But the tax that Michigan, for example, expects people to pay on out-of-state purchases is not a "Sales Tax" but a "Use Tax," and I assume that there is a Michigan law that establishes such a tax.
Perce
de quoted text -
It's not so much that the B&M stores are overpriced as it is they have a huge overhead that the internet stores don't have. It's really about time that the internet retailers paid into the sales tax system along with the local B&M retailers. I don't like paying the sales tax but can't for the life of me justify letting the internet retailers have that much of an advantage at everyone expense.
That is not an excuse for any online store. It only takes a computer and a relative small database to keep track of the sales tax by zip code. That excuse just doesn't cut it in the internet age.
A lot of very weak excuses but no real reason that internet and catalogue retailers should be exempt from collecting sales tax. The states already maintain the database and I am sure they would be happy to keep the retailers updated via the internet.
Yep. Anything is simple if all you have to do is pay for it.
A short internet reconnaissance reveals one company - Service Objects DOTS Fast Tax - has a module you can incorporate in your web-based marketing system. It costs $1,428.00 per year for up to 5,000 transaction per month. (The cost goes up to almost $6,000.00 per year as the transaction count increases.)
I have difficulty placing all the blame on the legislators when we (collectively) are stupid enough to keep re-electing the grifters. Term limits are here now- Just vote against all incumbents.
Sorry but I have been working with software for 40 years and it's a no brainer. Just more excuses.
Right! Just give me their address and not only can I locate them within 30 feet I can probably pull up a photo of their house showing the cars in the driveway along with a photo of the front of the house. Now you are going to try and tell me that its too hard to determine what sales tax district they are in. Give me a break, it isn't rocket science.
Yes, most legislators are rather stupid but then you are showing a few signs of the same problem.
Oh, and the problem has already been solved many times over.
After you furnish your address? You are totally confusing web sites trying to guess where you are vs doing a database look up to determine something such as applicable taxes after you tell them where you are.
Absolutely. But collecting that tax is Michigan's problem, not Amazons when Amazon doesn't have a presence in Michigan.
Pretty much my stance too. If you save $5 not paying sales tax, that means someone else is going to pay more to make up your share. If half the sales were untaxed over the Internet, the state would have to double the tax rate on granny, who does not have a computer.
It maybe a big deal for a small guy, but for Amazon, it is merely a computer program that can be easily added. It is more trouble to compute shipping costs that the fixed sales tax for a given state.
End of quarter report. State of Euphoria sales $9999999. Tax due is sales X 6%. Send it in.
True enough, but the point being that there is no way to compel ME, or a ME entity (corporation), to collect a tax for MI. MI *can* (attempt to) collect the tax from the MI resident. However, that isn't working out so well.
Physical location can be quantified. The government has lots of dat and lots of computing power and gets more all of the time.
As an example many of our towns were split up as to legislative districts after numerous redistricting. My tiny little town actually has three different representatives.
Even our moderately competent state government's web site can tell you who your representative is based on your street address. If I put in an address that is 1/2 block down the street it tells me I am in another district.
Plus as time goes on lots and lots of those inconsistencies have been eliminated. At least in my state when they did e911 the address and physical location of every building was verified and recorded. Duplicate and ambiguous street names were renamed. Homes with PO box or rural route addresses now have formal addresses even if they are the only one on a road.
Here's another one that may be worse.
My business was audited by the state comptroller's office. The on-site auditor wanted to see invoices we had generated for our out-of-state sales. I declined to provide them.
Glad I did.
My tax attorney told me auditors from other states also work in my town and there's a background communications link between them. Had my state auditor discovered an invoice to, say, a client in Missouri, she would have snitched out that fact to the local Missouri auditor. That Missouri auditor, in turn, would pass on the information to the Missouri comptroller's office. A herd of people with green eye-shades and sleeve garters would then descend on my client, demanding to know why he didn't pay the sales tax on an out-of-state purchase.
They are charging STATE taxes. Some have no tax, so it is maybe 48 or so to collect.
Aside from the fact that donuts will probably not be sold mailorder often, how do the big stores do it now? They have stores in every state, yet manage to do all of this already. Sure, it will be some expense, but it is merely adapting existing software. Some Internet sellers collect tax in multiple states already.
Compare the size of a database that you could access back then and what you can do now. It would absolutely astonish you.
Because it is an excellent example of how much computing and databases have evolved that most everyone who has a computer has witnessed?
I (and several others) have already explained why the postal address is useless for accurately determining sales tax jurisdiction. If you don't care to read (or can't) that's not my problem.
Being unconstitutional is "no real reason"? ...or can't you read?
OK, you've proven that you're illiterate.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.