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States Push for Net Sales Taxes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the death-of-ecommerce dept.

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."

2 of 512 comments (clear)

  1. Sales Tax Bad, Period by GrouchoMarx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?

  2. Constitution by Dan+Farina · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As I recall, States were not allowed to levy tariffs and such against each other. Doesn't imposing taxes on a particular method of transaction fly in the face of the rules that define us as a union and have been tested in the past in courts?

    This is the price we must pay for the mess the Iraqi war caused budget-wise. Otherwise there would be the possibility that the federal government could assist the states, and businesses would not have to be so conservative because of the uncertainty lurking over the horizon. Instead we must bend the rules to work around this serious lack of funds.