Just thought they would slip this one by I suppose…
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to move an online sales tax bill directly to the Senate floor, skipping the committee process.
He filed a motion on Tuesday night to begin the process of putting the bill, the Marketplace Fairness Act, on the Senate calendar. The bill could come up for a vote as early as next week.
Under current law, states can only collect sales taxes from retailers that have a physical presence in their state. People who order items online from another state are supposed to declare the purchases on their tax forms, but few do.
The Marketplace Fairness Act would empower states to tax online purchases but would exempt small businesses that earn less than $1 million annually from out-of-state sales.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who voted against the legislation last month when it was presented as an amendment to budget, has also spoken out against the tax, which both he and his father call the “Internet Tax Mandate,” and expressed disappointment that so many in his caucus supported the measure.
Jim DeMint, then a Senator from South Carolina, wrote last year that the Marketplace Fairness Act was tantamount to “taxation without representation” because it “would require online retailers to collect and pay sales taxes to states where they have no physical presence or democratic recourse.”
The movement picked up an important ally when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie—widely mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate—recently reached an agreement under which Amazon would collect sales taxes on his state’s online purchases in exchange for locating distribution facilities there.
Seizing on the recent political shift, Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, and co-sponsors from both parties are attempting to speed up action on a bill they wrote to give states authority to compel online companies to collect sales taxes.
Just further proof some Republican’ts will slide further center in opposition to the Constitution and pass illegal measures to collect more money they can waste.
Tennessee will start collecting from Amazon in a year or so here because they built a warehouse or something that allows for the state to collect on sales.
This bill has been written and is supported by people who have never dealt with the massive requirements of collecting/accounting/paying/documenting and being audited by multiple state tax agencies. It sounds good in theory, but in practice…Each state is different. Some you just pay the state and they distribute, but in other states you have to pay the state, each county and even each city SEPARATELY. It is a pain in the ass and will pretty much kill internet business.
Any additional burden placed on taxpayers on goods bought from another state from a business that does not own a warehouse in their state is something I can’t support and doesn’t sound like a good idea in the least.
If Amazon wants to put a damned warehouse in every state that’s a different story.
The good news is a lot of people will just buy local.
Local price with profit plus sales tax vs. Online price with smaller profit plus shipping. If you add tax to that online price plus shipping it will tip the balance in a lot of cases.
I don’t know about most states but in TN, even if you purchase on line and don’t pay sales tax, you still owe the state a “use tax”. You are supposed to send a check to cover the taxes.
It is not well known and is routinely ignored but I know of people who purchased big items out of state (bunch of furniture) and the state came after them.
Since TN is a practically no income tax state and relies heavily on sales tax receipts, it has been in the forefront of taxing internet sales and I understand why.
While I am not happy about paying any type of tax, this is one that I have mixed feelings about.
It is somewhat unfair to local businesses that they will always be “undersold” by online competition at least by 9.75% in my locality. (My sales tax rate). However, it undoubtedly spurs competition to improve the buying “experience” by prompting local businesses to provide additional “services” to lure customers in when they could just purchase online for a 10% discount.
I figure it is inevitable as more and more things move online. I am honestly surprised that it has gone on as long as it has.
In my personal situation, I would MUCH prefer this to an state income tax. If I don’t buy anything, I don’t have to pay it, unlike an income tax.
It will really hurt on online bulk ammo purchases though.:mad:
I swear I almost said something to the effect of Amazon working out deals with the government to put warehouses everyfuckingwhere but I didn’t want to stick my foot in my mouth without a link.
Meh still a lot cheaper than local in many cases, and with Amazon Prime you get free two day and $3.99 next day. Sometimes depending on where it’s coming from I get things next day anyways. You also have to account for how far or frustrating it is driving all around getting multiple things from different stores. I’d rather wait a day or two than burn 2 gallons of gas and hours of time sitting in traffic and walking around stores.
For things like phone cases and such the ‘local place’, Best Buy, charges more than MSRP. I got an Otterbox case there only because I asked if they price match Amazon and they said yes. Went from $45 to $22. The MSRP was $40 and BB was charging $5 more. They didn’t used to do that, and probably only because they need every sale they can get right now.
Online is the future, and these high overhead BM stores want the laws bent to stay in their outdated business model where the consumer is forced to pay more out of spite. This fairness shit is communist in nature and prevents natural evolution of the economy. Using the power of the government to enact laws to hurt others for your benefit is crony capitalism.
Unless I absolutely have to have it today (very few things, thankfully) I will still buy online if the all in (item+sales tax+shipping) price is even remotely close to my local price.
ETA: I buy a lot of new stuff on Ebay using the Buy It Now and Free Shipping filters. If the price beats or is even close to local, I’ll stay home and click the mouse.
I see your points about it still being cheaper online after sales tax at Amazon. I don’t think I’ve ever paid for shipping there. The thought crossed my mind to boycott them just on principle for selling out but I guess they have to survive like everyone else.
And take a WAG at who one of the biggest stores to lobby this and benefit from this? Walmart.
I can’t even imagine how difficult it would be for a small business to keep up with the sales tax rates and distribution for every address. Probably have to go with some vendor of software for this specific purpose but then you still have to mail checks out, and count on that information to actually be correct. Imagine cutting 5000+ checks a year to a bunch of cities, counties, and states? Then the tax forms for each one?
Are politicians included in the free market? A few donations and they fuck over a majority of the country.
By making it extremely complicated to comply it will kill online entrepreneurs. The is why big corps such as Walmart likes it. Not only does it discourage online shopping it also kills off small business competition. Only a few super large retailers will be able to afford the increased overhead.
You know what. I had to go to GameStop today, and a specific one because my MIL bought my kids an Xbox game, and they by accident didn’t exchange the display case with a new wrapped up game. So I went to the nearest GS, and they didn’t have that game so I had to go back to the one she bought it at. The guy at the first one said to park outside JCPenny as that was the quickest way in. So I went over to the mall, and walked through Penny’s. Saddest sack of a store I’ve seen in a long time. Two trips through there from front to back, and I saw one person who wasn’t an employee.
I see these BM stores lashing out against online retailers because their stores suck and/or are overpriced. Penny’s went from being a mail order company to a BM and don’t have anywhere else to go. Sears at least instituted a online marketplace copying Amazon but they are still even in trouble because they don’t do it as well, and I see threads all the time about how cheap Craftsman tools have become.
These retailers know their gig is up, and they are going to do all they can to hurt online retail sales. The states are starving for money, too. The people getting hurt here is the people.
