Why is this state tax issue a federal concern? Unless it’s preparation for a national sales tax…
CNET has learned that two Republican senators are preparing to introduce new legislation that would allow states to force Amazon.com and other out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes.
Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are currently putting the final touches on their bill, which is backed by Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, Home Depot, and other companies that are currently required to collect sales taxes.
Correct me if I am wrong but collecting taxes for transactions over state lines would be an interstate issue which would make it totally the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Reagan raised taxes seven times.
Later the phrase was “Read my lips “No New Taxes“…
It turned into: “Read the paper…”
Papa Bush couldn’t do it, Shrub wrecked the economy trying to do it.
What could possibly lead anyone to think Obama would even try?
Watching the opening statements today on CSPAN regarding the highway jobs act made me sick to my stomach.
Mitch McConnell and all the Republicants clearly state that they will not allow the top .02% earners in our great country help fund infrastructure repair.
Umm are these highways and bridges necessary for the so called job creators to ship and move goods. I guess not since all the goods are made elsewhere.
Wait a second, this is perfectly normal for the Republicans. Tax the masses and leave the rich alone. This is totally consistent with their ongoing economic warfare. And look who’s pushing the bill the Republican’s sugar daddies, corporations like Walmart (one of the worst for the american economy) Best Buy and Home Depot, again totally consistent.
On the other hand sales tax is sales tax and sales tax should be paid evenly across the board, doesn’t matter where you buy it, there should be sales tax. You either eliminate the sales tax across the board or you make it so everybody has to collect it.
Don’t quite understand why the three named big-box stores would want to support this bonehead legislation. They all have dot-com operations going. What do they care if customers pay sales tax on dot-com purchases they ship out? They get their money either way.
Take your big box & shove it.
Amazon, Buy.com, Newegg, and all the other big online retailers out there should be pushing back with their own lobbyists then!! Tax everything else, leave my slickdeals alone commie jerks.
After reading how Amazon treated their temporary warehouse worker with locked doors and 105F working conditions in Pennsylvania, but with all the water they want to drink, I say TAX the Hell out of Amazon!
Been there, done that. What’s your point? Do you even know you have all the facts? If it was something that happened to one worker rather than something that was clearly policy blah! If it was policy you still aren’t using your brain.
Working conditions is OSHA related and has nothing to do with your tax rates.
Raising your taxes is not going to do anything more or less than make you poorer. Your heroes have already proven that no matter how much you give them they will spend more.
Lamar is one Republican I vote against every chance I get and I’ve had a lot of chances.
Here’s the link to the story about the despicable Amazon management as reported by the LA Times:
http://goo.gl/hRQmd
They had a problem with heat in a few warehouses and they fixed them. Nothing unusual.
“The safety and welfare of our employees is our No. 1 priority at Amazon, and as the general manager, I take that responsibility seriously,” Vickie Mortimer, general manager at the warehouse, said in a statement. “We go to great lengths to ensure a safe work environment, with activities that include free water, snacks, extra fans and cooled air during the summer.”
Warehouse workers said Amazon and Integrity Staffing Solutions both emphasized safety measures and passed out fruit and water on hot days.
Amazon in an online statement to its customers Sept. 22 blamed the heat-related injuries at the Breinigsville distribution center on “unusually high temperatures this summer.” The company said it responded by spending more than $2.4 million to install industrial air-conditioning units at Breinigsville and three other facilities that became operational by early August.”
The benefit of interstate commerce being free from local sales taxes is great.
It stimulates the economy.
It creates jobs.
It adds enormously to delivery systems which compete for the best technologies to move things around the country.
It costs the states a very small percent of sales taxes.
Here in California, the benefit to citizens is only as great as it is to citizens of other states who buy from California merchants. The benefit flows both ways.
Here is the land of the Koch’s SB5 union killing bill… (that’s Ohio to the rest of you) we have to declare our purchases from out of state and pay it anyway. There are other states doing the same thing
Louisiana has the same system. It’s a form you fill out when you pay state income tax. I wonder if anyone has ever entered a number other than zero.
Most states have this. It’s called “use tax”. Consumers are probably universally ignored in every state.
Businesses aren’t. If you get audited by the state, they will punish you for not paying use tax, if applicable.
TN has the same law more or less which may be why Lamar wants to make sure everybody pays it.
Okay let me be clear you are supposed to contact the state after each purchase you make on line…
On your state tax form, eh?
It’s like asking the question “Have you ever been guilty of a crime for which you were not convicted?”
Mixed feelings on this one.
I often go to a brick&mortar to examine items but, more often than not, end up buying on line. So BadBuy becomes a demonstration point for NewEgg. Yes, NewEgg has to compete while including shipping costs but they don’t need a 10,000 square foot retail space just down the street. On the other hand, learning, complying with and keeping up to date on the tax laws of fifty states and god-only-knows how many municipalities would be a monumental feat! Here’s an idea: don’t make the retailers collect the tax IF they send by USPS and mark the retail value on each receipt. Then, your friendly neighborhood Boy-in-Blue-Shorts knocks on your door, “$7 Virginia Sales tax, please.” Post office keeps 10% and remits the rest to the taxing authority. Locals get their share and the USPS is saved! Hurray!
The internet “free ride” has to end some day. With the states and cities running out of money faster than even Obama, something’s got to give. Personally, I’d like to see gov’t scaled back to match revenues not notch up the revenues to make more gub’t but that ain’t gonna happen.
So, worst case: Congress passes an interstate sales tax, takes a huge cut, passes it through a vast bureaucracy and trickles a bit down to the locals. Nobody wins except the Feds.
So, at a time when the Post Office is cutting staff and looking at eliminating Saturday delivery, you want the mailman to take every package to the door (which should double his daily hours overall with all the packages) where the recipient has to fumble for 10 minutes to look for the money and since he doesn’t have correct change, the mailman has to carry a money pouch OR no one is at home because they are at work requiring the recipient to go to the Post Office to pay for and get the package which means Christmas level lines all day, every day allowing the Post Office to keep 10% of the tax on a $7 item that a new bureaucracy added to the Post Office in Washington has to figure out who to pay it to?
Yeah, that should work.
Actually, Animby is almost there….
Only the largest online retailers are going to be able to comply with sales tax collections, due to the cost of dealing with that half-percent that Lower BullFeather applies to green objects….
In short, a plus for Amazon and other “big” sites, and doom for the rest of ’em.
I’m sure some kind of “clearinghouse” could be established to help the little guy (and maybe the big guys), but that would nick the the consumers for the cost of the calculations.
(Then there’s the issue of distribution. I have no idea how states like Ohio, which demand a “use tax”, figure out who gets what.)
Consider that you can’t necessarily just use the ZIP Code, for example. I used to live in Township “A”, have a phone number from Township “B”, and a ZIP Code from a neighboring City. No way to figure out that I was in Township “A” unless you asked me, or took special effort to figure it out by looking at street addresses v.s. local maps.
(I once got billed for City Tax. I called the tax people and the guy I got said something like “those idiots were supposed to mark your address as NOT in our City!” My street started in the City, but ended in the Township.)
SO, bearing in mind that I really don’t object, a flat tax – at least at State level – and some sort of tax distribution scheme is necessary. Otherwise Wally World wins, and we get screwed.
Leave it to the politidiots to screw this up….
“almost there….”
My ex used to say that a lot. Usually just before rolling over and going to sleep.
Talk about taxing!
You can bet all of these corporations do pay their (n0t mine) representatives in Congress.
“30 companies avoided income tax in 2008-2010. GE (GE), El Paso (EP) and Honeywell (HON) are among 30 large and profitable U.S. corporations that paid no income taxes in 2008-2010, a study shows. The report, from the advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, examined 280 Fortune 500 companies, and found that very few paid the statutory corporate income tax rate of 35%, with the average being 18.5%”.
You misapprehend the Repukes “No NewTaxes” – what they mean is NO NEW TAXES ON MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES AND ***SCREW THE PEONS*** !!! The Repukes NEVER GIVE THE WHOLE THING !!! Time for the “Peons” to FIGHT BACK !!! ***NEVER VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN – FOR ANY OFFICE – FEDERAL, STATE, OR LOCAL – FROM COAST TO COAST – FROM FLORIDA TO ALASKA AND FROM MAINE TO FLORIDA !!!
I’ve heard a lot of hype the last few years about “location-based services.” Usually that ends up meaning nothing more than ego-based things like Foursquare and Gowalla, but there is enough GIS (Geographic Information Services) data and infrastructure available now that an internet startup should be able to provide a service that, for a few cents per transaction, could figure out the sales tax(es) due on a sale from any US location to any other US location and keep track of exactly how much of each went to what local organizations.
There should be an app for that.
Most states have this. It’s called “use tax”…its very help full information