US Senate Votes in Favor of Internet Sales Taxes

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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A non-binding symbolic vote in the US Senate to support a national Internet sales tax has passed by a margin of 75 to 24 votes. If the actual bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, passes as indicated by the recent vote, it could place an undue burden on Internet small business owners, not to mention the customers.

Although the large majority of the Senate voted in favor of the proposal, the opposition is still very vocal. The National Taxpayers Union has created a petition and urges the public to make their voices heard by sending it to their local Senators. The union says the Marketplace Fairness Act is "just a way to unleash state tax collectors on the internet," adding that "doing so will hit small businesses with major compliance headaches, overturn constitutional protections against harsh tax administration, and undermine state tax competition."
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Well, most people are already supposed to pay sales taxes on internet purchases and report them to their state IRS...it is just no one bothers to do it, and there's no consequence for not.
 
The name "Marketplace Fairness Act" is propaganda and that terminology should not be used. It should be more appropriately titled the "Internet Price Fixing Act" because it has been bought and paid for by big box retailers who don't want to

For small businesses, this act of theft is nothing short of a clusterfuck. Trying to keep track of sales tax in 40+ states who have over 10,000 taxing jurisdictions is untenable and will essentially force small businesses who do out of state sales under. This is exactly what the big box retailers want. Since the US congress is nothing but a bunch of prostitutes, it was not difficult for the big box retailers to buy them off in exchange for favors.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
This isn't really news for those of us already paying sales taxes for the things we buy online.
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it might seem odd to you, but not everyone is you, and this news is valid to many of us.

With that said it will make me go to microcenter even more if this happens, I think it would definitely give a boost to retail stores, and make us all hate the government a little more.
 
Old Man said:
Freedom isn't free.
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Yeah, you're right it's not free. But to be so disillusioned as to think that there aren't already adequate taxes to keep a first world power running being collected already is just asinine. Just because the government went on a huge proverbial crack binge doesn't mean we need to keep feeding their habit for crack(note crack is being used in place of irresponsible spending, unrightful bailouts, etc...) the government uses the argument that drugs are bad because they cause people to waste all of their money and have to proceed to theft to get their fix. The government is nothing like a crack whore, pillaging, thieving, and whoring itself out for more funds.

The government needs to go into rehab, we don't need to support their bad habits anymore.
 
Is there anything the 'Senate' doesn't want to tax? I say we fire every one of those lying cheating low life bastards.
 
according to fox news, especially huckabee and hannity, the majority of americans support a national sales tax.
 
i think its really lame that the only jobs the legislature is willing to save is the retail jobs, wtf about all the manufacturing jobs?
 
Ocean said:
according to fox news, especially huckabee and hannity, the majority of americans support a national sales tax.
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When provided a CHOICE, sure. I would be ok with a flat national sales tax INSTEAD of income tax. But not both. They say we don't live in a socialist country but I feel like I'm paying the taxes of socialism without any of the benefits.
 
The Senate cannot charge a National sales tax.

The Mayor of New York cannot make national gun laws.

Rich politicians should be able to afford lawyers who can tell them the law.
 
I live in Kalifornia, so we are already taxed on everything they can tax. We then pay fees for those things they cannot tax. So, I pay a lot of taxes and don't get jack for it. Potholes in the streets, not enough cops, parks closing, etc. Meanwhile, there's a lot of folks on welfare driving around in a Mercedes and wearing $100+ shoes.

So I guess I am asking WTF is this going to be used for? Is it just another money grab by the Feds to pay for shit I don't qualify or use?

Here's an idea - Lets get rid of the telephone excise tax they put in place to pay for WWII? (Yeah, I know, they decided to keep it around in 1947, but I'd just like to see a temporary tax become just that....temporary). See the problem is, they keep adding taxes, but they don't ever get rid of any of them.

I suggest the local and Federal government do what all of the rest of us do when we run out of money......we stop buying shit.
 
damicatz said:
The name "Marketplace Fairness Act" is propaganda and that terminology should not be used. It should be more appropriately titled the "Internet Price Fixing Act" because it has been bought and paid for by big box retailers who don't want to

For small businesses, this act of theft is nothing short of a clusterfuck. Trying to keep track of sales tax in 40+ states who have over 10,000 taxing jurisdictions is untenable and will essentially force small businesses who do out of state sales under. This is exactly what the big box retailers want. Since the US congress is nothing but a bunch of prostitutes, it was not difficult for the big box retailers to buy them off in exchange for favors.
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It's nothing more than a revenue grab by the feds and nothing to do with Marketplace Fairness. Especially as states have made a lot of inroads for getting online retailers to collect state taxes. Amazon will soon be collecting Mass state taxes for example. So now the Feds want Amazon to charge me a State and Federal Sales tax while big box store only have to charge state tax.
 
griffinhart said:
It's nothing more than a revenue grab by the feds and nothing to do with Marketplace Fairness. Especially as states have made a lot of inroads for getting online retailers to collect state taxes. Amazon will soon be collecting Mass state taxes for example. So now the Feds want Amazon to charge me a State and Federal Sales tax while big box store only have to charge state tax.
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Is a federal sales tax in discussion? I know Senate would have an orgasm if they had one, but it's not on the current agenda, is it?
 
Who gets the sales tax money? The buyer's jurisdiction? Seller's? A split? Please don't say the feds get it.
 
Ocean said:
according to fox news, especially huckabee and hannity, the majority of americans support a national sales tax.
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Unless I misunderstand, this is a different idea - a "national sales tax" would mean that wherever you live in the US you will always pay 7% (or w/e) instead of one state charging 5% and another 6% and a third 7%, or even how some state charge one rate for food, another for gas and a third for everything else. I have no problem with that.

However, an internet sales tax would be a massive burden and would drive sites like eBay out of business. People would use sites like Craigslist or our own B/S/T forums to do "under the table" cash transactions or to "trade" so there is no tax (I see huge profits for giftcard companies "I'll trade you a $20 Wal-mart/lowes/etc card for your used copy of Chrysis") which would scare off a lot of people since there is no real protection except ratings sites like Heatware (not that they dont do a good job, but it's nice to know if things go south on a Paypal transaction you *can* get a refund)
 
Deus said:
Who gets the sales tax money? The buyer's jurisdiction? Seller's? A split? Please don't say the feds get it.
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Online businesses with less than $1 million in annual sales would be exempted from having to collect the levies.

In states with sales taxes, online buyers are currently supposed to pay a tax on their purchases but the requirement is seldom enforced. - AP
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They will probably have some sort of program to collect the basic state rate and sort it out in the following years.
 
I love how we supposedly have a representative government, with elected officials speaking on behalf of the public will, and yet so very often we have hugely unpopular bills pass.

How long do they think they can keep up the illusion and try and convince us that we have any control over this by picking from one of two chosen puppets, interested only in keeping us bickering among ourselves about non-issues.
 
Seems the Internet is constantly under attack by the government these days, this stuff is getting ridiculous. If they had their way they would probably just shut it down altogether. Not only do they keep wanting to censor it, they want to add another tax on it too. I hope this does not happen in Canada as well.
 
I typically buy from Amazon where there is already sales tax for me anyway, so I'm not super worried about it. Sucks, but it is what it is I guess.

It'll only really suck for big-ticket items like CPUs/GPUs/etc.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Seems the Internet is constantly under attack by the government these days, this stuff is getting ridiculous. If they had their way they would probably just shut it down altogether. Not only do they keep wanting to censor it, they want to add another tax on it too. I hope this does not happen in Canada as well.
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This is a simple issue of the people in power don't understand the internet. They think it's like Television and magazines, they don't realize that the individual "consumers" have just as much power as the megacorps (relativly speaking) And you cant use the same mindset with the internet that works with the previous generations of media.

This is not an excuse - they should be required to learn about it before they can legislate it (or rather realize they *Cant* legislate it) but I think it's the mindset.
 
[A non-binding symbolic vote in the US Senate to support a national Internet sales tax has passed by a margin of 75 to 24 votes. If the actual bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, passes as indicated by the recent vote, it could place an undue burden on Internet small business owners, not to mention the customers.]

75 to 24 is NOT by a margin. :rolleyes:
 
Scythe5 said:
I live in Kalifornia, so we are already taxed on everything they can tax. We then pay fees for those things they cannot tax. So, I pay a lot of taxes and don't get jack for it. Potholes in the streets, not enough cops, parks closing, etc. Meanwhile, there's a lot of folks on welfare driving around in a Mercedes and wearing $100+ shoes.

So I guess I am asking WTF is this going to be used for? Is it just another money grab by the Feds to pay for shit I don't qualify or use?

Here's an idea - Lets get rid of the telephone excise tax they put in place to pay for WWII? (Yeah, I know, they decided to keep it around in 1947, but I'd just like to see a temporary tax become just that....temporary). See the problem is, they keep adding taxes, but they don't ever get rid of any of them.

I suggest the local and Federal government do what all of the rest of us do when we run out of money......we stop buying shit.
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I feel for you guys in the good ol' U.S. of A on this one. Us poor souls in .au cop this same BS. And what you have said here my good Sir, applies to us as well. We keep getting taxed and taxed and hit with fee's and "registrations" and "licenses" for EVERYTHING! Even for going fishing in some states here! So i can feel your pain guys!
 
If this passes.

Its a free ticket for B&M stores to raise prices.

Making Internet purchasing less attractive by putting a tariff on the
purchases.

Protectionistic practices, that will only hurt the consumer. It will cause
prices to rise, because now there's a buffer they can bid up on because
they know the competition would have to eat Federal sales tax (again
fucking dumb idea for many reasons, we are taxed far far higher than the
income tax rates, people keep pointing to those, but in reality, they need
to accumulate ALL the taxes, and realize that a 40k a year job can pay far
and beyond 40-50% of their wages in taxes and their new cushy word for
taxes, that being "fees" or "assessments". As long as they don't call it
TAX, its fine for the uninformed, uneducated voting masses
 
westrock2000 said:
When provided a CHOICE, sure. I would be ok with a flat national sales tax INSTEAD of income tax. But not both. They say we don't live in a socialist country but I feel like I'm paying the taxes of socialism without any of the benefits.
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You said it! I've felt this way for decades.

I'm sure if gov't were to actually get a clue about responsible spending (perhaps if their pay was proportionately tied to the deficit, etc. ...basically performance based :eek: ), the could get by on a 10% flat tax. I say, if God only asks for 10%, what business does the gov't have asking for more? ;)

I remember way back when the flat tax was first being thrown around, there was a study done that claimed they could get by on 7% and have a surplus cash. I know things are a bit different now, but the principal still applies.

10% flat tax and they can basically defund the IRS to save an enormous amount of money. It would also save us having to pay to file tax returns, and free us from the legal BS many are put through, some for for no legitimate reason. Defund other outdated, duplicate, jobs/agencies/pork projects/other misc. BS, and our economy could change so much that we wouldn't even recognize it.

It's all BS anyway, since income tax isn't even compulsory (though they don't exactly take kindly to people acting accordingly). The truth is that income tax is the most permanent temporary tax in history!

I know, it's a psilocybin fueled pipedream (well, maybe a flashback of one from long, long ago).
 
mynamehere said:
It's all BS anyway, since income tax isn't even compulsory (though they don't exactly take kindly to people acting accordingly). The truth is that income tax is the most permanent temporary tax in history!
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How do you figure this?
 
mynamehere said:
10% flat tax and they can basically defund the IRS to save an enormous amount of money. It would also save us having to pay to file tax returns, and free us from the legal BS many are put through, some for for no legitimate reason. QUOTE]

Are you saying that with a basically defunded IRS there would be less underreporting of income/off the books?

And do you have some evidence that $1 for IRS enforcement results in less than $1 of revenue?

Businesses get to deduct expenses before this flat tax is calculated, right?

There are much better ways to save an enormous amount of money and free people from legal BS. And I agree that the tax code is an arcane labryinth and I don't trust Congress to reform/rewrite it.
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stiltner said:
If this passes.
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It's not going up for a vote...;) People have missed the "non-binding resolution" part of the information. Congress *routinely* passes all kinds of non-binding resolutions that, when and if the issues ever come up in an actual bill, it votes against, with gusto. This is pure politics and nothing more. Kind of like Al Franken(stein.) No Internet tax is on the table in reality and if it was it would be voted down.
 
WaltC said:
It's not going up for a vote...;) People have missed the "non-binding resolution" part of the information. Congress *routinely* passes all kinds of non-binding resolutions that, when and if the issues ever come up in an actual bill, it votes against, with gusto. This is pure politics and nothing more. Kind of like Al Franken(stein.) No Internet tax is on the table in reality and if it was it would be voted down.
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So this is not a done deal then? I figured once it's voted on then that's the final step and it gets passed.
 
"...in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

It will happen one way or another. Give it time. As a Californian consumer, I already do what I can to purchase things from out-of-state retailers.

If anything, I think they should do an "average tax." So something shipped from Las Vegas to Los Angeles would be subject to the average of the two tax rates, 5% and 9.25% - which would be roughly 7%. And the two states split it down the middle from there. I mean the tax code is already so simple that a little bit more math on top shouldn't be hard to deal with. But also they should factor in all the cities the item passes through as it is shipped the consumer, and all those tax rates should be averaged in as well, and the taxes split up accordingly. I mean, it's just an obvious answer to a simple problem.
 
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