Democratic Senator Wants Internet Sales Tax

[thrasher32]

I'm ok with leveling the playing field for brick-and-mortar shops. I'm also OK with taxing the rich to benefit the poor.

If it's gonna be poor/middle against rich, the rich don't stand a chance, they're outnumbered 5,000 to 1. Good luck, Republinuts.

 

[oncall]

[citation][nom]everygamer[/nom]1) I am just curious what you consider rich, i'm middle class and paid more taxes this year than I did last year. 2) Those rich guys are the ones starting business and giving us poor/middle class guys jobs, you cut their tax breaks and they look at the bottom line and slash jobs. If you think this is from watching faux news its not, its just simple economics. If I was running a business, and my bottom line decreased and I am responsible to share holders, I need to cut expenses. The #1 expense for any business is employees .. first place that gets cut. So when the government cuts tax breaks for big business, they don't really care, at the end of the day they just cut their expenses (people) and keep their bottom line where it needs to be. They still laugh their way to the bank and the little guy is out of a job.Not everything in the world is black / white.[/citation]


Exactly right! A lot of people don't realize this so they jump on the "let's tax corporate earnings"" bandwagon. Facts are, taxes on corporate earnings (not profits) are very inflexible and come out FIRST before anyone gets paid. Employee numbers, benefits and salaries are relatively flexible. A lot of small corporations (not publicly traded companies) pay out most or all earnings is salary, therefore any corporate earning tax is directly coming out of some employees salary.

A lot of people like to point at the billions companies are sitting on but the bottom line is that money will eventually be spent as stockholder dividends or as salaries, i.e. it will be spent doing something useful that will most likely create some new jobs.

 

[jerreece]

We have no sales tax in Montana. So it won't affect us. LOL

 

[Soul_keeper]

the solution is not to increase taxes on the "other people" to make it "fair", but to decrease taxes on the over-taxed !

Try CUTTING sales taxes in half (for starters), and firing 20% of the most over-payed/noncontributing of the government employees(this will pay for it). That is where the problem is.

How many companies/jobs do we need to drive out of this country before they get it ?

 

[killerclick]

[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]There's a big difference between "Pay, for services rendered to you..." and either of "Pay, for services rendered to some joker who means squat to you" or simply "Pay up, or else!"[/citation]

I don't think a person's earnings have relation to their worth to society so I'm all for taxing the obscenely rich in order to help the poor. The service rendered in this case is "Not getting killed by hungry mobs of desperate people" which is what happens when there is a huge disparity of wealth in a society. It may not be fair but if you want a dog-eat-dog world that's what's going to happen.

 

[Guest]

Need to remember that online retailers also sale the product cheaper than local shops. Ok fine it will go up a few %, but its still cheaper than buying it at a local place, so this really isn't helping the main street shop. This is nothing more than the govt trying to get more tax money from the pockets of the consumers.

 

[The Greater Good]

Yay for the Democratic Party! We all need to pay our fair share and we shouldn't deny the government their fair share of their money. Why leave well-enough alone? I say, we shouldn't! Taxes for all!

 

[jednx01]

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I think I'm going to cry if they do that. 🙁

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]ti1706[/nom]On a semi-intelligent note, would this tax apply towards person-to-person transactions? After all, it hardly seems fair to charge sales tax on an ebay (or non-amazon but on amazon) item.... unless yard sales and all other forms of secondhand shopping are correspondingly taxed.If this is passed, I'll probably cancel most of the trivial purchases I make (a $4.98 v-game plus $2.98 shipping... PLUS sales tax? Old v-games aren't THAT good). Depending on what the percentage is, of course.[/citation]

A lot of areas do tax income from yard sales. My city requires you to obtain a permit to have a yard sale. They then, after the yard sale has ended, require you to report profits from the yard sale for tax purposes. Problem is....most areas don't enforce laws/regulations as such.

Taxes aren't what keeps most "brick and mortar" stores from competing....it's the desired profit margins that result in excessively high prices that keep them from competing. Example....My local shop was selling the GeForce 8800GTS for $500, 8800GTX for $600 and 8800Ultra for $800... Currently, they want $520 for a GTX480....price on Newegg...GTX480 is $346....$174 difference in price.... Why should I pay $520 ($546 after taxes) for a GTX480 locally when I can get it for $354 from Newegg ($192 difference)? The taxes make no difference.....add in my state sales tax to the price on Newegg and the price is still only $371....$175 price difference after taxes.

 

[Guest]

The issue is not whether internet sales should be taxed – they ALREADY ARE, but the consumer is *supposed to* self-report and pay the sales tax if the retailer does not collect it.

The issue is what is the most efficient and least burdensome way to collect the tax that is due.

Today large internet retailers easily manage millions of items for sale at any given moment, and even the smallest internet retailer can calculate accurate shipping rates to every corner of the country in a blink of an eye. It would not be “too frightening” to keep track of a few thousand local jurisdictions.

As part of the Streamlined Agreement, states have certified several companies to provide technology solutions to online merchants to make collecting sales tax easy. Our company offers a service, called TaxCloud (http/taxcloud.net), that automatically calculates accurate local sales tax for every jurisdiction in the US. It also provides exemption certificate management, handles all sales tax holidays. And it even prepares, files and remits the sales tax each of the Streamlined states. Best of all, TaxCloud is completely free to merchants.

It is better that Congress address this issue so that all businesses (online and offline) have to play by the same rules.

Until then, more and more states are going to be attempting on their own to collect these taxes, which will increase complexity.

 

[thrasher32]

[citation][nom]Soul_keeper[/nom]the solution is not to increase taxes on the "other people" to make it "fair", but to decrease taxes on the over-taxed !Try CUTTING sales taxes in half (for starters), and firing 20% of the most over-payed/noncontributing of the government employees(this will pay for it). That is where the problem is.How many companies/jobs do we need to drive out of this country before they get it ?[/citation]

So what's your plan for those million people you want to make unemployed? Who's "overtaxed"? To me, it's the poor and middle-class who are "overtaxed", so yes, I agree, let's make the rich pay more taxes.

IDIOT

 

[LORD_ORION]

I guess the real point is that there should be no sales tax... down with fractional reserve banking.

 

[hoofhearted]

The fact that this thread has made it to 3 pages within hours makes my case for a flat tax. Nothing is more fair that mathematics. Everyone would pay their 10% and no-one could complain that one group is getting over on another group.

And now I have to wonder why they raised the threat for Japanese radiation to 7. Could there be plutonium leaking in the ocean? I can see a "water" tax on the horizon, even though this is totally absurd. More like Japan's wa of saying they really need the rest of the worlds help without coming out and saying it (saving honor).

 

[Hellbound]

Well of course they do.. Democrats = more taxes.

 

[Jprobes]

[citation][nom]Soul_keeper[/nom]the solution is not to increase taxes on the "other people" to make it "fair", but to decrease taxes on the over-taxed !Try CUTTING sales taxes in half (for starters), and firing 20% of the most over-payed/noncontributing of the government employees(this will pay for it). That is where the problem is.How many companies/jobs do we need to drive out of this country before they get it ?[/citation]

Wrong, Cutting sales tax and firing 20% of the non military workforce will do nothing but make more people in need of aid from the government and put a huge dent in it's tax revenue.

The idea that the "rich" provide us with jobs is the biggest lie the American populace has been fed for 30 years. The rich don't create jobs with tax cuts or subsidies, they pocket the money and put it to work in wall street where they only get taxed 15% on capital gains.

That is the biggest problem America has, is revenue. For 30 years the tax code has been slashed and raped by corporations/lobbyist who have made sure that the rich get to keep most of what they make and the poor people foot the bill.

Most people chose not to accept this as reality because they have outlandish dreams of being filthy rich and this policy effecting them. That is why taxation is such a taboo subject now in American politics. The rich use the dreams of the poor to fuel their own gains while the masses, oblivious to being used, accept what they are told in one day hoping by choosing to support the rich it wont effect them when they become rich.

WRONG, you will never be rich. Not because the "government is out to keep you down" but that unless you invent something are a talented entertainer, it will never happen.

When was the last time you heard of a Mechanical Engineer or an Architect becoming an Millionaire? Shit doesn't happen yo.

And if you really want to know why jobs have been going overseas for the past 15 years. You can blame Wall Street and their insistence in the form of investment that companies generate larger % of profits year after year.

The only way for companies to due that is to increase production without increasing costs, or ship jobs overseas so they don't have to pay the going rate for wages in the US.

Why is it that production is at the same levels it was pre-recession, yet unemployment and wages are the same? Why are you mad at the government employees getting pensions and benefits? Shouldn't you be upset that you don't get these in the private sector?

At a time where local and state governments are crippled due to massive revenue shortfalls generated from high unemployment, this is probably the best idea next to direct increases on income or property taxes depending on where you live. It mainly will benefit children and the elderly as that is mostly what the government spends its money on, aside from the military.

Suck it up and pay the state sales tax on internet purchases along with the shipping. Nothing is free in this world, so quite fucking expecting it.

End the American Empire. End the 2 wars, Raise Capital gains to 35% and create a 50% Millionaire tax bracket, End the death tax. (99.9% of Americans will never be effected by this so why should you give a fuck?).

Reduce the income gap between the top 1% and the rest of us and put an end to the gross privatization of the government and the services they should be providing. (prisons, schools, energy and the Internet.)

Then maybe we can have our tax free internet purchases.

 

[electric-spock]

Well, I'm assuming this bill will also be accompanied by a lot of job creation talk, helping the middle class, balancing budget's, yada yada. If we are not willing to take on the big issues like way over the top defense spending, NAFTA allowing American corporations to exploit cheap labor overseas and to sell it's product back to us for records profits, and the Federal Reserve printing money which basically screws over anyone that actually saves money, well, he might as well stay home or just nap in his office.

 

[bustapr]

lol ill just stop buying on the net. its really hard to feed my guitar addiction when an extra % is being taken out of my near dry pockets.

 

[daniel123244]

I thought tax was made up in that thing called shipping?

 

[spoonless eddie]

If you think the Dems are any less corporatist that the Reps, you'd better take a second look.

 

[qhoa1385]

I see a lot of people keeps including Shipping cost as part of Tax? THAT IS NOT TAX! THE GOVERNMENT DON'T GET THE MONEY FROM SHIPPING COST!
Also for the people who keeps saying we should get tax more for Shopping online because it'll balance out the competitive market... how about we lower tax, so prices in-store will be comparable online?

I mean, What happened to No Excessive Taxation, the reason we broke away from England? The government is being a bigger "England" than ever before... I mean if they can't Tax it, they'll just call it a "Fee" so we can't vote on it, I call BS on that