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Evolution Of The Online Tax Debate
rhwalker22 writes "Last November, the Streamlined Sales Tax Project drafted a plan to make it easier for states to cooperate in collecting sales taxes on products sold over the Internet. That plan is now headed to governors and state legislatures for debate.
While that debate begins, the sales tax group is moving into new territory, debating how to apply sales taxes to digital services, like music and software downloads, and IP telephony. Most states participating in the sales tax project have sent representatives to Tampa, Fla., this week to take up this subject, according to a report by washingtonpost.com."
Why even tax the internet? After about 5 years of e-commerce being popular, we have seen the market take off. It started off with some bumps, but after the bubble burst, and all of the stupid dot-com companies died out, we were left with many legitimate e-commerce sites that were pulling in a large profit. Rather than law-makers seeing this as a sign that maybe low taxes are good, they see this as an opportunity to tax further. If law-makers truly believe that internet commerce is hindering their states because it is so cheap, then they should lower taxes in their state rather than trying to levy taxes on the internet.
It's kind of like two kids. One is very gifted and one is just regular intelligence. If you want to help the regular kid, you should spend extra time with him and help him. You should not try to force the gifted kid to act dumb.
To keep governments honest in delivering value to their constituents, states should be forced to compete in offering low cost of doing business. If taxes climb too high, then the goverment isn't doing it's job well, businesses leave, the economy suffers, and the people vote the government out of office. This is the best mechanism we have for keeping governments accountable to the people -- just as companies have to offer value to their customers, and to their shareholders.
Taxing across state borders is unjust and just plain stupid. We have enough barriers to trade around the world. Let's not start *within* our own country.
Hmm, good point.
After all, if it were possible to create unconstitutional legislation, we'd have suspects being indefinitely detained without trial, copyrights that last forever... why, it doesn't bear thinking about!
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
That would be the point. What's wrong with private schools and toll-roads? What's the betting that they'd be both better and cheaper than the current state provisioned systems.
It is the logical nature of government to expand. The people who are most interested in gaining power are those who wish to control others -- not those who wish to mind their own business and live in peace. This is precisely why the US government is so overly complex and expensive today: Power and profit for those in control expands proportionately to the size of government (measured not just in tax dollars but liberty). You have probably heard of "political pork", i.e. government designed precisely to benefit those in power by expanding their "responsibilities". In the end, ALL government is "pork" to some degree, because it is impossible that government benefit everybody at the same time (except perhaps for government which protects against force, for example the local police responding to theft). By the reality of human nature, every person represents a unique thinking individual -- and thus a unique opinion on government.
You have to view government as the business it really is, driven by profit and market share like any other business. Those in power are not there to benefit you -- they are there precisely to benefit themselves.
Incidentally, this is the most important flaw in the concept of "government by the people". How can government be both "by those who wish to control others" AND "by those who wish to control themselves" at the same time? It is logically impossible.
The state budgets are trashed because they spend too fscking much on prisons. We need to retool our legal system (especially the drug laws) so that we dont fill our prisons with people who got cought with a tiny bag of weed. I'm not suggesting legalization, though that would be nice. I'm suggesting maybe first offenders get community service, a big fine and probation.
Also, toll ways are bad. They were designed to allow the roads to be built, but when the road is paid off they still charge you. They keep charging you because the beurocracy of the toll way doesn't want to lose its' jobs.
Moderators: This is my opinion and I don't care If I get modded down for it; I've hit the Karma cap.
Help I'm a rock.
Wow! This was tried in many nations--including the United States--in the nineteenth century. Some countries still use a similar system, wherein banks are allowed to issue currency. Very tight regulation is required, or else you end up with problems--similar to those in the United States--where organizations issue currency without assets to back it up, make it difficult to redeem their "cash" for real dollars, or just the money and run, leaving customers with worthless paper.
In the United States between 1837 and 1863 roughly five thousand different types of bills were issued by more than a thousand different banks. Counterfeiting, fraud, and just plain bad customer service ran rampant. Of course, none of a bank's holdings were insured by the federal government as they are today (FDIC in the U.S., CDIC in Canada; similar bodies in other developed countries.)
You're asking us to cavalierly give thousands or millions of dollars to essentially anonymous individuals on the internet and endow them with the powers of what amounts to a central bank, while letting unfettered free market forces work things out? Go ahead--Ask Slashdot: Is everyone happy with the PayPal customer service department?* Don't think so.
If it walks like a bank and quacks like a bank, it damn well ought to be regulated and insured like a bank. Until then, credit cards will reign.
*Trick question: it's already been addressed on /. The answer is 'no'.
~Idarubicin