Still missing what the problem might be. Aren't all of those quantifiable? Most (maybe all) of what you noted is already in publicly accessible databases. Others are certainly in other databases. If there is some need for the others wouldn't it just be a matter of importing that data? This isn't the last century. Databases are powerful and cheap.
Nope.
Huh? What town are you talking about?
This software is exactly what is needed:
"AvaTax performs several steps that involve both the software and service aspect of the solution. After AvaTax is integrated into a company?s accounting or ERP systems, it uses a Web service to automatically validate a customer?s address against a database of U.S. addresses that are certified by the Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS)."
What is CASS, you ask?
I've never heard of them letting you keep a 'fee' for your effort. Either I'm getting screwed, or the law is different in your state.
I am not convinced yet about the scalability. While they may be in other databases, are they in *ONE* overarching database. Nobody here (other than discussing their own addresses) has addressed the REAL issue. It isn't are they available, but how reliable are they?
Voluntary sales tax collection? With states jacking sales tax up above 9% these days? That's the whole reason B&M stores are screaming. This wouldn't be an issue if sales taxes were set at a reasonable level.
And they are welcome to try to change the law. This isn't a new issue - Quill vs. ND was decided back in the early 80s. Since this was decided at the SCOTUS level already, there is really only one choice: Implement a national sales tax that gets distributed back to the states (good luck with that) or suck it up.
Governments always need money, there's always people seeking more "free" benefits from government and government spending will always expand to exceed the amount of money collected.
True as far as it goes, but lets be clear: retailers collect sales taxes which are _imposed on the seller_ and passed through to the buyer, not use taxes. Use taxes are imposed by states _on the buyer_, usually but not always in lieu of sales tax.
Works just fine, as long as you have no physical presence in another state. Open a sales office, tech center, warehouse, etc, you then have to collect for that state. It has worked like that for ages. That is what makes internet sales lucrative. You don't collect the tax, people don't pay the tax, even though they are obligated to do so as a use tax.
That is what I'm saying, but if you look at the big guys like B&N, they have stores in just about every state. Since they also have on-line sales, they collect tax for just about every state. Nothing new here.
Coding is done. Will be on the next stage coach to your location.
" snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
The State of New York knows everything, how else?
(pls insert graphic of choice).
It may be that christie is doing something good, but the way he covers that up makes it almost unrecognizable.
G. Morgan wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@Osama-is-dead.net:
That's where the "use tax" comes in. You deprive your state and the local merchants of income. Or you steal it from them, take your pick.
Because of people like you (and me), the use tax fig leaf was invented. I think that a zip+4-based salestax that gets then transmitted (at zero cost to the merchant) to the proper autorities would be fair.
YMMV, etc, etc.
" snipped-for-privacy@att.bizzzzzzzzzzzz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
States don't move that fast ...
well then in exchange for the waiting time you should have to pay sale tax then it would be fair
that is if you are lucky enough that there's still a shop to go to and it hasn't been closed because it didn't sell anything because every one bought stuff online to avoid the sales tax
-Lasse
Speaking of that, they aren't too sophisticated about it either. I went through the order process at Walmart.com to get sales tax. Ordering a +$100 cell phone. Using my address and 5-digit zip it added 9.5 tax (state and county) Using an address/zip in a taxless county, it dropped the county tax. Using the other county address and my zip it added my county tax. Using my address and the other county zip it dropped the county tax. It complains about the address/zip conflict but allows you to confirm it and continue. Pretty sure the mail carriers deliver to an street address/town/state no matter what the zip says. Seem to remember getting mail with the wrong zip. So maybe I could order from Walmart with a bogus zip and evade the county tax. Not sure - it was a simple test.
Anyway, to get it right would take a correct address/zip crosscheck to fill the order, or the refusal of mail carriers to deliver to a bad zip code It's still all trivial for on-line transactions once laws are passed and standards are set. And the correct exceptions accounted for. For example, Tennessee and Kentucky share at least one 5 digit zip. "Real" mail order, with envelopes and money orders is another story. I bet the states get together much faster to collect taxes than they do to consolidate criminal and other databases.
About 6 years ago my son's car was stolen in Niles, Illinois.. Chicago police picked it up a day later and my son retrieved it from the auto pound. No damage, plates still on. So the kid is driving back to U of I and gets pulled over by the state police, cuffed and spends a couple hours in the pokey before it was cleared up. It's pretty funny imagining him cuffed in the back seat of a police car. Me, I can see. Not him. Then I had to go to the Niles PD to get them to take it off the files. All this should have happened when he ID'd himself to get the car at the pound.
--Vic
Actually, government will lose a very big stick used to control the citizenry. We can't have more freedom and liberty now can we? ^_^
TDD
Does ZIP+4 differentiate between the sides of a street down the middle of which the county line might run?
Perce
Dealing now with the VAT alternative.... I may be wrong, but I thought that VAT as implemented (originated?) in France is not how it works in many other countries that now have VAT: the VAT in France was not supposed to be passed on. E.g., widget costs $10 to make, is sold to distributor for $13 so manufacturer pays x% on $3, is sold to wholesaler for $16 so wholesaler pays x% of $3, is sold to retailer for $20 so wholesaler pays x% of $4, is sold to customer for $25 so customer pays x% of $5. IOW, the VAT was on the markup at each stage.
BTW, the way things work now can get rather silly. A few years ago we ordered replacement glass units for an entry door from the manufacturer of the door in Ohio. We paid no sales tax because the manufacturer has no presence in Michigan. The glass units were shipped by the Michigan company that made them, but we paid no sales tax because we had no business relationship with that company. We declared that purchase when we filed our MI taxes, but that had nothing to do with the items being shipped from a MI company.
Perce
Huh? "The software is available at reasonable cost" is a preposterous statement. Look up the cost. The cheapest I've found is $1,400.00 per year.
Imagine a small, independent, bookseller who sells three books a day via his modest online store (I know of several). He'd have to add a dollar per book to his price just to be able to satisfy the tax reporting requirements.
That's NOT a trivial expense.
I only shopped mail order or online for what I couldn't get locally, or it was so damned overpriced that I wouldn't. I needed a 10' HDMI cable recently. $3.49 delivered, or $49.99 local, and both were made in China.
How did you segue from a sales tax comment to your kid getting locked-up? Lol...
So you managed to avoid paying about $3.00 in sales tax..
Data base coordination was the link. And I like telling true stories (-:
--Vic
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