Posted on 11/12/2011 7:39:16 AM PST by Perdogg
The days of skirting around having to pay retail sales tax by shopping online may be coming to a close—and Amazon, of all companies, is supporting the effort.
Online retailer Amazon.com has a long history of fighting requirements for shoppers to pay their local state sales tax whenever a purchase is made via the Internet. Most recently, Amazon has been battling it out with California, which has been trying to force Amazon and other online retailers with ties to the state to collect sales tax on purchases.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyland.time.com ...
This is incorrect. It is not the government's job to create level playing fields. Second, you are wrong about bricks-and-mortar stores not factoring in shipping charges into the price. They've already shipped it to your neighborhood and that is reflected in the price.
You make a choice whether you want to save time and energy and not leave your couch to buy your item or whether you want to take a look at it and get it instantly without waiting for it. The prices of the items will reflect the prices of these conveniences.
I live in a rural area of Maine, and some items simply cannot be purchased locally.....the small business owners usually do not have the item I’m looking for.
Yes, the more remote your location, the costlier it will be to ship it there and the carrier may charge you more. You cannot demand that the government ensure that you pay no more than a shopper where competition has beaten down the prices.
“This is incorrect. It is not the government’s job to create level playing fields.”
I never said I’m in favor of the government creating “level playing fields.” I’m opposed to an Internet sales tax - the government confiscates - and pisses away - enough of our money now. Taxed Enough Already, the acronymn of the TEA Party. It seems to me that those who support online sales taxes are in favor of government creating a “level playing field.”
As to “whether I want to look at it and get it instantly,” I can’t do that, because the local retailers usually don’t have what I’m looking for. The is especially true in regards to antiques and vintage items, which in some cases are one-of-a-kind.
I don’t really understand your last point - “the more remote your location, the costlier it will be to ship it there and the carrier may charge you more. You cannot demand that the government ensure that you pay no more than a shopper where competition has beaten down the prices.”
I’m the one paying for the shipping, not the government. I pay for Priority Mail shipping, which has quadrupled in price since I first discovered Internet shopping in December, 1998. Even when a seller offers cheaper Media Mail or Parcel Post, I usually pay extra for Priority Mail shipping.
I’m 100% in favor of small businessmen and small businesswomen purchasing the goods and services being offered by other small businessmen and small businesswomen. But they have to have the goods and/or services to offer the consumer in the first place.
I pay $79.00. What is this $25.00 2 day free shipping that you speak of?
I agree. I do a lot of Amazon shopping. As long as I can get free shipping it won’t be too bad.
I think it will hurt them though.
Same here. $79 a year.
And to be honest, it will eliminate some of the issues where a state starts attacking people for their online purchases.
Actually, the absence of sales taxes online protected brick and mortars from even more drastic sales taxes and regulation. It is only in being able to escape onerous taxes that taxes are restrained.
It is no coincidence that the 16th Amendment passed only after Arizona became a state. That left Americans with no where to run.
From the article
“The bill would not affect especially small businesses, however: Any seller with less than $500,000 in sales annually would not be required to collect and remit sales tax.”
bookmark
I wonder if, once Amazon gets the bill passed, if they’ll provide a database to the states so the states can see which citizens received out-of-state goods without paying the required sales tax?
That would be even more money for the coffers.
I want the local brick and mortars to compete with Amazon on price, and I’ll pay them the local sales tax. But they won’t, so I go to Amazon. For years before Al invented Internet I shopped by phone buying photo and stereo-video equipment from out of state, most often from New York, where the sellers had actual street stores (and some still do) and yet were charging much lower prices than the local businesses, and no sales taxes, with shipping costs often enough free.
It really is $79 a year.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_cn?ie=UTF8&nodeId=13819211
That’s right. I am not paying sales tax and shipping. internet marketers are shooting themselves in the foot.
if you have to pay sales tax AND shipping and handling, in many cases it will prolly no longer be worth it to shop online...
I’ve never looked at Amazon to buy anything or for any other reason but i’ll never go there in the future for sure!
How are they supposed to pay for the brick and mortar, staff, local property taxes, something amazon doesn't have to include in it's price?
Read to the end of my post. The New York photo and stereo sellers paid for their store fronts in prime locations. How did they do that?
Those kinds of stores still exist for books, it’s simply that it is the ingenuity of the proprietor who makes it go. Plus, like most small business owners, he probably lives a simpler life, foregoing the higher income he could get as a store manager.
Such a model doesn’t, and probably can’t exist, for a national chain.
Just search out those small guys.
So do a lot of Republican Congress Critters.
Bezos has been fighting them tooth and nail around the country in the various states, but has, I believe, succumbed to the inevitability of this happening, and would rather pay the tax to one entity rather than 50. (Or 57 in Obozo’s Amerika)
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