Legislation talk on taxing all internet purchases.

If this has been posted, I missed it.
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/tax-free-internet-shopping-era-may-over-170449285.html

This will have tax consequences for both buyers and sellers. I would expect a lot of debate over the possibility that sellers would have to collect taxes from every state and not just the buyers from their own state as it is now, but often not practiced by the small shop.

Jim

 

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I find it ironic that FeeBay is one of the most vocal critics of this legislation. They say "This legislation would force small business owners to become tax collectors for every state across America..."

I agree, but since when does FeeBay care about sellers? Only when it's in their best interest to do so...

 

Oh well, if it happens it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't.

 

Already been law in CA for over a year. Here, it's the buyers responsibility to pay taxes on items bought. We even pay it for services that don't provide tangible assets as well. One more reason CA blows.
Guy

 

Hopefully California just breaks off from the rest of the U.S like people like to speculate about.

 

Hopefully not my part. But yeah, LA and Sacramento can go.

 

Yeah, there are some good areas in CA and some good people there too. But overall...

Don't worry, if it goes, we'll throw you a rope. :thumb:

 

Its law in every state that has sales tax. However, no one pays it, and they don't want to tick off taxpayers, only businesses.

I just wonder how they can even pass this. In 1992 the Supreme Court clearly ruled its unconstitutional. No law will change that, only a Constitutional amendment.

 

This reminded me of a seller on eBay in 2005. In each listing, he stated that he charged 10% sales tax on all transactions, no matter where you lived. When I sent him a message stating that anyone living outside of his home state was exempt from paying sales tax, and furthermore, there wasn't a state in the Union that charges a 10% sales tax, I was immediately blocked from any of his listings.

The problem with legislation like this is that it will be very hard to track sales tax actually being paid to the appropriate state. It would be my guess that many sellers would just pocket the "windfall".

Chris

 

Guess I should have explained better. In CA they don't assume the purchaser will in good faith send in the tax. They take it automatically at the time of sale. Just recently even Kindle purchases have started to take taxes out of my purchases. Ebay has done so for years. It's not an honor system here.
Guy

 

In my state (Illinois), there is no tax on coins, so I assume that this would still be the case if this law passed, don't you think? It seems like this is about enforcing existing taxes.

 

This is a good point. Do you think all Internet merchants will know the sales tax laws of every state they do business with?

In the case of FeeBay, do you suppose they would act as the merchant and collect the tax at the time of sale, or would they leave that up to the seller? If it's up to the seller and the buyer to resolve the matter, I would imagine most buyers would tell the sellers not to charge them sales tax. The federal law would likely put the onus on the seller, but state laws place it on the buyer. As a seller, would you rely on the word of the buyer? Especially in the FeeBay world where buyers would probably give you negative feedback for charging them sales tax, even if it was the right thing to do in the eyes of the law.

Doesn't this law sound great!

 

The only good thing about this legislation is there are quite a few states that do not have a sales tax and have nothing to gain from such a law. I hope every single one of them vote against it as it would place an undue hardship on merchants in their state.

 

The spokeman for eBay is probably just blowing smoke. If legislation like this were to become law, I'm sure they would find a way to apply their fees to the final sale price which would include the applicable sales tax.

Chris

 

There could be alot of job creation here bending
construction girders into staples and stapling
California back to the mainland.

 

But that's not how they do things in CA. People would line up on both sides of the San Andreas fault, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya.

 

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...uYDYCQ&usg=AFQjCNGCTvwRSmFVtJUxtZsuzdF5dSHHgg

 

Sometimes it is hard to hold one's tongue past such jealousy, but we understand, as we did have one night under 32 degrees F this winter. Took a long time to get over it

Oh, I wouldn't be so quippy, how about the Yellowstone Caldera in Montana? One eruption and all 1000+ miles around will be Hades. I'll take earthquakes any day. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/a...no-Yellowstones-National-Park-soon-erupt.html

 

Heck, for beachfront I'll take the extra taxes. Come on 'big one'!!
Guy