OT Amazon to begin charging state sales tax

[krw]

You've proven that you're illiterate. Seems you should start, here, by looking in the mirror.

Oh, no, it most certainly has not. States can't even keep it straight.

[krw]

Wrong! You obviously haven't studied the problem (and can't read).

[krw]

You don't have to show how little you know with every post. We got it!

So you admit that it's completely irrelevant. Glad we got that cleared up.

[Robert Neville]

Not even close. While most states have a base rate that applies across the state, almost all of those states have additional amounts added from hundreds of different taxing entities.

You're missing the point. When a store opens, the company knows the location of the store and the tax rates that apply to the store's location. What you want to implement is not to know the rates that apply to that store, but to every potential customer. You're talking orders of magnatude greater number of possible rates.

[Charlie E.]

In California now, the law has changed. If I sell a unit to a customer out of state, but SHIP it from California, I MUST charge California sales taxes on the unit. We double checked on that!!!

Charlie

[krw]

Bullshit. Sales tax jurisdictions are a *lot* finer that states, or even cities. It's often difficult (to impossible) to tell what tax jurisdiction one is in.

What do you do with the taxes for the town of E. Bumbfuck or the City of E. Bumbfuck?

[HeyBub]

In addition to complexity and ignorance, there's at least one more reason: Simple refusal.

Several years ago, Dallas County, Texas, quit sending out ad valorem tax notices on automobiles registered in the county. There was such widespread refusal to pay the tax, that it cost the county more to send out the tax notices than they collected.

[HeyBub]

Yep. Quill had no footprint in North Dakota ("nexus"). The state DID try to make their case with the following argument:

1. Quill ships copy paper into the state.
2. Some (all?) of this paper ends up in landfills within the state, therefore,
3. Quill has a responsibility to see to it North Dakota is recompensed for this expense.

You can't make this stuff up.

[Kurt Ullman]

But what about the City of Miniscule Heights and it's tax and the MH Stadium fund that gets sales taxes from part of MH, part of the unincorporated part of Miniscule County, and a sliver of the next county over. If there was a way to say we were just going to collect only state sales taxes, you'd have a point.

[Martin Riddle]

begin?

They all ready do charge tax (NYS tax for me)

I rarely order from them now.

Cheers

[Kurt Ullman]

Because of the physical presence thing. They charge sales taxes because of where they are. It is one place that doesn't have to ask if the person they are selling to is in one of the weird districts. The sales taxes for the Internet, at least as currently being discussed, are not based on where one building is, but rather where the building they are sending it to is. Whole other ball of wax.

[Jim Elbrecht]

They are collecting taxes *for the state*. In NY the state gets its

4%(?) and my county gets another 4. Amazon has been collecting for NY for several years. They add 8% to the bill-- and just like every other NY vendor, they send the 8% [or 6 or 12 or whatever] to the state with a note of what jurisdiction each sale took place in.

Jim

[George]

Not sure why you behave as childishly as you do with the constant ad hominem attacks. If you have nothing to offer an ad hominem attack only makes you look silly.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

AFAIK there are no county or city sales taxes in MI, but if the nearby city from which our mail is delivered and whose ZIP code we share did have a sales tax, charging us based on our ZIP code would be unjustified.

Perce

[Ashton Crusher]

That not because they are conservative, it's because they are mean spirited cheap bastards who don't give a crap about anyone but themselves. It takes at least $40.000 to have any kind of decent living per year. Someone who makes that much and pays 15 % is getting hurt one whole hell of a lot more then a millionaire who pays the same

15%. All it means to the millionaire is he'll have to keep his Mercedes 600SL for 3 years instead of 2.

it's

[Ed Pawlowski]

Simple. They don't care what the town address is. They are collecting STATE sales tax, not city or down or other districts. The city is SOL

[Ed Pawlowski]

So the little village is SOL. The state gets their money and the local has to figure out a better way. Once the state get their share, they won't much give a damn about the small local taxing authorities either.

Some chains have 3000 or 4000 stores. It is easier to setup a computer at one location for 50 state than to set up 4000 local systems. I think you have it backwards.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yes, an easier to handle ball of was. Now they will have 50 states to deal with from one computer rather than the different ones in their

3000 local stores. The state for the shipping address with determine the tax. Look up charts are easy.

Take a look at the withholding tax on your pay stub. Does every employee where you work pay the same tax every week? No, the computer looks at the gross pay and references a chart for the proper tax for the number of exemptions. Many more possibilities doing payroll than shipping to 50 states.

If you can make a simple spreadsheet, you can do the sales tax thing.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Nothing. You don't have them. YOU only have the state tax so you send it in. Less the processing fee, of course. When I used to collect sales tax years ago, it was 1%.

I think you are making a bigger deal of this than exists.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I guess I have a point. Did Amazon say they would collect for every tax district or just the states?