Emergency!! Sneaky new internet sales tax going through fast, Call your Representativ

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For those of us that buy or sell anything online and don't want to be
audited by 50 states plus, please take notice to the new internet sales tax
that is going through fast right now!! Spread the word, call your congressman, this will put all small vendors out of business most likely, don't let it happen guys!!
 
No internet sales tax!

Also
- no garbage collection from internet sales companies
- no police help when internet sales companies get burgled or defrauded or their staff mugged on the way to work
- no street lighting or tarmac on streets where internet sales companies are
- no government help to encourage good IP rights overseas, as internet sales companies don't believe in IP anyway
etc. etc.

I am not making a political point, but an economic one.
 
You're possibly unfamiliar with the American tax system. There are currently over 10,000 different sales tax jurisdictions, each with different regulations (which are often product specific, that is, different rates for different types of products) and each with different places where the tax must be paid. Many have restrictive licensing requirements for retail sales within their jurisdiction which must be complied with in order to be able to pay their tax authorities. An internet seller, no matter the size, would be required to know and comply with each and every one of these, and pay license fees as well. This is not a terrible burden for large internet sellers, who support this legislation for obvious reasons- it creates new barriers to competition from small businesses- but effectively creates an undue burden for the little guy and reduces consumer choice.

Your analogy is poor, I think- Internet companies pay their share of their own local taxes on their profits, and those taxes provide for infrastructure and local government services.
 
I started this on Monday in another thread -- State and Local governments in the U.S. are getting crunched because of the promissary notes they issued to employees in the manner of defined benefit pension plans. With interest rates so low, they can't invest fast enough to fund their future obligations, so they are taxing everything that moves.

There's a big sign at Newark Airport in the International Arrivals area informing people that if they bought something expensive abroad, they are required to pay "use tax" to the State of NJ -- and indeed, for the first time the State of NJ has a line item on the tax return for "use tax" -- if you fill it out incorrectly you are subject to fines and penalties as well as the possibility of criminal prosecution.

Remind me, what did we fight that war over in the late 18th C?
 
You're possibly unfamiliar with the American tax system. There are currently over 10,000 different sales tax jurisdictions, each with different regulations (which are often product specific, that is, different rates for different types of products) and each with different places where the tax must be paid. Many have restrictive licensing requirements for retail sales within their jurisdiction which must be complied with in order to be able to pay their tax authorities. An internet seller, no matter the size, would be required to know and comply with each and every one of these, and pay license fees as well. This is not a terrible burden for large internet sellers, who support this legislation for obvious reasons- it creates new barriers to competition from small businesses- but effectively creates an undue burden for the little guy and reduces consumer choice.

Your analogy is poor, I think- Internet companies pay their share of their own local taxes on their profits, and those taxes provide for infrastructure and local government services.

Actually, that's not quite right.

1)Each state wanting to collect the tax would have to provide tax software for the retailer to collect according to the purchaser's zip code, so there are 50 jurisdictions maximum instead of 10,000.

2) Businesses with less than $1 million in out-of-state sales are exempt.

Senate votes 75-22 to advance online sales tax bill - The Hill's Floor Action

In other news, delivery trucks dropping these things off still use roads and other infrastructure, which must be maintained somehow. In-state retailers pay their share, so why keep an exemption for out-of-staters?
 
For those of us that buy or sell anything online and don't want to be
audited by 50 states plus, please take notice to the new internet sales tax
that is going through fast right now!! Spread the word, call your congressman, this will put all small vendors out of business most likely, don't let it happen guys!!

Ummm.... Joined today, with this as the only post, including a couple of obvious falsehoods & multiple exclamation marks -- does anyone else smell astroturf?
 
I started this on Monday in another thread -- State and Local governments in the U.S. are getting crunched because of the promissary notes they issued to employees in the manner of defined benefit pension plans. With interest rates so low, they can't invest fast enough to fund their future obligations, so they are taxing everything that moves.

There's a big sign at Newark Airport in the International Arrivals area informing people that if they bought something expensive abroad, they are required to pay "use tax" to the State of NJ -- and indeed, for the first time the State of NJ has a line item on the tax return for "use tax" -- if you fill it out incorrectly you are subject to fines and penalties as well as the possibility of criminal prosecution.

Remind me, what did we fight that war over in the late 18th C?

according to many modern politicians, what happened in the 18th century is irrelevant and has no bearing on present day. Dam^ fools.
 
Taxation = politics
Shouldn't this thread be closed?

If not, my philosophy:
Gas tax should fund roads, public transportation.
Property tax should fund city infrastructure
People who choose to have children should pay tax for schooling.
Things like national defense, etc, should be a per capita tax, with generous minimums before taxation starts.
We need our taxation to better represent the 'true costs' of things.
 
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1)Each state wanting to collect the tax would have to provide tax software for the retailer to collect according to the purchaser's zip code, so there are 50 jurisdictions maximum instead of 10,000.

Unfortunately, the tax is different county by county and sometimes within counties. Likewise, what is taxed and how much tax varies from county to county- for example, if I buy milk at a convenience store here in Lake County, the tax rate is different than if I buy the same milk to drink at a fast food place.And both are different than if I buy the same items in Cook County, right next to us. So the software, such as it is, is fairly useless (except for state tax), which is why small businesses are up in arms about it. Amazon and Walmart.com love it, it gives them a huge competitive advantage.

Eight years ago, Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced legislation that would have allowed Internet sales taxes to be collected -- but only after states simplified and standardized their tax systems through a process created in 2000. Enzi said at the time that it was necessary to require "dramatic simplification in almost every aspect of sales and use tax collection and administration" including "a reduced number of sales tax rates" and "reduced audit burdens for sellers."

The current version of S.743, however, lacks those protections. Small sellers with no profits could be subject to audits in dozens of states. Each of the nearly 10,000 local tax jurisdictions could specify a different tax rate. Businesses would also have to figure out how to handle the complexity of integrating as many as 46 state government-supplied software packages into Web ordering systems.

This from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-5...net-sales-tax-bill-jolts-consumers-retailers/ which sorts out the confusion between earlier efforts and the current proposed legislation.

In other news, delivery trucks dropping these things off still use roads and other infrastructure, which must be maintained somehow. In-state retailers pay their share, so why keep an exemption for out-of-staters?

They do already. Gas taxes, tolls, state tax on the road users' profits, commercial vehicle licenses...
 
:cop: Given the intent of the OP (to inspire political action) and the politically oriented comments of some of the responses, this thread clearly treads into the area of political discussion despite the obvious economic implications, and for this reason I've closed the thread.
 
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