Expect every rental car to come with this factory-installed. Not only can the company track it's cars, but they can combine the customer's driving pattern with their profile and sell it. Frequent travellers/renters would be an obvious target, but everyone could be included if it's done cheaply enough. And in real-time, too.
Um, the Seller does *not* get your mailing address.. just Country/State/City/Postal code. Usually (but not always) just enough to figure out the local taxes.
No - they allow the developer to set one (and only one) sales tax rate to be applied to an entire state. I believe there are only 4 states in the U.S. that have sales tax. But in addition to the base State rate, counties, cities, school districts, fire districts, etc. can all add their own tax on *top* of the State rate. So the price you are charged for a given item can vary by up to several percent depending on your exact location. Walk a block, save 1/2% or more).
The developer is responsible for locating the purchaser's exact tax district, and computing the sales tax at that address. Google doesn't really give enough information to do this properly, because tax districts don't follow zip code boundaries. So sometimes you have to guess, and hope to avoid a prison term for not properly identifying where that $0.02 tax should go.
If you're going to give Google a faze zip, do the small developers a favor and make sure it's a non-sales tax state. Out of state sales are no problem - that's just a straight business tax.
So how do they report that to *you*, the developer? I have to fill out a sales tax report with my B&O taxes - there's no way of saying "Apple paid it - go ask them". Unless you get some sort of official statement tied to your business license, *or* Apple treats you like a 1099.
Yes, the local taxing districts seriously want their money. Each and every one of them (there are around 100 or so in this state). Since this is an Internet transaction, the rate depends on the location of the consumer. If you are buying something at a phyiscal store, they add their local tax into the purchase price right there. Online, it's determined by where *you* live (or rather, where the credit card registered on Google is).
The way Google has set it up, the developer is responsible for sending in the correct tax to the State. Google technically doesn't collect the tax - they just pass it along. The developer has to account for it, and send in the money and itemize where it should apply. That is, I have to record how much I sold to customers in each of those little tax districts, apply their local rate, and add this in with the State's base rate.
It's a real pain for the small developer, but it only applies in some cases. I don't sell apps outside the U.S., because I'd have to calculate and remit VAT in many countries, and that's just too expensive.
How does Apple handle the local sales tax issue? If I sell an app to a customer in my state, I'm obligated to remit the correct sales *for that customer's location*. Does Apple graciously compute the correct tax for every little taxing district, and automatically add that to the app price? How do they report that to the developers, for their B&O tax returns?
Or are Apple app developers ignoring it and waiting to get slammed by the tax authorities?
No, the *name* of the customer does not. But their *location* does matter. States with sales tax have a multitude of little taxing districts (which do not always align with municipal boundaries). The people in those districts have voted to tax their purchases at a certain rate. So the State expects to collect sales tax at the correct rate for the location of the purchaser. They then remit to the taxing district their share of the proceeds.
Tax authorities get very, very put out when they don't get their miniscule pittance of the State's cut.
I have free apps in the Play store - and have *never* recieved customer information about those apps. Never. The customer info is only for paid apps, to facilitate tax collection.
No, Google is simply the distributor and card processor. The developer is the seller of record. I suspect that there are some serious tax liabilities if Google were to sell the apps directly.
Because if the app developer has a presence (or lives in) in a state (such as Washington) that collects sales tax, and the customer lives in that state, the *developer* is *required* to collect sales tax based on the location of the customer.
Developers do not get the address of the customer - only the city/state/zip. Which is hopefully granular enough to handle the numerous little taxing districts.
It would be nice if Google handled allof the sales/vat tax stuff, but they don't.
Has anyone collected all these dispatches from the Martian Council over the years? Every time the Earthlings throw a probe at the homeworld, there'll be an update from the Speaker regarding the success or failure of the defences. I've actually come to anticipate the next entry - they're generally quite funny.
You're new around here, aren't you? All they have to do is add some tangible, meaningless incentive for the customer and they'll have people signing up in droves. Free storage, free email, maybe a social site with some music and games - they'll get tons of takers. Add in some real prizes, say, a monthly random drawing for a car or a vacation, and stand back.
The lesson of Facebook is - a very large number of people either don't value their privacy, or don't recognize when they're giving it away. They'll happily trade some potential future negative outcome for the shiny bauble here and now.
And *you* obviously have never run a tiny Internet-only business. I sell a couple of apps. Kind of the "in" thing to do these days, and it brings in just enough to pay for an occasional new device to write new apps for. I do my bookkeeping by hand with spreadsheets and a small database, because that's all it really needs.
I pay my state's business taxes, and sales tax on in-state purchases. By check, once a year. Manually. Last year, I remitted $.41 (that's 41 *cents*) spread across 5 different tax zones to cover the in-state sales taxes. It probably cost the State and those taxing areas hundreds if not *thousands* of times more than that just to process the payment. But, the law's the law.
Now say I have to track and pay sales taxes in *all* of the States. Not every state has an online lookup for all local taxes. A subscription to one of the commercial services would wipe out most of my profit for the year. Then there's the cost of mailing checks for a few cents to at least 50 taxing authorities (assuming that all of them even *take* checks).
If Apple, Google, Amazon, and all the other app stores don't pick up the burden of collecting the exact sales tax on each paid download, then most of the U.S. app developers are probably going to be forced out of business by the overhead.
Tax rates don't follow zip codes at all. A given taxing area may span multiple zip codes, and a zip code may (and probably does) cover multiple different tax areas. Furthermore, each taxing district may have it's own special rules and exemptions - it's never a simple percentage.
Got the tax code for every little county/town/tax district in the entire country handy? As a very small app seller, it's going to be a nightmare.
Slashdot Mirror
Expect every rental car to come with this factory-installed. Not only can the company track it's cars, but they can combine the customer's driving pattern with their profile and sell it. Frequent travellers/renters would be an obvious target, but everyone could be included if it's done cheaply enough. And in real-time, too.
That's what you have grad students for...
Especially Halo - hard-light stuff everywhere
(including bridges)
Do the mothers still get the extra 8 weeks, even though there was no traumatic (and apparently debilitating) childbirth involved?
Or do adoptions just not count (no leave for you....)?
Um, the Seller does *not* get your mailing address.. just Country/State/City/Postal code. Usually (but not always) just enough to figure out the local taxes.
Google does *not* pass on the home address, or CC number.
No - they allow the developer to set one (and only one) sales tax rate to be applied to an entire state. I believe there are only 4 states in the U.S. that have sales tax. But in addition to the base State rate, counties, cities, school districts, fire districts, etc. can all add their own tax on *top* of the State rate. So the price you are charged for a given item can vary by up to several percent depending on your exact location. Walk a block, save 1/2% or more).
The developer is responsible for locating the purchaser's exact tax district, and computing the sales tax at that address. Google doesn't really give enough information to do this properly, because tax districts don't follow zip code boundaries. So sometimes you have to guess, and hope to avoid a prison term for not properly identifying where that $0.02 tax should go.
If you're going to give Google a faze zip, do the small developers a favor and make sure it's a non-sales tax state. Out of state sales are no problem - that's just a straight business tax.
So how do they report that to *you*, the developer? I have to fill out a sales tax report with my B&O taxes - there's no way of saying "Apple paid it - go ask them". Unless you get some sort of official statement tied to your business license, *or* Apple treats you like a 1099.
Yes, the local taxing districts seriously want their money. Each and every one of them (there are around 100 or so in this state). Since this is an Internet transaction, the rate depends on the location of the consumer. If you are buying something at a phyiscal store, they add their local tax into the purchase price right there. Online, it's determined by where *you* live (or rather, where the credit card registered on Google is).
The way Google has set it up, the developer is responsible for sending in the correct tax to the State. Google technically doesn't collect the tax - they just pass it along. The developer has to account for it, and send in the money and itemize where it should apply. That is, I have to record how much I sold to customers in each of those little tax districts, apply their local rate, and add this in with the State's base rate.
It's a real pain for the small developer, but it only applies in some cases. I don't sell apps outside the U.S., because I'd have to calculate and remit VAT in many countries, and that's just too expensive.
Which is exactly what they do provide....
How does Apple handle the local sales tax issue? If I sell an app to a customer in my state, I'm obligated to remit the correct sales *for that customer's location*. Does Apple graciously compute the correct tax for every little taxing district, and automatically add that to the app price? How do they report that to the developers, for their B&O tax returns?
Or are Apple app developers ignoring it and waiting to get slammed by the tax authorities?
Sales tax.
No, the *name* of the customer does not. But their *location* does matter. States with sales tax have a multitude of little taxing districts (which do not always align with municipal boundaries). The people in those districts have voted to tax their purchases at a certain rate. So the State expects to collect sales tax at the correct rate for the location of the purchaser. They then remit to the taxing district their share of the proceeds.
Tax authorities get very, very put out when they don't get their miniscule pittance of the State's cut.
I have free apps in the Play store - and have *never* recieved customer information about those apps. Never. The customer info is only for paid apps, to facilitate tax collection.
No, Google is simply the distributor and card processor. The developer is the seller of record. I suspect that there are some serious tax liabilities if Google were to sell the apps directly.
Because if the app developer has a presence (or lives in) in a state (such as Washington) that collects sales tax, and the customer lives in that state, the *developer* is *required* to collect sales tax based on the location of the customer.
Developers do not get the address of the customer - only the city/state/zip. Which is hopefully granular enough to handle the numerous little taxing districts.
It would be nice if Google handled allof the sales/vat tax stuff, but they don't.
When I saw it many years ago, it had the fuzzy finish. And a placard reading "Don't you dare touch this vehicle. Commissioner Gordon" ...
I touched it anyways, when the staff wasn't looking :-)
Has anyone collected all these dispatches from the Martian Council over the years? Every time the Earthlings throw a probe at the homeworld, there'll be an update from the Speaker regarding the success or failure of the defences. I've actually come to anticipate the next entry - they're generally quite funny.
Sounds something like the "Smart Metal" from the Kris Longknife Sci-Fi series by Mike Shepherd.
So once again reality can duplicate Sci-Fi...
You're new around here, aren't you? All they have to do is add some tangible, meaningless incentive for the customer and they'll have people signing up in droves. Free storage, free email, maybe a social site with some music and games - they'll get tons of takers. Add in some real prizes, say, a monthly random drawing for a car or a vacation, and stand back.
The lesson of Facebook is - a very large number of people either don't value their privacy, or don't recognize when they're giving it away. They'll happily trade some potential future negative outcome for the shiny bauble here and now.
And *you* obviously have never run a tiny Internet-only business. I sell a couple of apps. Kind of the "in" thing to do these days, and it brings in just enough to pay for an occasional new device to write new apps for. I do my bookkeeping by hand with spreadsheets and a small database, because that's all it really needs.
I pay my state's business taxes, and sales tax on in-state purchases. By check, once a year. Manually. Last year, I remitted $.41 (that's 41 *cents*) spread across 5 different tax zones to cover the in-state sales taxes. It probably cost the State and those taxing areas hundreds if not *thousands* of times more than that just to process the payment. But, the law's the law.
Now say I have to track and pay sales taxes in *all* of the States. Not every state has an online lookup for all local taxes. A subscription to one of the commercial services would wipe out most of my profit for the year. Then there's the cost of mailing checks for a few cents to at least 50 taxing authorities (assuming that all of them even *take* checks).
If Apple, Google, Amazon, and all the other app stores don't pick up the burden of collecting the exact sales tax on each paid download, then most of the U.S. app developers are probably going to be forced out of business by the overhead.
Tax rates don't follow zip codes at all. A given taxing area may span multiple zip codes, and a zip code may (and probably does) cover multiple different tax areas. Furthermore, each taxing district may have it's own special rules and exemptions - it's never a simple percentage.
Got the tax code for every little county/town/tax district in the entire country handy? As a very small app seller, it's going to be a nightmare.
Budget cuts.
Next thing you know, the USDA will be studying Farmville to develop agricultural subsidy policies...
This isn't a dupe - it's a tradition!
Look about 5 stories later....