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The End of Tax-Free Internet Shopping?
Mordok-DestroyerOfWo writes "If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of
tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over. A bill expected to be introduced in the US Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a 'loophole' that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes."
You raise an interesting issue. Let's say you download some music, software, movies, etc from teh pirate bay. Today, that's not a crime (uploading -- distribution -- is). But tomorrow, you may be charged with tax evasion or conspiracy to commit tax evasion.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I'll bite.
The deficit is a result of us overspending, not us being undertaxed.
As far as personal income taxes go, rates are low. However, I also pay FICA into a system which I hold little hope of seeing money come out of. My employer has to "match" this tax -- basic economics indicates a large percentage of this ultimately comes from my pay. I then pay taxes to my state. I then pay taxes locally. I pay property taxes. Occasionally I get a one-time assessment. I pay tax on gasoline. I then pay sales tax. Every item I buy has a hidden tax in it as I pay for all of these employment and sales taxes that are bundled into the price of the goods. I have to pay a tax to get a driver's license or renew my plates. I have to pay to get my car emissions tested. My internet and telephone have various taxes added onto them. On certain roads you have to pay for the privilege of driving on them. I am sure there are a half-dozen more taxes I pay that I am not thinking of or am unaware of.
And what we get back for what we pay for is ludicrous. Welfare for banks and other financial institutions, welfare for folks who don't want to work. And the ability to invade other countries.
At least in Europe you get a half-way decent health system. Here, after paying all of these taxes, we are stuck paying for our own. And generally, your pension systems are funded. Here, they are underfunded.
So please don't tell me I am undertaxed.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Insightful? I would have to disagree. The issue isn't a lack of tax revenue, it is one of unchecked Congressional spending. My 11 year old son understands basic budgeting. Don't spend more than you make. If you don't make enough, go out and earn more. Unfortunately, Congress doesn't feel compelled to earn as they can just take. If you sincerely feel that our level of taxation is unfair, why not simply pay more? You can, in fact, do so. Overpay your taxes and never file for a refund. Put your money where your mouth is.
A company such as BestBuy, Borders, and so on already collects sales tax for the states where they have a presence.
A company such as Amazon does enough volume of commerce that they can afford the accounting to figure whose tax is owed to whom.
But a small company may have only a few cents to collect for a given state over a day, week, month or even year. Counting the beans costs more than the beans are worth.
Most likely, "Sales Tax Clearinghouse" companies will crop up, which will offer to file your forms with each state and distribute... for another fee.
When we ran an online store (selling Children's Books), most of our customers were out of state, but we did collect for our home state... which amounted to less than $50 per year most years, especially as many in-state customers were schools and churches (which do not pay sales tax). Multiply that by, what, 48 states that collect sales tax? The paperwork is horrendous.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Also the purchase may travel through several other states. And what happens when I am physically in Alabama (while travelling), order an item to be sent to Montana, use a company credit card based in Delaware and have a home address in California with the item shipped from Colorado manufactured by a company in Ohio, via a website located in Washington.
I'd much rather see sales taxes abolished since they complicate retail and hurt the poorest people the most (they have to spend most of their income to live and hence proportionally pay way more sales tax).
"We do in fact need higher taxes in order to pay off the monstrous debt we're accumulating."
NO!!!! What we need to do is stop accumulating debt by getting renegade government spending under control!
"Only anti-Americans would still be wanting lower taxes given the huge crisis we're facing."
What happens when an anti-American comes into contact with a regular American? The so called "crisis" was manufactured by the Washington DC power brokers and their politically well connected friends. If we had the limited Federal government that The Constitution mandates, there would be no "crisis". The Federal government sucks the lifeblood out of the economy by taxing the honest hard working citizens. Then they turn around and use the money to fund imperialistic military crusades, line the pockets of the wealthy elites (bailouts, subsidies, no bid contracts, etc.) take a cut of the profits to pay the salaries and benefits of bureaucrats, and if we're lucky, maybe spend 20 cents on the dollar in actual services to the people who pay the bills.
Social Security and Medicare are supposed to be separate from the general fund. Take that off the table, and then tell me where the government is spending your tax dollars.
Foreign Wars
General military spending
Bailouts
Interest on the national debt
Welfare programs (non SS or Medicare)
Things like education, infrastructure spending, science and research funding, etc. barely make a dent.
If you feel like paying more taxes to fund U.S. imperialism, enrich the financial elites and well connected corporations and pay for welfare programs, the government is accepting donations.
Yes, ideally, folks should save for their own retirement. However, practically, most people except the most hardcore libertarians are against deciding you should starve to death because you ended up with insufficient cash when it came time to retire. What do you do for folks that lose their money through theft? They get to starve because they were unlucky?
Many of the "problems" with Social Security come when people think of it as a govt. mandated retirement fund. Yes, when looked at in that light, the costs are high and the returns poor (although the requirement to invest only in T-Bills was a stroke of genius; if the trust fund were in private investments I can only imagine the pork-barreled SNAFU that would be.)
However, Social Security was not conceived as a retirement program, it was conceived as an anti-poverty program for the elderly and unable to work. Looked at in that light, it makes a lot more sense: we (the citizens of the U.S.) achieve a jointly decided on societal goal of trying to keep penniless elderly and disabled fellow citizens from literally starving to death due to hunger.
There are real problems with Social Security as it currently exists, but its very existence is not one of them.
SirWired