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States Push for Net Sales Taxes
Marnhinn writes "Lawmakers in several states are asking Congress for the right to begin collecting sales tax on interstate internet purchases. CNN has the scoop."
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What can you expect the states to do? They're fucked budget-wise and need to get back in black as soon as possible. This is just one of the lousy things that'll probably pass siimply because of the horendous budget situation the entire country is currently in.
Amazon.com is crazy to even consider voluntarily collecting sales taxes for online purchases. That would negate the reason I purchase most of my expensive >= $100 goods online. Since many companies now offer free shipping for >= $50 purchases it typically saves me 10% or more compared to what I would pay at the local store. Start taxing online sales and I would not bother purchasing from Amazon or most other online companies. Of course, states would love to get their grubby little hands on my wallet, but they always do.
Yes, I know one is supposed to declare those purchases on your state's income tax form but I prefer to chuckle and enjoy the thought of screwing the state even if only a little. I am tired of taxes, taxes, taxes and more taxes on everything and anything. Pretty soon they will tax the fact one exhales CO2.
It is no secret state budgest have been in the hole for a number of years. But guess what? That is the fault of the states for being irresponsible. Now they want to dip further into the wallets of their citizens because they were spending money in the 90s as if the Roaring 20s were back in style. Here is a simple solution for all those states who want to put a tax on everything: Spend less money. Yep, you heard me right. If I go into debt, I don't go to my employer and demand more money -- I cut back on my expenses. No matter the rhetoric of the tax and spend supporters, its clear that most people want to keep their money instead of having the state spend it for them. We've seen this everywhere from the most conservative backward regions in the South to the mythically liberal Californians.
I don't believe their should be taxes on things sold on the internet.. that's one of the only advantages the internet has (other than shopping from home). If taxes were there, I would imagine most internet stores would have to close.. thing's would just be too expensive to buy online, then have shipped to your house. Then you run into problems.. think of Amazon.com. Which state gets the taxes? Is it a federal tax? What about people buying things internationally, will they be taxed too?
No, I just believe it isn't time for internet sales taxes. Our economy is hurt enough, we don't need extra taxes on one of the best performing markets. State taxes are bad enough (and I say this hailing from Kentucky.. 6% isn't that bad.. but being a college student, every penny counts.....)
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Mail-order businesses have avoided cross-state sales taxes forever and a day, and no one makes a peep. Start taking the orders via 'net instead of via phone, and suddenly it's "me too" field day time for states? Feh. They can all bite me.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
How about the states/feds start doing what most normal people do when they have less money coming in.
STOP SPENDING SO MUCH FSCKING MONEY.
Just look at the budget for you state and see how much money they waste.
If I know that I am going to be charged an extra tax for buying stuff online, i'll buy from Canadian or other foreign vendors.
If I pay tax for selling stuff online, i'll try to sell from another country, such as Canadia.
it's that simple, nobody likes useless taxes, look at the german tax system, everybody hates that, and they have taxes on drinks, cigarettes, damn near everything.
The key to keeping taxes low and within reason, is to not spend so much on other unnecessary things! *cough*war, welfare, politicians paychecks */cough*
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Or...
You could see that Mr. Bush is trying to stop the $pending $pree that states are on. Don't blame him for 'forcing' states to do anything. States have been relying on the federal tit for way too long.
States are refusing to accept that they must cut fat in their budgets in order to meet them. This means auditing the books and eliminating unnecessary services. Every penny of the 'surplus', i.e. the excess cash from federal/state taxes that happened during the internet bubble, should not have been spent. When you plan your budget on an economy that was continuously warned as overvalued, then shit your pants and refuse to roll back the increases when the economy finally re-balances itself, well, you have no right to complain.
Mr. Bush is not responsible for the economy. The economy is the results of millions of business transactions every day by businesses, individuals, and groups. It *generally* increases in the long run, with ebbs and flows in between. Planning on a good three or eight years of economy is just plain stupid. And that's what the states and governments did, and now their paying for it. Or not paying for it, as the case may be.
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
No no no! Internet sales taxes are bad, but not for the reason people think. Well, not quite. In truth ALL sales tax is inherently bad.
Sales tax is inherently regressive. A loaf of bred (or book from Amazon) costs the same regardless of whether I make 10k a year or 500k a year. Put simply, the cost of living does not scale with income.
Increasing the cost of the bread/book via sales tax increases it for everyone, but that's not equal taxation. A difference of $1 extra in taxes is a larger percentage of the disposable income of a person making 10k per year than it is for someone making 500k a year. So in fact, a sales tax hurts the poor and middle class MORE than it hurts the rich.
No wonder so many rich people like it.
Conversely, even a flat income tax scales the burden with income, so that higher income brackets also pay for increases in taxes. A progressive income tax is better still because then it scales the rate so that the burden of taxation is felt equally by everyone, but that's another discussion.
So no, don't put a sales tax on the Internet. Don't put a sales tax on traditional stores, either. STOP CUTTING MY INCOME TAXES AND CUT MY SALES TAX INSTEAD!!!
With an all-income-tax system, everyone bears the burden of taxation equally. Sales tax makes the poor bear the burden more than the rich.
(And by "burden of taxation", I mean whatever the tax rate happens to be and whatever it's used for. Those are separate issues.)
--GrouchoMarx
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Remember, the drop in the economy, unwillingness of the state governments to cut back on politically expedient expeditures (whether for the people as a whole or just the ones who finance the campaigns of current officeholders), and the laws passed immediately following 09/11 are putting the crunch on states. State governments are forced to pay for things like more security at airports, transit stations, etc. Kentucky is not releasing 600 prisoners because they feel generous. Federal laws are mandating implementations that states would have had difficulty funding before 09/11, but now states are stretched to the breaking point to do so. Federal fiscal responsibility is at an all-time low under the Bush administration, thus they have no money to spare and are using their resources to beg for what little cash may prove available to rebuild Iraq.
Sales taxes are one of the primary means of state government fundraising. In such a crunch time, they justifiably fear losing much of "their" income to retailers and possibly looking at struggling brick-and-mortar businesses disappear because someone can sell the same product for less while still making a profit because they can avoid sales tax. Thus the revenue lost is two-fold: tax from the item itself and from property, purchase, and income from any and all businesses that fail as a result of interstate competitors. In a free market this is just how life works, but this country is a regulated capitalist system, hence why MS can be prosecuted on anti-trust charges and slowed from trying to monopolize multiple Internet markets. How can we solve the problem?
The logical solution IMO would be to have the sales tax of the state in which the vendor is located applied to the item if purchased domestically and the sales tax of the state of the recipient applied if the items was purchased internationally. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to actually implement a (potentially) workable sales tax on internet items?
As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
Just last week, my father got a bill, and a fine, from the state of Connecticut, for purchasing cigarettes online. The bill was for exactly two purchases, of maybe a total of a dozen cartons, from the same company. The fine was for not accounting for the unpaid CT Sales Tax on last years tax return. With the fine, the total bill was $400.00.
Just wait until States get the brass balls to audit Amazon.com, to get the purchasing history of State residents.
Not only is everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, going to pay fines and taxes out the ass - their purchasing histories will also likely be disclosed.
Not only is there potential to charge EVERYONE with tax evasion, there is also the same privacy concern as in monitoring people's liberary activities.
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What you do today will cost you a day of your life
anyway, the size of the money taken out of the budget for the next year was 10s of billions and well under 50 billion. that is Chump Change when you look at the total losses taken during the recession and stagnation periods. it made more sence to cut taxes, because more economic stimulation happend from that than would have if it filtered through to special programs, of which it would have made little impact.
The long term economic stimulation from tax cuts is negligible, if it even occurs at all. Notice the latest spin from the Bush team: the tax cuts helped shallow the recession.
The Bush tax cuts went to the rich. Unlike a lot of poor people, the rich don't piss away every extra dollar they make. They lock their dollars away in banks or stocks or real estate.
Look, Bush probably doesn't even know why he's cutting taxes. Go read about Grover Norquist and see the real reasons taxes are going down. The extreme right wingers are trying to starve the federal goverment as a way to cut "social" spending programs. Y'know, all that good stuff from the New Deal and other social reforms of the last 50 years.