Posted on 04/16/2018 6:52:39 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Sales Tax: $0.
Online shoppers have gotten used to seeing that line on checkout screens before they click "purchase." But a case before the Supreme Court could change that.
At issue is a rule stemming from two, decades-old Supreme Court cases: If a business is shipping to a state where it doesn't have an office, warehouse or other physical presence, it doesn't have to collect the state's sales tax.
That means large retailers such as Apple, Macy's, Target and Walmart, which have brick-and-mortar stores nationwide, generally collect sales tax from customers who buy from them online. But other online sellers, from 1-800 Contacts to home goods site Wayfair, can often sidestep charging the tax.
The case now before the Supreme Court involves South Dakota, which has no income tax and relies heavily on sales tax for revenue. South Dakota's governor has said the state loses out on an estimated $50 million a year in sales tax that doesn't get collected by out-of-state sellers.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Good. Even the playing field. Tax everyone equally.
Good for higher taxes?
Good for greedy state governments?
I don’t know about others, but my state and local taxes over the past 20 years has gone up WAY MORE than my federal taxes.
I guess the states and cities simply have very, very, good lobbyists in DC.
$50 million out of a total of $2 Billion. Yeah, that’s a good reason to add $billions in regulatory overhead to stores in other states to collect taxes for you.
Sorry, but the playing field is already level... I do a few online sales and collect tax in my state just like any other store. If someone from South Dakota comes to my store (or any other store in my state) it’s not up to us to find out what the tax should be and file a return for every municipality in the country.
But, Better: Require a strict accounting of every dollar collected in taxes at all levels. No more tens or hundreds of thousands, millions or billions disappearing down local, state and federal rabbit holes! No more public spending on anything not specifically authorized in local, state of federal legislation.
Not at all. It means every business that sells to me in my town pays and collects the tax equally.
That’s OR federal...
So what? The rationale behind charging sales tax for businesses in state is that they receive the dubious "benefits" of the local and state governments. An out of state business receives no such "benefits" why should they charge tax?
Just because a greedy government doesn't get to extort a fraction of some transaction is not sufficient reason to start the practice. If the state isn't getting $50 million, then that's $50 million that the citizens are keeping in their own pockets. Anything that leaves money in the citizens pockets rather than the government's coffers is a good thing.
All Democrats and most Republicans seem to think that everything of yours belongs to the government and you're only allowed to keep what little fraction you have as a generous gesture from government. They think that the citizens' role is to provide the government with unlimited funds to squander on things that benefit bureaucrats and politicians.
Good. Even the playing field. Tax everyone equally.
The playing field is already level.
Shop in person, you pay sales tax.
Shop on line, and in most cases, you have to pay shipping.
(I’m a small eBay seller and I charge shipping).
It shouldn’t matter what state or city the customer resides in or makes the purchase from online. If out of your business address you make a sale, you collect state and/or city taxes on that transaction. Why is this so hard? Every business license requires a business address.
No reference to the Constitution in the article.
“No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.”
Not at all. It means every business that sells to me in my town pays and collects the tax equally.
Some states used to double tax, but the SC shut that down in in 2015 Comptroller v. Wynne. Scalia and Thomas dissenting.
IF there is going to be an Internet sales tax, it should be a source / destination split at the state level. In other words, each state publishes a single source tax rate and a single destination tax rate and distributes the taxes collected appropriately.
That structure will work to drive businesses to ship from states with a low tax rates.
I don’t know about others, but my state and local taxes over the past 20 years has gone up WAY MORE than my federal taxes.
I guess the states and cities simply have very, very, good lobbyists in DC.
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