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.

Comments

IMHO

[aliens]

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.

Re:IMHO

[Grishnakh]

The only thing Walmart.com is really good for is printing digital photos. You can upload your photos there, and have them delivered to any Walmart in the country when they're done, and their prices are the cheapest online. The sales tax will suck, but with no shipping fees it'll still be better than overpriced places like ofoto.

Just taking your photos to the local Walmart isn't an option since there's no ubiquitous read/writeable removable data storage format other than useless floppy disks.

Target?

[numbski]

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.

Fair Enough

[endoboy]

If (big if...) one accepts the proposition that sales taxes are legitimate, then there's no reason Amazon should be any less taxed than the bookstore down the street....

Last I checked, the UPS guy was driving on the road that local taxes paid for...

Use the phone.

[Garg]

Before online shopping, I used to mail-order everything 'cause if you bought out-of-state, there was no sales tax.

So now just look up what you want online, and call their 800 number to order instead of using the Web.

I suppose they'll plug that too though...

Sigh.

Garg

Not a new internet tax

[VoiceOfDog]

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

This article is misunderstood!

[purple]

The stores that are affected by this are NOT the mom-n-pop stores that do most of their transactions over the Internet. This deal is ONLY used to tie major retailers' brick and mortar locations to their respective websites. As a specific example, here is a quote from the article:

"For example, Wal-Mart has 1,500 stores scattered across all 50 states, but WalMart.com, a separate subsidiary, has a physical presence in only nine states."

WalMart.com's presence in nine states requires them to collect taxes for those nine states. However, this deal would require them to collect in all fifty, since the .com's parent company Wal-Mart has retail stores in those states.

A store like mWave.com (a personal favorite), whose only presence is in California, would still be treated the same way they've always been: Purchases from outside California are tax-exempt, just like they would be from a mail-order catalog.

I imagine Dell will be affected by this. They charge no sales tax for orders from "Dell Home", but "Dell Business" charges tax to everyone. It's likely that, if they buy in to this deal, Dell Home will charge tax to everyone.

The short of it is, though, Don't Panic! If you're shopping for bargains online, you'll still find them.