Senate Passes Internet Sales Tax Bill

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
The Senate passed the internet sales tax bill this afternoon by a vote of 70 to 24. :(

The Marketplace Fairness Act, which has cross-party supporter and the backing of powerful retailers, would give states the power to require retailers with sales over $1m to collect state and local sales taxes for online purchases. The bill has the support of president Barack Obama the majority of senators.
Click to expand...
 
we'll only be 24 trillion in debt by the time this idiots is done being president, what does he care if you have to pay more.
 
Now more money can go to funding Obama phones!!!! WORK HARDER. MILLIONS ON WELFARE DEPEND ON YOU!
 
Everybody get on the cool kid bus...

I got an original idea, let's all bash Obama and give republiCANTS like McCain a pass...
 
Considering we already have to pay sales tax on anything not purchased online, I'm not really surprised by this, nor could I honestly argue against it.

We've been circumventing sales tax by buying online (well, less-so for me; Newegg has always charged sales tax for my lucky state) for over a decade. It's been one major unfair advantage that etailers have had over brick and mortars. I'm honestly surprised it took this long to happen.

Now the argument should be if we should have sales tax at all when we clearly aren't being represented by our "representatives" as they instead represent whichever company lines their campaign coffers the most.
 
I hope the tax is charged for the state you bought the item from.

TX has high sales tax and it would completely suck to have to pay it.
 
leeleatherwood said:
I hope the tax is charged for the state you bought the item from.

TX has high sales tax and it would completely suck to have to pay it.
Click to expand...

It's taxed based on the state you live in.

I'm completely against this just for the fact that I have to pay shipping when buying online so now I pay shipping and taxes. Doesn't really seem to level the playing field like they continually say.
 
It's true that states may have "use tax" laws that require individuals to pay the state any use tax (shockingly at the same rate as in-state sales tax) for out of state purchases.

The problem is that "sales taxes" as defined by most states require presence (nexus) for the collection and remittance of those taxes. That's not unreasonable. If a company has a presence in the state, it's less of a burden for that company to remit sales taxes due.

What this "fairness" bill does is throw out those concepts, because Internet. The burden is unreasonable. Sales made by phone are not covered by this bill (oh ho ho, not a mistake). This is a prime example of the sick culture of special interest driving Congress.
 
it's already law to pay taxes on internet sales if there's a distribution center (or any physical location of the vendor) in your state (i.e. newegg, etc). Even digital distribution purchases I've been charged tax.

I'm honestly not surprised by this tax bill, I'm only surprised it took this long to get approved.
 
Wait, so everything I buy on Amazon is going to be taxed now? What the fuck is the point of buying things online now, assuming you also have to pay for shipping? Yeah, it's infinitely more convenient to search for what you want on a site, but those can be some severe convenience fees.
 
"The Marketplace Fairness Act" my ass. Marketplace Fairness Act is doublespeak for "kill the little guy with paperwork and protect big online retailers".

If you are a small online shop this is pretty much a death sentence. Having to keep track of and fill out tax paperwork for fifty different states plus DC is going to be way to time consuming and expensive for small shops, but then that is the intent hence the support of this abomination by big retailers including Amazon.
 
Red Squirrel said:
How does this work for Canadians? Do we have to pay the US tax *AND* the customs now?
Click to expand...
Canada would probably be treated like US states which don't collect a sales tax. IOW, it wouldn't apply if the credit card address and shipping address are in Canada.
 
Megalith said:
Wait, so everything I buy on Amazon is going to be taxed now? What the fuck is the point of buying things online now, assuming you also have to pay for shipping? Yeah, it's infinitely more convenient to search for what you want on a site, but those can be some severe convenience fees.
Click to expand...

The point of buying online is simply convenience. Taxes do not change that. I'm slightly surprised to be saying this but we've all been getting a free ride for years. Now, as far as blanket application and also applying the same burden upon digital-only goods, I cannot agree with those things. There are severe concerns to how this bill is written and the consequences could stifle some forms of digital commerce which in turn will stifle innovation.

But in the end, I don't disagree in concept that taxes should be paid, IF the nexus state has sales tax.
 
pxc said:
Canada would probably be treated like US states which don't collect a sales tax. IOW, it wouldn't apply if the credit card address and shipping address are in Canada.
Click to expand...

That's good to know. I try to avoid ordering from the states due to customs which is basically a random number from 0 to like 400(highest I've seen) but certain places like Monoprice just can't be beaten or even be close to beaten in price.
 
g-money said:
The point of buying online is simply convenience. Taxes do not change that. I'm slightly surprised to be saying this but we've all been getting a free ride for years. Now, as far as blanket application and also applying the same burden upon digital-only goods, I cannot agree with those things. There are severe concerns to how this bill is written and the consequences could stifle some forms of digital commerce which in turn will stifle innovation.

But in the end, I don't disagree in concept that taxes should be paid, IF the nexus state has sales tax.
Click to expand...

That and the fact that most things like motherboards, cpus, ram etc is not available locally. If I could buy that stuff locally I would, because I don't have to wait for it or pay shipping.

Though the nice thing with buying online too is you can do research on the item before you buy, read reviews etc but that's also why it's important for local retailers to still have an online website with all their products. Lot of them don't though.
 
Red Squirrel said:
That and the fact that most things like motherboards, cpus, ram etc is not available locally. If I could buy that stuff locally I would, because I don't have to wait for it or pay shipping.

Though the nice thing with buying online too is you can do research on the item before you buy, read reviews etc but that's also why it's important for local retailers to still have an online website with all their products. Lot of them don't though.
Click to expand...

i fly RC helis
i cant get my parts locally this WILL KILL the hobby for a lot and may dive out a lot of online hobby stores that already have a hard time competing with sites out of US in china
 
Jaer44 said:
it's already law to pay taxes on internet sales if there's a distribution center (or any physical location of the vendor) in your state (i.e. newegg, etc). Even digital distribution purchases I've been charged tax.

I'm honestly not surprised by this tax bill, I'm only surprised it took this long to get approved.
Click to expand...

Exactly. And while I'd like to be annoyed and upset about this bill, I've already been paying sales tax on practically everything I've bought online, so I'm more in a state of meh at this point.
 
I love it, more taxes = more spending. It's logical, right? Instead of budgeting and being efficient with our money, we just spend more and squeeze those extra dollars out of citizens to make up for it. It's really smart, guys. Seriously. Just think about it.
 
Max Mike said:
"The Marketplace Fairness Act" my ass. Marketplace Fairness Act is doublespeak for "kill the little guy with paperwork and protect big online retailers".

If you are a small online shop this is pretty much a death sentence. Having to keep track of and fill out tax paperwork for fifty different states plus DC is going to be way to time consuming and expensive for small shops, but then that is the intent hence the support of this abomination by big retailers including Amazon.
Click to expand...

I disagree. 1) At least for Michigan, it's a single sheet of paper that takes about 1 minute to fill out. We have computers today that keep track of these things so all you have to do is click the "total sales" and "total tax collected" buttons for each state and you're all set. 2) Companies get paid to collect sales taxes. In Michigan, if I remember right, it's around 2.8¢ on the dollar (I don't remember the exact number but it was more than a 1/3). I don't imagine other states are any different.
 
I'm done being a sucker. I'm going to do as much as I can now to thwart and cheat government from getting any more of my money. Sorry, they are driving me to this.
 
pxc said:
It's true that states may have "use tax" laws that require individuals to pay the state any use tax (shockingly at the same rate as in-state sales tax) for out of state purchases.

The problem is that "sales taxes" as defined by most states require presence (nexus) for the collection and remittance of those taxes. That's not unreasonable. If a company has a presence in the state, it's less of a burden for that company to remit sales taxes due.

What this "fairness" bill does is throw out those concepts, because Internet. The burden is unreasonable. Sales made by phone are not covered by this bill (oh ho ho, not a mistake). This is a prime example of the sick culture of special interest driving Congress.
Click to expand...

Wait, so if I hit buy now on a web page, I'll pay sales tax. If I call them and order, I don't?

How fucking Dilbert of them.
 
Well how about we the people start voting against this crap. I mean we are supposed to hold the power, not these fools in office.

I'm sick of being taxed to hell. I make it, they take it! I spend it and they take some more. F off.

It doesn't pay to work or buy shit these days. I see why there are so many bums out there.
 
Umm, all you claiming we'll be paying more...

You do realize that you are already responsible for paying those taxes now they're just going to be collected up front.
 
I pay tax on Amazon anyway. *shrug*

Only would suck badly for Newegg or something where I was buying top-dollar PC hardware.
 
RogueTrip said:
Well how about we the people start voting against this crap. I mean we are supposed to hold the power, not these fools in office.
Click to expand...

I don't know that there is a way to get people to vote the way they ought to. The entitlement mentality is overpowering. To paraphrase what Alexander Tytler said, once the public finds out that it can vote itself largesse from the public treasury, it leads to the end of a democracy.

Most "get out the vote" efforts seem to churn out nothing but party-line voters, which isn't much of an improvement. What we really need is to prove that both parties are 100% corrupt and expose the trail of money, political connections, and power that binds them all together.

But who cares about stuff like that when reality TV is on? And news? Why bother to look into things on your own when it's so easy to trust what the nice empty suit reads from a teleprompter?
 
I love how the news is about the Senate passing a bill, and 3 of the first 5 comments are complaining about the President. We need more civics classes in schools, or maybe just reading comprehension classes.
 
Next up websites advertising how big they aren't? "We don't get anywhere close to $1M in sales annually, so all your purchases will be tax free from us"
 
Rattle said:
we'll only be 24 trillion in debt by the time this idiots is done being president, what does he care if you have to pay more.
Click to expand...

This is not a presidential this and it was not his administration that wrote the bill. Congress did. That's why the article says the senate passed the bill. Now if the president signs it you can blame him too, but I would like to point out it would have happened regardless of the president. The corps run this country not the govt. :(
 
Everybody get on the cool kid bus...

I got an original idea, let's all bash Obama and give republiCANTS like McCain a pass...
Click to expand...

Bro... do you live under a rock. It is for sure not the cool thing to do, have you turned on the television lately? There is nothing but Obama and democrat nut gargling going on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top