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E-commerce Sites to Collect Sales Taxes Nationwide
aengblom writes "An agreement between 38 states and some of the nation's largest retailers is bringing taxes to the net, The Washington Post reports. In return for collecting taxes for all U.S. sales, the retailers would not be held liable for taxes they 'failed' to collect previously. Best quote: 'If we disclose who these companies are, it's like putting a target on their back.' The Post reports that Wal-Mart, Marshall Fields, Target, Toys R Us and Mervyn's have all 'independently' announced plans to collect taxes nation-wide." Internetnews.com has a story about the taxes and an article claiming it won't hurt online sales.
I could either goto Toys R Us and get the product I want today, or go online, have to wait a couple extra days and pay shipping plus tax. Hrmmm, I guess they're right it's not going to hurt online sales at all.
-- taking over the world, we are.
Did someone say Target? And Wal-Mark? *scribbles*
Wait...why would I shop ONLINE for something that's down the street again?
Oh, right, no sales tax.
No diff anymore.
Bye bye website.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Good grief. I know people here love to blame Bush and Republicans for all the evils in the world, but at least try to make some amount of sense when you do. This is an agreement between retailers and *states*, neither the federal government nor Bush has anything to do with it. (And I'm relieved to know Clinton kept his hands off the Internet, otherwise we might have gotten bad laws like the CDA, DMCA, and crypto restrictions. Oh wait.)
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
We've been charged sales tax from online shops that have a physical presence here for years. Eddie Bauer, Victoria's Secret, REI, Apple Store, CompUSA, and others have all been collecting sales tax. You know what? It still works out for the consumer in some cases. Often these stores have discount shipping for large orders, flexible return policies, a larger stock of items, and easier to shop with (especially during the holidays).
Besides, why should Target care if you buy from them online or down the street as long as you buy from them? All they need to worry about is you going to "just-like-target-but-no-tax.com".
This just closes a loophole that some stores were getting away with, and some stores weren't. For example Gateway computer charges sales tax for online sales to California, because they have a retail presence there. For Toys R Us not to, just because they have a different corporate entity running the website, is not fair. This is why they are talking about an amnesty for back taxes- this is not a new sales tax on e-commerce. For Amazon (not their partners) and other catalog-only stores, you'll still be sales tax free. - VoiceOfDog
To read the comments here, it would seem that every Slashdot reader thinks that goods purchased online are subject to neither Use Tax nor Sales Tax.
This is nothing new. It's not a new tax, and it is not any less legitimate than the sales tax you pay when you go to a brick & mortar establishment. (The legitimacy of that sales tax is debatable.)
If anything, this agreement helps consumers in that we no longer have to track our out-of-state purchases in order to pay Use Tax on those items. You do pay Use Tax on those items, right? If you don't, you're breaking the law if your state has a Sales Tax.
As for curbing sales, this move will only curb online sales for sites that are already not competitive. Them's the breaks in a free market.