Comments on My Blog Utopia!: Sales Tax - Who Cares what Amazon Thinks?

2011-12-12T18:40:13.522-08:00

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I collect california state sales tax. I wouldn...

2011-11-22T17:47:59.983-08:00

I collect california state sales tax. I wouldn't mind collecting for all state - IF they make it an easy thing to do. As it is, california's tax drives me up a wall with its different sales taxes and add ons....its downright stupid. I cannot imagine having to do that for each state! If they want us to collect sales tax across the country then they have a responsibility for making it an easy thing to do and not a life long chore!

Tula, thanks for your comments as always. You make...

2011-07-11T22:20:21.979-07:00

Tula, thanks for your comments as always. You make some good points.

One clarification on fairness in regards to Brick and Mortar...fairness should only be a consideration regarding their online business, where they have S&H,Sales Tax and price competitive issues. Because many of these businesses are in every state they must collect and remit sales tax for every order.

I would support a simple online sales tax option...

2011-07-09T09:02:17.352-07:00

I would support a *simple* online sales tax option that would not require me to file a plethora of reports every quarter, have no layers of rules and exemptions, and not require me to interface my ecommerce system with yet another third party, whose performance and privacy issues I would not be able to control (sorry, TaxCloud people). Anyone who dismisses the current complexity of collecting taxes as they stand now does not know what they're talking about. I've seen it first hand in developing software for a big ecommerce player (*cough* Amazon *cough*). It is by no means easy and consumes loads of computer and storage resources.

I just wish the states would stop pushing these silly nexus laws because all those do is ruin small businesses who depend on affiliate revenue and decrease income tax revenue, because Amazon will just dump the affiliates when it happens.

And don't get me started on the "fairness" issues being touted by bricks and mortar businesses :-) Once you factor in shipping and handling costs (hey, all buyers want free shipping these days, so guess who pays?) any perceived advantage goes out the window.

It's a big move. How can the Web sales tax be ...

2011-07-04T15:54:04.329-07:00

It's a big move. How can the Web sales tax be different with the local stores?

I'm not arguing with you on whether it's g...

2011-06-20T23:39:40.243-07:00

I'm not arguing with you on whether it's going to eventually happen, although I don't think it's happening tomorrow.

My argument is that it's going to take money out of the pockets of small businesses that we are depending on to create jobs.

It's a joke that these big corporations like Target, WalMart, and Best Buy are fighting for the little guy. They've spent the last several decades putting the little guy out of business, and now when it benefits their profit margins they start fighting for the few little guys that are still in business.

I read the associated press article and here is something that stands out.

We get people all the time who come in, talk to a salesman for 15 minutes to half an hour ... and then go, and we know they are going to buy it online
because they can save money. In theory, they are stealing our time," Burger
said. "We're losing at least 15 percent to online, out-of-state, so we're losing
anywhere between $3 million and $5 million a year in business.

Here's my problem with that argument. What's stopping this person from starting a website and selling that camera online?

Thanks Marshall! Yes, I am aware of the streamline...

2011-06-20T13:27:51.833-07:00

Thanks Marshall! Yes, I am aware of the streamlinedsalestax proposal and Amazon has mentioned that they would support that as well.

I am all for a solution that will get this done soon. Hopefully the states that have not yet signed on will do so soon.

There's been a move for a while to simplify th...

2011-06-20T12:46:10.864-07:00

There's been a move for a while to simplify the model so that the "undue burden" clause from the Quill vs. North Dakota decision is no longer relevant:

http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/

There are a number of other proposals, but if the remaining states are willing to sign on, there's already a reasonable solution.

In order to get past the undue burden clause, the states will have to simplify their model and reduce the number of complex cases they define. Additionally, that 9.3% rate would decrease if there weren't exemptions for various classes of products and it was just universal across the board.

And if you want to go even further in addressing tax complexities, you can look at FairTax:

http://www.fairtax.org/

David, It is a foregone conclusion that there wil...

2011-06-19T07:59:31.926-07:00

David,

It is a foregone conclusion that there will be an Internet Sales Tax. I'm just proposing that we get ahead of the eventual tax with a program that will level the playing field for all online retailers, give states the much needed revenue and still give consumers an incentive to buy online because like in your case they would still save 4.3%.

If we don't get behind a sensible plan like this then we will get a complicated and much more costly plan eventually.

Oh yeah and where I live the sales tax is 9.3%. Do...

2011-06-16T14:11:05.358-07:00

Oh yeah and where I live the sales tax is 9.3%. Don't think for a second that this wouldn't hurt small business's adding another tax.

People don't have unlimited pockets.

I am tired of all these so called brick and mortar...

2011-06-16T14:03:26.560-07:00

I am tired of all these so called brick and mortar stores complaining about the unfair competition. Nothing is stopping these brick and mortar stores from going online.