Weekend rabble-rousing: Web sales tax bill may end free ride for eBay, others
The Rockefeller Institute, a research group tied to SUNY, said that sales taxes took a 6.1 percent dive in Q4 of 2008 and Q1 of this year was even worse. Given the current state of the economy of course, this is hardly a surprise. Beyond the obvious reasoning behind the decline — people are losing jobs, making less money and spending less money — the drop may be bad news on another front as it could finally spell the end for the free rides afforded by online shopping. The idea of requiring online retailers to collect sales tax on out-of-state sales has been tossed around over and over again but according to the New York Post, this time around it might just stick. A bill is expected to go before congress as soon as this week that would require online retailers such as Amazon and Overstock, and even the online auction house eBay to collect sales tax on behalf of the state to which items are delivered. This spells certain aggravation for consumers who enjoy saving cash by ordering online and even more so for Internet retailers who will have to implement the new policy.
In New York State where an online sales tax bill was passed last Summer, Web retailers are already in the midst of fighting the new policy. New York’s law now requires any online retailer that advertises on New York-based web sites to collect sales tax when shipping to New York. Amazon and Overstock have both pulled all advertising from websites based in New York in protest.
We’re doomed to Socialism /Marxism from now on in the USA. I give up!
LOL—-the comments about Socialism and Marxism are great. I am actually happy to see people acknowledge the liberal government moronic Americans have elected as I know that at least some of us with any common sense are alive in the world.
Look at some of Reagan’s speeches on Youtube. Guess what, he predicted this was going to happen. Pay attention to the speech on universal health care being the first place this socialist take over will start, and it already has.
all universal health care leads to is rationing of benifits an resources i’ts never worked anywhere it’s been instituted. an it has indebted everyplace it’s been instituted Free market an copetion along with natural cures an solutions is the way to go
I like the pic its definately going to one of my pic collection!!!! Lol
Sent via BlackBerry.
“I like the pic its definately going to one of my pic collection!!!! Lol”
Definitely!
Sent from my iPhone. It spells correctly. SB – it’s.
So that’s where Jack Bauer was before he joined CTU. Good photo.
Flat taxes! Abolish sales tax!
Believin’ “The Change” Lovin’ “The Change” Power On! Oh Mighty Morphin Bamalamadingdong !
Duck season! Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Rabbit Season!
Much like the tax you pay for your online purchases, your online comments amount to the same – ZILCH.
Take it to your SR/Congress(wo)men, online Rambos. Tired of this GenX bickering, arguing, quoting of Wikipedia, Drudge, your mother and other useless sources. Do something or GTFO. Boston Tea Party didn’t happen by people sitting around arguing with each other, trying to look smart.
Action. Take it.
Looks like Jack Black to me… :-]
Why this time we will see the Internet tax:
President Obama is a strong ally of the new tax laws and is expected to sign them into law. Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google are outraged. Until now, they have remained recession proof by offering products at lower prices than comparable brick and mortar stores.
This is because congress has been unsuccessful in enacting Internet tax laws for at least seven years. They have argued that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police, and say that, as a matter of fairness, online retailers should be forced to collect the same taxes that brick-and-mortar retailers do.
While these arguments have been unsuccessful so far, the National Conference of State Legislatures and its allies believe the recession has sliced into sales tax revenue so much that Congress will have to act. In addition, Obama is said to support this legislation, along with a broad coalition of Democrats in congress. A report this week from the Rockefeller Institute says that sales taxes have declined by 6.1 percent, the largest decline in half a century.
Outrage is huge. See the comments here:
http://tinyurl.com/obamawebtax
What did everyone expect after the elections? The Congress is now run by Democrats, with a Democrat president. What? No new taxes? This country has to have either a Republican Congress with a Democrat president, or visa versa, in order to balance things out. The Democrats have, in the past 50 years, proven to be tax crazed. They always make claim that the taxes are needed to help out the poor and disadvantaged, just like the recent tobacco tax allegedly needed to help poor and disadvantaged children. Truth be told, big tobacco was losing money because of the “home-rollers”, and since it was their money which helped get these clowns elected, hence the tax. I’m certain that this new, impossible, internet sales rax will be sold to America under the same guise; to help poor and disadvantaged children. Whats the truth? Yes, the states are suffering and could use new revenue because there is not a state in the union which can manage the money they receive. Now one would think that poor and disadvantaged children would be one of the first things they spend money on, but obviously not; they are last. If not then why do we need new taxes to help poor and disadvantaged children? The simple truth behind this new way of taxation is simple: the money is out there, they can get it, and they are going to take it! Which one of us, walking down the street, seeing a quarter on the ground, doesn’t pick it up? The only real difference here is that the average citizen, walking down the street, seeing an old lady with a purse, doesn’t run up and steal it…
Sales taxes are regulated state by state. Hence well run states like Delaware and New Hampshire not having any.
yep and cyberspace ain’t a state. if you want to get techinical i depends whe the warehous an servers are located you can’t really enforce this
What Gibberish- I don’t come to your state/city/town, drive on your roads, use the water, or the sewage. I don’t utilize the fire or police depts. I don’t have trash to dump in your state/city/town and I don’t pollute the air in your state/city/town. SO why should I pay you taxes?
I pay in the state I live in, the city and the county here because I GET something for the taxes here. Why should I pay NY if I’m never there and never going to be there. AND BELIEVE ME…I may be the only one that take this stand, but if you institute a law that says I have to collect sales tax from across the country, I’ll go out of business before I try to deal with that. THEN I’ll be on welfare, food stamps and not buying diddly anywhere. So you’ll have more lost revenue. Let’s try regulating the BIG business that are raping the government and the taxpayers right now. Start with the BANKS. Start with Paypal. AND Google – which has way too much power and influence in the world at the moment.
I always saw this as a trade off…at brick & mortar stores you pay sales tax…on the internet (which I see as being the same as mailorder by the way) you pay shipping! Its kind of a trade off. To have to charge shipping AND sales tax for internet items is a big disadvantage to sales over the internet – or even mailorder for that matter. In charging sales tax for ALL states a vendor sells too – well that is pure gouging and greed on the part of the states.
Yes, I collect sales tax in my state but that allows me to buy my supplies sales tax free – its a trade-off and a saving I can pass on to my customers….still I also make less sales in my state probably because of the sales tax I have to charge. If I had to do that for every state my business would drop like a rock and I’d have to think of something else to do for my money! This is such a bad bad idea! Thought up out of pure greed.
@ksmithinny:
“Obviously stuff is going to vary from state to state. One of the basics though is that sales tax is a consumer tax. Thats going to be the same everywhere. Its always the consumer paying the tax. The vendor doesn’t pay the tax, they simply collect and remit the tax that consumer pays on to the government.”
You do realize that in a state like California (and I’m sure several others) many different counties and many different cities within the state have different rates of sales tax. When I make out my California sales tax I cannot just add up all the sales made in California and submit a sales tax figure for them – though I charge a blanket 8.25 percent – now raised to 9.25 percent due to an overall raise in our sales tax. For the sake of a bit less confusion – I still eat the extra tax myself! I cannot input to Paypal that if the city is La Habra, charge 10.25 percent and if the county is Orange charge 8.25 percent ad nauseum. This is what a lot of us will be up against since I understand many states have this same system – if a city or county within the state needs extra tax money they simply add to their own sales tax rate. To ask a small internet seller to break down each sale as to which city or county in each state and charge the appropriate sales tax is an impossible task even for large internet companies….yet that’s just what we must do when we report our sales tax to the state and remit the payment. Making out my California sales tax forms now take me longer then making out my federal tax return…and that is just for ONE state! The states certainly aren’t thinking of this (or caring about it) all they see is extra revenue! It will cut down on internet sales in a time when the economy NEEDS to keep circulating money. I hope they stop the greed and really take a look at what they’re doing!
Internet and mailorder sales (there really seems to be no difference) do not charge sales tax for each state….its kind of a trade off because they DO have to charge shipping and handling. This is something brick and mortar stores do not have to worry about. Each has its advantage but to force sales tax on internet and mailorder sales is to slant the field in favor of brick and mortar stores.