Did you happen to notice that businesses don't pay taxes - in the end it's the customers that do - by paying higher prices?
FReegards!
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 ...
Define a transaction as happening where the buyer lives and some will grumble what if they buy stuff online while not at home or that they have a PO Box address in a State with low sales tax.
Define a transaction as happening where the buyer is and suddenly you have another justification to track everybody.
Define it as where the seller is an merchants in high sales tax States will howl.
Best to do nothing and leave things as they are. It is not the basic function of a Citizen to fund their government so it’s okay if government does without.
“We get reamed in property taxes every year, DESPITE having 2/3’s Republicans in our legislature.”
I’d bet that TX property taxes are lower than MI property taxes. We get hosed big time, and still pay 6% sales tax!
PS...Republicans control 100% of everything in MI by wide margins!
I have never given one cent to Amazon/Bezos. How about you?
Are you a conservative or do you just pretend to be one on the internets?
Government at all levels takes more than enough now in taxes.
You realize they the reason they don’t pay local tax is because they aren’t in your city or state?
“I have never given one cent to Amazon/Bezos-——”
.
How is an online business supposed to collect taxes? From where the item is sold from or where the buyer is located?
If it is where the seller is located look for the $0 sales tax states of Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, and Oregon to have a HUGE influx of online retailers come in.
I have an online business doing under $250k in revenue and this would really hurt my ability to sell much less the cost to collect and figure out what should be taxed where at what rate.
YOU are responsible for paying local and State taxes in your own town. If YOU decide to purchase something from a vendor outside of your state, that is YOUR decision to make. Do you believe your State should have the power to tax people and businesses not located in the State?
They don’t care.
They just want YOU to pay, because it’s known that the purchasers won’t.
The Constitution restricts the exporting state from taxing. The courts have ruled that the importing state can tax, but they can’t force other states to collect for them.
Even if you use software to come up with the right amount to tax based on address and what items are actually taxed (e.g. some tax food, some don't) , the business still has to file, at a minimum, annual tax paperwork with the governing body for that tax.
Accountants tend to charge by form. Based on the sheer number of municipalities out there that can also charge sales tax, you're talking thousands of dollars to get that done. Plan on seeing small guys go out of business.
Try it yourself instead of accountant? Ok, Wiki sums up what you'd be getting into fairly nicely. Good f'n luck figuring this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States
Perhaps Mom and Pop should think about who they vote for. I have a right to purchase wherever I please. I shouldn't be penalized for getting the most bang for my buck.
It's time for governments to rethink tax models. Sales taxes, sin taxes, property taxes are used to control behavior. It's potty training for adults. I'm a big boy now.
Did you happen to notice that businesses don't pay taxes - in the end it's the customers that do - by paying higher prices?
FReegards!
““No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state”
Amazon et al. aren’t taxing anyone,they are COLLECTING taxes.
.
Maryland has been known to extort sales tax from persons who have made in-person purchases in tax-free Delaware.
So what happens if a small time Ebay seller living in Pennsylvania, trying to make a few extra bucks sells a used book and a jacket to a guy in Indiana?
~~~~~
Ideally, ebay collects the sales tax for you. They add it on the order.
I say ‘ideally’, but this is a huge burden on e-commerce sites and their storefront software. It’s not just keeping track of 50+ state’s sales tax rates, but for many, local counties and other jurisdictions take varying amounts, so you have to pay for thousands of different sales tax rates, potentially, and you have to be able to verify where all your buyers live, and then calculate and cut checks for them all (or at least their states) on a periodic basis. This can be automated with software, but the tax tables and and their deliniations have to be updated, and someone has to manually run all these payments often even if they are electronic. It’s crazy stuff.
All this so someone in PA can ship his used 1992 edlebroch carbeurator to an ebay buyer in IN for $18 plus shipping.
I never understood why this is an issue. Mail order sales tax rules are old and well established, they apply just as much for web based ordering systems as any other.
It should only matter where the business transaction takes place AND what is the business address on the business license. If someone out of state or country makes a purchase at your business address, they pay the same tax as if it was some local resident.
I understand that many states require a "use tax" to be paid by the individual if you make a purchase out of state. It's up to the individual to keep records of taxes paid on such out of state purchases and pay any additional offset because your residence state has a higher tax rate than the state in which you made the purchase from. If you paid more taxes where you bought the item than your state of residence then you pay no use taxes to your state of residence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.