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States Push to Collect Online Sales Tax

Posted by Zonk on from the but-i-like-my-bulk-cheerios-on-the-cheap dept.

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "On Saturday, 18 states will implement the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, which will make it easier to collect local and state sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet while offering amnesty on uncollected taxes. In their longstanding opposition to collect sales tax, many online retailers 'have cited a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that said that it would be too onerous for e-tailers to calculate all the permutations of differing state and local tax rates,' the Wall Street Journal reports. 'One goal of the project was to remove the ruling as a key defense for online merchants.' Is your state involved? 'The states that have signed on are Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and West Virginia. Five more -- Arkansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming -- are in the process of finalizing the requirements needed to join, while Washington, Texas and Nevada are in earlier stages.'"

8 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Entice. by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > The states will also entice online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes by offering amnesty on taxes the retailers haven't collected in the years since the Internet retail boom began.

    A guy named Guido broke my leg last week. He said that if I paid this year's protection money, he wouldn't break it three more times for the last three years I've been in business. In other words, rather than threatening or extorting, Guido enticed me into paying my protection money.

    Entice. They keep using that word. I do not think that word means what they think it means.

  2. Some of them it's understandable by HangingChad · · Score: 2, Funny
    Washington, TN and Texas don't have a state income tax. It's understandable why they need the sales tax revenue.

    But you guys in Nebraska. You already have high property taxes, a state income tax and now they're trying to add this. Plus really crapass weather in the winter. Just doesn't seem fair.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
    1. Re:Some of them it's understandable by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, I live in NE, and I can tell you that my county also has a thing called a Wheel Tax. We have to pay a 10 bucks per wheel tax every time we renew our registration.
      And let me tell you, our potholes are shinier than ever, the traffic lights are designed to stop the traffic, not to move it smoothly, and the old people, oh the old, people still drive ever so slowly.

      (And you forgot that in adittion to the state income tax, we also have a sales tax.)

      On top of that L. Ron Hubbard was born in NE.

      How I love South Dakota...

      --
      If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  3. Awesome! by soulsteal · · Score: 3, Funny

    Here's to being from Mississippi, where they aren't smart enough to know to tax this here Inter-Net. ;)

  4. How do you define a conservative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Of life's two inevitabilities, they would prefer death to taxes.

  5. Re:It is only a matter of time by jejones · · Score: 2, Funny

    It is insane to think you would have to pay sales tax for the state you reside and the state you are purchasing from.

    Since when is sanity a constraint on what the government does, especially when it sees the chance to grab more money?

  6. Hey now... by modi123 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey now.... We Nebraskan's have a few things going for us. First off, we are a "red state" (both in politics and in football). Next we elected a college football coach to Congress. Third we were featured in SouthPark a few seasons back (when Ike was shipped off to our State by his Kyle because Ike wasn't his adopted brother). Fourth... ahm.. well.. *breaking down* *crying* Oh we got nothing. It really sucks being trapped in this hole. Over a hundred in the summer, below zero in the winter... Not to mention the exodus of young, educated people from the state to cooler states. *sniffle* Well at least our school boards didn't ban evolution from public schools - I am looking at you Kansas.

  7. Working Hard, or Hardly Working? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I work 10 - 12 hour days everyday...

    Except for all of those hours you spend posting to Slashdot.