White House Endorses Internet Sales Tax

kbrickley said:
Except ironically the Sales tax is one of the more balanced taxes there is ... everybody who buys stuff pays it (including the poor) ... and it is exclusively for your state or city (unlike the federal taxes where some states pay more than they get back in services) ... I would rather see the income taxes go and keep the sales and property taxes (which is what most states with no income tax do) :cool:
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Like a Consumption Tax? That idea was brought up before but never took hold.

But I can't imagine paying 15-20% in tax per dollar for stuff.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Like a Consumption Tax? That idea was brought up before but never took hold.

But I can't imagine paying 15-20% in tax per dollar for stuff.
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I wasn't recommending a sales tax for the feds ... and if the federal support of the online tax gives money directly to the feds I would oppose it ... in theory, everybody is supposed to be paying sales tax for their online purchases already ... unfortunately it works on the honor system and it is not easy to pay it which creates the problems associated with collecting it ;)
 
Maybe in good times I could see it—I never support more tax, but I could see it. But people are already hurting badly with the increased price of everything and piss-poor employment situation. Blood from a stone and all that.
 
I'd much prefer a huge federal property and vehicle tax to impose a heavy penalty on people who wrongfully purchased homes they couldn't afford and then cost society as a whole dearly when their inability to pay contributed significantly to economic slowdown. Greedy individuals who bought houses to flip or live in that were obviously too expensive when combined with their obnoxious car loan for an SUV and unnecessary cell phone bills, smoking and drug habit, home theater, and children should be punished for their forcing crazy single cat lovers to step up their tax payments to save them from their own blind stupidity
 
kbrickley said:
I wasn't recommending a sales tax for the feds ... and if the federal support of the online tax gives money directly to the feds I would oppose it ... in theory, everybody is supposed to be paying sales tax for their online purchases already ... unfortunately it works on the honor system and it is not easy to pay it which creates the problems associated with collecting it ;)
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Ok I see.

When people are given an option to pay or not to pay, most will not.
Change has to come is some form, just hopefully it doesn't slow consumer spending.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Ok I see.

When people are given an option to pay or not to pay, most will not.
Change has to come is some form, just hopefully it doesn't slow consumer spending.
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Amazon has been charging sales tax for awhile and it hasn't impacted their growth ... it might put more of a strain on smaller online companies but the large ones will do fine ... I am also not totally happy with the consumption based economy we have ... I would prefer if more of our income came from sources other than consumer consumption ;)
 
kbrickley said:
Amazon has been charging sales tax for awhile and it hasn't impacted their growth ... it might put more of a strain on smaller online companies but the large ones will do fine ... I am also not totally happy with the consumption based economy we have ... I would prefer if more of our income came from sources other than consumer consumption ;)
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Will the State credit the communities that the products were purchased from?
I rather buy locally to make sure my directly community benefits, not trickle down funding from the State.
If the online sales tax is passed, I doubt I will buy from Newegg again. I'll go to my local TigerDirect for everything PC related.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Will the State credit the communities that the products were purchased from?
I rather buy locally to make sure my directly community benefits, not trickle down funding from the State.
If the online sales tax is passed, I doubt I will buy from Newegg again. I'll go to my local TigerDirect for everything PC related.
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I would agree that the buy local strategy is ideal and I do that for food stuffs ... but due to a combination of factors, online shopping has become more of a necessity recently (I have been living without a car which limits what I can carry locally and I enjoy the selection of online shopping) ... ultimately I think most small businesses (other than things like gyms, markets, services, etc) are likely doomed once the bigger businesses adjust ... people are definitely willing to move more and more of their shopping online due to the savings and the selection

with Amazon Prime shipping I get most items I order within 1-3 days of my purchase, and Amazon has a selection that blows away any sort of local stores capability ... once Walmart gets organized it could offer similar capabilities through its ship to store services (for people that want to actually get it in person) or they have the economic scale to compete with Amazon (if they so choose) ... between the two large companies they should be more than able to destroy most of their competition eventually
 
bill will KILL small business as they will now have to keep track of every local and state tax in the US
wile the big stores will have the money to pay for the systems to keep track of it
 
kbrickley said:
I would agree that the buy local strategy is ideal and I do that for food stuffs ... but due to a combination of factors, online shopping has become more of a necessity recently (I have been living without a car which limits what I can carry locally and I enjoy the selection of online shopping) ... ultimately I think most small businesses (other than things like gyms, markets, services, etc) are likely doomed once the bigger businesses adjust ... people are definitely willing to move more and more of their shopping online due to the savings and the selection

with Amazon Prime shipping I get most items I order within 1-3 days of my purchase, and Amazon has a selection that blows away any sort of local stores capability ... once Walmart gets organized it could offer similar capabilities through its ship to store services (for people that want to actually get it in person) or they have the economic scale to compete with Amazon (if they so choose) ... between the two large companies they should be more than able to destroy most of their competition eventually
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Good points. My business model is converting over to more online marketing services for small business because I see the shift coming.
Small business is the life blood of the economy, and more jobs will be lost if they can't compete.

Hmmmm...just got an idea.
 
WorldExclusive said:
Good points. My business model is converting over to more online marketing services for small business because I see the shift coming.
Small business is the life blood of the economy, and more jobs will be lost if they can't compete.

Hmmmm...just got an idea.
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again this bill adds more over head to small business that till only make it harder for them to compete for internet sales
think about having to keep track of 100's of fax codes? and them making sure the right money gets back to right place?

we already have laws on the books stating you have to report things you get out of state to pay tax on
 
this bill props up big box brick and mortar now small business
and will mark the end of small business selling on the internet
 
How about going after companies like GE and Google to pay their fucking "FAIR SHARE"?!?

Bullshit.
 
Elios said:
again this bill adds more over head to small business that till only make it harder for them to compete for internet sales
think about having to keep track of 100's of fax codes? and them making sure the right money gets back to right place?

we already have laws on the books stating you have to report things you get out of state to pay tax on
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It is probably going to create three new business opportunities for support companies ...

there will definitely be an opportunity for data services to keep track of all the relevant taxes for companies (there are lots of similar services for environmental and logistical requirements currently) ...

there will be an opportunity for companies to manage the accounting (will probably be an add on to existing financial services providers) ...

there will be an opportunity for central warehousing and distribution for companies that need to compete with the online offerings of Amazon and Walmart
 
WBurchnall said:
It also serves a secondary purpose of helping ...fudge...for politicans employment numbers. If your getting paid as a private contractor or getting paid as a solider to kill insurgents in _______, your an american with a job and therefore count towards the employment rate and not 'against'. 3.2 million people are in the DOD's employment or roughly 1% of the US's population....

So if you have say 8% unemployment of say the 150m or so 'eligible' us workers(excluding children under 18, retirees over 65 and the disabled) and you lay off half the military by halving the military budget, you'd end up with another 1% unemployment instantly. Worse yet, you'd have 1.6 million trained, experienced, unemployed, desperate (probable) past-killers among the populace. That to me sounds like a repeat of post war-era Vietnam.
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In a way, it also bolsters the economy. When the government spends money or pays employees, the money doesn't dissapear. It ends up going into the economy to help pay for other jobs and other businesses.

Of course, the question should be, is that reason enough to keep paying money into it?
 
I still say, let the states collect their own taxes if the mail order/internet company is not located in that state.
Also, I view ANY involvement by the Federal Government in internet sales taxes, as a prelude to a Federal sales tax in edition to the many we already pay. We don't really need to be taxed in yet another way. We pay enough in taxes. We can balance the budget with what we have coming in without further increasing taxes, by spending more intelligently, or not spending.
One major thing that needs fixing at the Federal level, is forcing budgets to be spent, and cutting the budget of departments that mange to save the taxpayer any money.
The goal of any department in the government should be to get their job done properly, while spending as little as possible to do so. The law, and the government employee culture should be altered to facilitate this.
 
The Internet gave the small business the chance to reach beyond its borders to compete with the big one.

It still does that. This law should be exempted for any company making less than 50 million outside its borders and / or has less than 500 employees.

Both of those categories are what the SBA refers to as "small business"
Or at least it seems it would. Here's a great white paper from the SBA about how to determine small businesses.

By the time you wade through that pile of shit, let me know how organized and sensible the government is.
http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/size_standards_methodology.pdf

It used to be based on employee size, now its a weighted curve that is backed up by some math that basically allows them to adjust it as necessary to support their friends.

But what do we expect, we have the IRS to provide us clear, concise instructions, all 70,000 pages of them:
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/10-outrageous-facts-about-income-tax
 
If this passes, does it supersede the state use tax ,the cook county use tax and the chicago use tax for my parents when they buy stuff online?
 
at this rate the US will have half the taxes we do in Canada jeez, feel bad for you guys.. :rolleyes:

and we don't piss away 20-25% of it on a military budget either

you guys get upset when gas changes 5-10 cents a gallon, where we are custom to seeing 10-15 cent changes per liter over night, and if i recall you guys weren't a big fan of 5$/gallon for gasoline where we are used to it, yet we produce more oil than we consume... thank you opec :rolleyes: ...that said how would the US fair if they introduced taxes based on engine displacement and vehicle type like they do in europe? wonder how many people would "need" a hummer or suburban or v8 4x4 pickup to put around town then?

http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/fuelsavings/2139.aspx
 
People keep talking about local governments as though they are so great. The problem with most communities and states are local governments. How many local governments pay their police and other local officials way too much? They give themselves/local councils a salary that's too damn high. They allow their business "friends" to run amok with sweetheart deals.

Wake up you fools. Local governments have no oversight and are a constant source of fraud and corruption. Haven't you ever noticed that local big wigs are always "backing" one candidate or another who end up giving them deals and contracts?
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
How about going after companies like GE and Google to pay their fucking "FAIR SHARE"?!?

Bullshit.
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Whoa hold your brakes there, corporations like GE and Google are pillars of capitalism and job creators; you don't want to make them angry by increasing their taxes and lowering their profit margins, leading them to offset the cost with laying off employees. /s
 
This boils down to DEBT. It's not medicare, medicaid, social security or defense spending at any given snapshot in time. It's about wanting the best of everything (social services and military alike) and not being willing to pay for it. We have been doing this as a country for year after year whether it be a republican or democratic administration and BORROWED the money to do it.

Now we can't ever possibly pay off this unimaginable debt. If interest rates rise...and they will...we are fucked. The fed can continue to print money like it's going out of style, but as each and eveyrone of us sees, your dollar is worth less and less each day. For fucks sake a gallon of chocoloate milk is $4!
 
Putz said:
at this rate the US will have half the taxes we do in Canada jeez, feel bad for you guys.. :rolleyes:

and we don't piss away 20-25% of it on a military budget either

you guys get upset when gas changes 5-10 cents a gallon, where we are custom to seeing 10-15 cent changes per liter over night, and if i recall you guys weren't a big fan of 5$/gallon for gasoline where we are used to it, yet we produce more oil than we consume... thank you opec :rolleyes: ...that said how would the US fair if they introduced taxes based on engine displacement and vehicle type like they do in europe? wonder how many people would "need" a hummer or suburban or v8 4x4 pickup to put around town then?

http://retail.petro-canada.ca/en/fuelsavings/2139.aspx
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They have Engine displacement taxes in Brazil as well as very high import taxes. Our 2009 honda fit with 40k miles & no warranty, bought last december was $22k USED.
 
First we spent ourselves blind feeding the military industrial complex.

Here is a prime example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zt9BZD7mlc

Now, terror is the mechanism used to con us that we need to completely transform our culture toward instituting a homeland defense industrial complex.

It's all about profit and power, it has always been about profit and power.
 
bucket said:
Don't have a sales tax in my state; don't care.
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You will care. This affects us as well (Oregonian) as it will enforce sales tax on the sellers not the buyers. If your item you purchase comes from California then you will be charged the California rate through the seller who I guarantee you will not eat the charge.
 
Tax politics aside, this is just an undue burden on small business which is the overwhelming majority of all transactions on the internet. This bill would force anyone that has more than $1,000,000 a year in sales to start collecting sales tax not based on where the business is located but based on where the person ordering is located. It is completely impossible to comply and becomes a massive tax which becomes a burden on the business.
 
as long as the bill includes requiring states to leave internet purchases out of their state tax and when filing income taxes at the beginning of the year, I'm ok with paying internet taxes on the fly. I'm not going to pay for state sales tax, then federal sales tax, then be told to declare it when I file my taxes.
 
Azhar said:
as long as the bill includes requiring states to leave internet purchases out of their state tax and when filing income taxes at the beginning of the year, I'm ok with paying internet taxes on the fly. I'm not going to pay for state sales tax, then federal sales tax, then be told to declare it when I file my taxes.
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I'm going to correct myself: I should have said "as long as every state can set their own sales tax rates and the federal government keeps their hands out of the pot, I'm ok with that." I forgot there were states that don't pay sales taxes.
 
DigitalisAkujin said:
Tax politics aside, this is just an undue burden on small business which is the overwhelming majority of all transactions on the internet. This bill would force anyone that has more than $1,000,000 a year in sales to start collecting sales tax not based on where the business is located but based on where the person ordering is located. It is completely impossible to comply and becomes a massive tax which becomes a burden on the business.
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Aren't internet transactions already required to use a "billing address" as well as a shipping address (although for most people those are the same) ... as long as the info associated with the tax on the billing address is readily available is it that much of a burden to tax based on the billing address?
 
kbrickley said:
Aren't internet transactions already required to use a "billing address" as well as a shipping address (although for most people those are the same) ... as long as the info associated with the tax on the billing address is readily available is it that much of a burden to tax based on the billing address?
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The billing address is used for credit card authentication. Taxes are calculated based on shipping address. If the shipping address is in a state where your business is located you're required to collect taxes on any sales. That being said the one caveat is that the percentage is based on the specific sales tax rate for your business, not the shipping address. For example in Pennsylvania the sales tax is 6%. The Philadelphia city tax is 8%. If I order from a PA business to a Philadelphia address if the business is outside of Philly I'll be paying 6%, not 8%. If both I and the business are in Philadelphia than it would be 8%.
 
DigitalisAkujin said:
The billing address is used for credit card authentication. Taxes are calculated based on shipping address. If the shipping address is in a state where your business is located you're required to collect taxes on any sales. That being said the one caveat is that the percentage is based on the specific sales tax rate for your business, not the shipping address. For example in Pennsylvania the sales tax is 6%. The Philadelphia city tax is 8%. If I order from a PA business to a Philadelphia address if the business is outside of Philly I'll be paying 6%, not 8%. If both I and the business are in Philadelphia than it would be 8%.
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and the US Gov't expects business with less then 100 people working for them to keep track of that for EVERY city in the US
yea this will totally "help" small business ... help them die faster
 
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