording spending two days filling out sales tax paperwork. So if our sales reach $995,000, we will shut down for the year, everyone goes home until the next year.
Every new law creates yet another hurdle for small business to grow into a large business. The amount of regulation that hits a business that reaches 50 employees is massive now, and absolutely no incentive to grow past that point. So let's call these laws what they REALLY are: Protectionist laws to keep others from growing enough to compete.
At the core, that's what this really is. Amazon's big enough to absorb these costs (even though they rarely post a profit.) So is Apple, so are others. But they and the senate just emptied the bleachers of competition. Marketplace fairness for already big business who feared competition from below.
Good idea.
Tell me another good one.
They have multiple ways to come to a joint agreement on the two bills. It appears some GOP members maybe on board or at least they are sponsors of the House bill. So who knows what they’ll eventually do.
Or push for enforcement on the individual level (which is also a good idea).
Thing is it is against the law now. Rather than say it is our right to violate the law, fix the law.
The US Constitution, Article I section 7, says: "All bills for raising revenue shal originate in the House of Representatives ..."
Harry Reid should roast in Hell.
The bigger online retailers, Amazon at least, have marketing persons on the ground in various states. Sorry, I can’t give the exact terminology that describes these people, but they are the justification that Amazon has “physical presence” in California.
Mccain and Grahamnesty joined Dems on this, naturally.
Fortunately Grahamnesty is up for election in 2014.
You can see his Bengazi/Syrian smoke screens play acting ‘tough on Obama’ to divert from he treasonous votes.
Democrats have never seen a tax increase they didn’t love. Immediately
Good idea honestly. Also make sure catalog sales have the same requirement. There are already some states and cities that require you to pay for all purchases outside the area.
When the imperial federal government wants more of our money, they have to tag in “fairness” somehow. Everything is about “fair/fairness/sharing the whatever”. This is how communist do their work. Sadly, most of Amerika is so stupid of the facts, they do not realize that second by second they are losing more and more and more. But, this is the results of 50 years of public school dumbing down.
Anything with “fairness” in the title is guaranteed to be a nonsensical PC pile of feces.
What’s with the cowardly “not voting” cr@p? Cornyn needs to be shown the door.
To be accurate, it’s not a “national sales tax” but an enforcement of collection of state sales tax - forced BY the federal government. Don’t think that they don’t stand to gain by it, though.
The names of these pieces of legislation have become increasingly Orwellian.
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Those groups that voted:
72%
78%
99%
for Opansy are now permanently U-S-C for me
If that offends some FReepers and Lurkers - TS - I cannot worry about the 28% that may claim they are not against those that keep the system afloat -
They are your relatives and your friends
Not mine
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Democrats want taxes high so the government can do more spending.
Republicans want low taxes so the economy can grow and so people can better their lives.
Uh...this doesn’t raise taxes. It makes companies collect sales taxes people already have to pay - the alternative to doing this is for state governments to audit consumers to make sure they are declaring taxes they owe.
The MF act also exempts small business with less than $1m in sales volume.
This is about amazon and other large retailers getting a de facto subsidy because people use those sites to dodge sales tax, which hurts small businesses with brick and mortar footprints.
It is a rise in the effective tax rate, but only because it is enforcing existing sales taxes. Maybe the best option is to abolish sales taxes completely, but the second-best option is to level them fairly, both because it avoids economic distortions and is a fundamental question of the rule of law.
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