Prepare yourself for state tax for your online purchases.

[thefyn]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-0 ... lion-taxes

Republicans will vote it though too. Because it is not a new tax: Just more enforced.

I like how this news story comes on the same day where a report on the wealth gap on the top 7% is even wider...Rich are getting richer. Looks like the lobbyists $$$ is paying off big time.

[sleewell]

yup, rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.


i support this bill though. local businesses have been getting hosed for too long. this should have happened 10+ years ago.

[thefyn]

yup, rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.


i support this bill though. local businesses have been getting hosed for too long. this should have happened 10+ years ago.

Local biz has already been squashed by Walmart. It's probably the Walmarts who lobbied/helped grease the wheels of this.

Truth be told, only the individual consumer can fix the system, not Washington. Amazon is greasing one side, and Walmart will be greasing the other so it's not really about what is wrong or right.

The gov is OK allow criminal labor conditions in order for the Walmarts to decimate the competition/family owned made in America operations, or lobbied tax loopholes for the Apples to avoid taxes etc etc.

It's pretty depressing no matter what angle you look at it. Which is why I try and vote with my dollar.

[RSBro]

this Bill isn't going to help states, it's just going to crush small businesses trying to comply with this stuff. people are just not going to file their returns, or know WTF to charge people, meaning states already w/ limited or no resources are going to have to borrow to go hire auditors and the cycle continues. it's going to be a nightmare. i worked in state sales/use/income taxes for almost 3 years. compliance rules and everything are different in each state down to the city and county for the most part. someone trying to sell stuff online Part Time is going to be clueless what to charge and people aren't going to buy anything because THEY don't know that THEY are paying the correct amount in the first place. plus, each state has different taxability rules as to what is or isn't 'taxable' in the first place, and some states have different rates on different items. you'll have to become a state tax expert just to have a website and everyone in TX at least gets audited as a new business within your first 3 years, because they assume and know you're doing it incorrectly 99% of the time. multiply that times 45 or 46 and then local jurisdictions, ka-blam.

the states love it because Sales tax (like payroll taxes) are trust taxes, meaning they can come after you personally for it and lock your front doors for non-remittance of sales tax collected. even with income taxes they can't do that. terrible, but you knew it was coming.

[rear naked]

this Bill isn't going to help states, it's just going to crush small businesses trying to comply with this stuff. people are just not going to file their returns, or know WTF to charge people, meaning states already w/ limited or no resources are going to have to borrow to go hire auditors and the cycle continues. it's going to be a nightmare. i worked in state sales/use/income taxes for almost 3 years. compliance rules and everything are different in each state down to the city and county for the most part. someone trying to sell stuff online Part Time is going to be clueless what to charge and people aren't going to buy anything because THEY don't know that THEY are paying the correct amount in the first place. plus, each state has different taxability rules as to what is or isn't 'taxable' in the first place, and some states have different rates on different items. you'll have to become a state tax expert just to have a website and everyone in TX at least gets audited as a new business within your first 3 years, because they assume and know you're doing it incorrectly 99% of the time. multiply that times 45 or 46 and then local jurisdictions, ka-blam.

the states love it because Sales tax (like payroll taxes) are trust taxes, meaning they can come after you personally for it and lock your front doors for non-remittance of sales tax collected. even with income taxes they can't do that. terrible, but you knew it was coming.

sounds about right

[ComOp]

What is happening is that retail giants are losing business to the internet. They couldn't compete with companies like Amazon and are fighting back through lobbying to get rules in place to "level" the playing field.

[thefyn]

What is happening is that retail giants are losing business to the internet. They couldn't compete with companies like Amazon and are fighting back through lobbying to get rules in place to "level" the playing field.

Yep. And it's a shame because the smaller biz has some outlet via Ebay (albeit another monoply) etc after Walmart etc forced them out of main street and now they will be f'd in the a again.

[sleewell]

the owner of elderlys was on the news today. he said it would be a pain but they would deal with it, didnt seem too pissed or freaked out. they sell in all 50 states and are not huge by any means.

[MrKnobs]

What is happening is that retail giants are losing business to the internet. They couldn't compete with companies like Amazon and are fighting back through lobbying to get rules in place to "level" the playing field.

There's nothing to stop WalMart from making a "separate" company and selling tax free over the internet. Look at Musician's Friend, Guitar Center, and Music 123.. all under the same ownership. WalMart, BestBuy, any big brick and mortar can do the same.

Terry D.

[Lloyd Blankfein]

Walmart sent some clown out to try and get my produce in their stores.

I knew the end result, but went with it for fun. When it came to price, I got their classic "yes, the price is lower, but we can make it up in volume." So I work my crews harder for less money in the name of volume?

Why not just do what I do now, get my volume through a larger and more diversified network while still getting a higher price? See, I'm satisfying my volume while still staying high on my price.

The guy just could not understand how someone was not excited to be in wal mart.

Walmart is low brow. That shit would hurt my brand.

[rear naked]

This would be easier to deal with if the taxes were paid to the home state of the online store, not the buyer's state.

EDIT -

I mean easier for the small online vendors. There is a reason why Amazon is supporting this bill. It fucks the small guys.


Then again, online stores would all move to no-sales-tax states and we're back to square one.

[GuitarBilly]

I, for one, make all my big purchases online to save on taxes. I just recently bought a guitar for nearly $2k, which would cost me close to $140 more in taxes if I bought it locally. I would admit that if it wasn't for the considerable savings, I would have probably bought it local so I wouldn't have to deal with shipping, have the chance to try out several models etc... but $140 in savings is definitely hard to pass. So I guess I understand why some say no online tax hurts local businesses.

[marshallnoise]

I, for one, make all my big purchases online to save on taxes. I just recently bought a guitar for nearly $2k, which would cost me close to $140 more in taxes if I bought it locally. I would admit that if it wasn't for the considerable savings, I would have probably bought it local so I wouldn't have to deal with shipping, have the chance to try out several models etc... but $140 in savings is definitely hard to pass. So I guess I understand why some say no online tax hurts local businesses.

Sales tax is one good reason to not purchase at a brick and mortar store. The other reason is that warehouses have lower overhead than retail stores so usually prices are MUCH lower. I just bought $500 in parts for my wife's MKIV Jetta off Rockauto.com which would have cost me $800 PLUS tax at Vatozone or O'Really.

Funny thing is; buying a guitar is not one of those things I would buy online because its a case where "parts aren't just parts." But you got lucky and I am sure you know that! I guess I could buy a Strat sight unseen and feel ok about the purchase. But not a Les Paul.

[Reverse Entropy]

Well, it's a little strange that some states actively encourage citizens from a neighboring state to come and purchase items with no sales tax - there are several that do exactly this.

However, we pay sales tax all the time - it's simply calculated at the time of purchase. Almost every state requires citizens to pay USE TAX on items purchased via internet/mail order. But since it's collected once a year, it's almost impossible to calculate for most folks and it goes unpaid. With all the shift of local commerce to internet commerce, I don't think this is all that unreasonable - and believe me, I am generally an anti-tax guy who feels a lot of tax revenue is pissed away recklessly.

Personally, I think this is going to end up being a $49 add-on module for your QuickBooks accounting program and that's about it. The really tricky part will be making the module accurate for all the local city taxes, etc across the country. But it's do-able, and I doubt it will be much more complex than a simple software package add-on.

[TurboPablo]

The whole thing is regressive. If they truly wanted to help, they would get rid of the sales tax all together. That would level the playing field everywhere. Sales tax here in RI is 7%. Two minutes over the state line in Mass, it's 5%. Who do you think gets more RI money?

Also, money orders and snail mail will be the way around it.