Now they are going to tax ebay
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Watching the news tonight and there are 42 states joining forces to start collecting sales tax on items sold on the internet. Somehow I feel like the Internet is being pulled back into the rest of the world. I like having a place that wide open and free. I liked it better when geeks ruled the net.
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Watching the news tonight and there are 42 states joining forces to start collecting sales tax on items sold on the internet. Somehow I feel like the Internet is being pulled back into the rest of the world. I like having a place that wide open and free. I liked it better when geeks ruled the net.
This has been "in the works" for quite awhile. According to this[^] article Currently, sales and use taxes are owed on all online transactions, but states are prohibited from requiring remote sellers to collect and remit those levies. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision said states can only require sellers that have a physical presence or "nexus" in the same state as the consumer to collect so-called use taxes. So, if a business sells to someone in another state, they would not have to collect sales tax. I believe sales by individuals still do not have to collect and report sales tax. Steve
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Watching the news tonight and there are 42 states joining forces to start collecting sales tax on items sold on the internet. Somehow I feel like the Internet is being pulled back into the rest of the world. I like having a place that wide open and free. I liked it better when geeks ruled the net.
As Steve mentions, in a way, sales tax is owed by the buyer if the buyer lives in a municipality where where sales/use tax is levied. Retailers have long been required by law to act as unpaid tax collectors for the government - an illegal act, IMHO - if they operate a business within the bounds of a taxing authority. For many years the trend has been to exclude Internet retailers from this requirement in order to give e-commerce a chance to become firmly rooted. The honeymoon is over, and the thieves are at the gate. The major problem with the entire criminal concept is that each of many thousands of addresses falls within multiple taxing authorities' jurisdictions, and each has a different rate of taxation. Worse yet, these rates are subject to frequent changes, depending upon the whims of the electorate and their representatives. Keeping track of these differences will be a major headache for all online businesses, as governments are inclined to impose, but not publish, new tax rates and types. As a result we can expect quite a few online businesses to cease to exist - few can afford the overhead of tracking it all and filling out all the different forms required by each petty bureaucratic tyranny that lays claim to a part of the buyers' transactions. If you have stock in online retail businesses, I'd recommend selling now. This is an idea who's time should never have come... On the brighter side, though, the significant depression that will be caused by this action may lend some support to the concept of a unified, single-rate sales tax to replace the terminally flawed regressive income tax we now have on top of the ridiculously disjointed sales tax system we use to further drain the productivity of the useful members of our society. There is a ray of hope on the horizon, dim though it may be. Sell your Amazon.com stock, and invest in government debt issues. Since they are backed by the unrestrained taxation authority of an increasingly greedy bureaucracy, it's a guaranteed win. Until the house of cards falls down, that is...:sigh: "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
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As Steve mentions, in a way, sales tax is owed by the buyer if the buyer lives in a municipality where where sales/use tax is levied. Retailers have long been required by law to act as unpaid tax collectors for the government - an illegal act, IMHO - if they operate a business within the bounds of a taxing authority. For many years the trend has been to exclude Internet retailers from this requirement in order to give e-commerce a chance to become firmly rooted. The honeymoon is over, and the thieves are at the gate. The major problem with the entire criminal concept is that each of many thousands of addresses falls within multiple taxing authorities' jurisdictions, and each has a different rate of taxation. Worse yet, these rates are subject to frequent changes, depending upon the whims of the electorate and their representatives. Keeping track of these differences will be a major headache for all online businesses, as governments are inclined to impose, but not publish, new tax rates and types. As a result we can expect quite a few online businesses to cease to exist - few can afford the overhead of tracking it all and filling out all the different forms required by each petty bureaucratic tyranny that lays claim to a part of the buyers' transactions. If you have stock in online retail businesses, I'd recommend selling now. This is an idea who's time should never have come... On the brighter side, though, the significant depression that will be caused by this action may lend some support to the concept of a unified, single-rate sales tax to replace the terminally flawed regressive income tax we now have on top of the ridiculously disjointed sales tax system we use to further drain the productivity of the useful members of our society. There is a ray of hope on the horizon, dim though it may be. Sell your Amazon.com stock, and invest in government debt issues. Since they are backed by the unrestrained taxation authority of an increasingly greedy bureaucracy, it's a guaranteed win. Until the house of cards falls down, that is...:sigh: "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
Roger Wright wrote: sales tax is owed by the buyer if the buyer lives in a municipality where where sales/use tax is levied. OH our wonderful system. This is true for those items that are classified as taxable property, land , cars, your private jet... For common purchased, which is most of what ebay is, it is at the location of the sale. Now what is the location if I buy from someone in Idaho, I live in Texas and I use EBay (RPC) for the agent. No definition. As for the unified tax, that does not address all of the issues. This year the Texas legislature failed to refinance our schools. Now it is based on property tax and guess what. That is deamed unfair, due to rich districts having the money to do more for the kids than the poor ones. All effort to switch that to sales or something else have failed to date. Is the solution a national level. Sorry but not in my book. How would you distribute the funds to be equal? If simply so many $'s per kid than a place like Fort Worth would make out like bandits (my $140,000 home would sell for $750 to a million in some coastal states [I did just check this last week]) the cost of living is way different. But I do support a unified tax and do away with the income tax (or a flat income tax & no deductions.) I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that I can think of.
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Roger Wright wrote: sales tax is owed by the buyer if the buyer lives in a municipality where where sales/use tax is levied. OH our wonderful system. This is true for those items that are classified as taxable property, land , cars, your private jet... For common purchased, which is most of what ebay is, it is at the location of the sale. Now what is the location if I buy from someone in Idaho, I live in Texas and I use EBay (RPC) for the agent. No definition. As for the unified tax, that does not address all of the issues. This year the Texas legislature failed to refinance our schools. Now it is based on property tax and guess what. That is deamed unfair, due to rich districts having the money to do more for the kids than the poor ones. All effort to switch that to sales or something else have failed to date. Is the solution a national level. Sorry but not in my book. How would you distribute the funds to be equal? If simply so many $'s per kid than a place like Fort Worth would make out like bandits (my $140,000 home would sell for $750 to a million in some coastal states [I did just check this last week]) the cost of living is way different. But I do support a unified tax and do away with the income tax (or a flat income tax & no deductions.) I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that I can think of.
The taxation method is entirely separate from the method of distribution - two different topics. Our schools are financed by property tax, too, but it is not distributed based upon where it was collected. It is considered to be in everyone's interest for children to be educated to an equal standard, so the apportionment is based on school needs, regardless of how rich the parents are. It's flawed, too, but much less so. But this is Soapbox material, and I've got to bone up for a belt test in a couple hours... Enjoy your weekend!:-D "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
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The taxation method is entirely separate from the method of distribution - two different topics. Our schools are financed by property tax, too, but it is not distributed based upon where it was collected. It is considered to be in everyone's interest for children to be educated to an equal standard, so the apportionment is based on school needs, regardless of how rich the parents are. It's flawed, too, but much less so. But this is Soapbox material, and I've got to bone up for a belt test in a couple hours... Enjoy your weekend!:-D "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
Roger Wright wrote: belt test I'm obviously missing something here. What is a belt test? Surely its easy. You slide the side without the buckle throught the belt loops on the left and around the back of the trousers over to the right and backout to the front again. Then align the buckle with the zipper and pull the extended belt from the belt loop on the right of the zipper throught the buckle. Tighten as necessary and hook the buckle fastener through the nearest hole on the opposite end of the belt.
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Roger Wright wrote: belt test I'm obviously missing something here. What is a belt test? Surely its easy. You slide the side without the buckle throught the belt loops on the left and around the back of the trousers over to the right and backout to the front again. Then align the buckle with the zipper and pull the extended belt from the belt loop on the right of the zipper throught the buckle. Tighten as necessary and hook the buckle fastener through the nearest hole on the opposite end of the belt.
My: Blog | Photos WDevs.com - Open Source Code Hosting, Blogs, FTP, Mail and More
:doh: Thanks for the tips - I'm sure I'll do well!:-D "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
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:doh: Thanks for the tips - I'm sure I'll do well!:-D "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
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The taxation method is entirely separate from the method of distribution - two different topics. Our schools are financed by property tax, too, but it is not distributed based upon where it was collected. It is considered to be in everyone's interest for children to be educated to an equal standard, so the apportionment is based on school needs, regardless of how rich the parents are. It's flawed, too, but much less so. But this is Soapbox material, and I've got to bone up for a belt test in a couple hours... Enjoy your weekend!:-D "...putting all your eggs in one basket along with your bowling ball and gym clothes only gets you scrambled eggs and an extra laundry day... " - Jeffry J. Brickley
Roger Wright wrote: The taxation method is entirely separate from the method of distribution - two different topics. Yes and No Roger Wright wrote: Our schools are financed by property tax, too, but it is not distributed based upon where it was collected. Here we vote by district on what the taxation is. For it not to be distributed in the same manner. One district could set their rates to almost zero and expect others to float the short fall. Agree with you on the flaws in each. Roger Wright wrote: Enjoy your weekend! So far it has been the best weekend (for me personally) in some time. My friend who has been swamped finally had some time off and we were able to go to the computer show for the first time since last October. Definitly a computer fix today. A couple of CD/DVD drives, spare keyboards, etc. Did not need any of it and it was quite fun :) . Hope your weekend is at least 1/2 as fun ! Maybe passing the test :cool: I do not mind getting old. It beats all the other options that I can think of.