After listening to a little bit of the Senate discussion... Maybe what has changed is the technology for Amazon and others (over a certain size) to charge the tax and have the tax instantly credited to the appropriate state. In that way, Amazon will not be technically collecting the tax because it won't actually receive the tax, it might not see any benefit like cash flow or whatever.
Yup.
The ability to tax is the ability to control. Not that we don't need this and that but there was a time when the individual citizen wasn't the source of revenue, it was commerce through tariffs and taxes on on items being moved across borders. I recall a proposal to have a millage tax, a small tax put on every transaction between business in and out of the country that would do away with individual income taxes and bring in the same or more revenue. Sort of like the "Fair Tax" proposal that has been discussed as a national sales tax in recent years. The tax would follow The Gross National Product and it makes sense in the way that some genius embezzler figured out to round off amounts of all the money passing through a bank and getting pennies from each transaction, it added up to a great deal of money until it became a large enough amount to be noticed. I read about the idea years ago and don't recall where I came across it but it was an intriguing concept. Gee, I wish I could find the source, perhaps someone else is familiar with it and may know more about the proposal and who came up with the idea. ^_^
TDD
That's not reality. The state collects the tax and remits it to the other taxing authorities.
After a while, we get it. You can't read. No ad hominem at all; just the facts.
No, you're not in the real world. These things *do* matter today. You haven't looked at the world in a *long* time.
They will be *required* to. It's more of a mess than several here will admit.
I would have no problem if all we are talking is the state sales taxes. But all of the other jurisdictions are demanding their cut, too and therein lies the rub.
They are concerned that if they do one they have to do all, or at least defend the suits in Court. You think MH is gonna sit back and let the state have all the fun and just let that rev source alone? That is one of the reasons they have been trying to get the Feds involved so that any legislation can specifically say they don't have to mess with MH, only the state.
I recall something like that too. There have been different VATs proposed too. Some of that type of tax sounds good to the uneducated because they think the consumer will no longer pay the tax, but businesses will instead. It all comes out in the cost of goods sold. We should be more concerned about government spending.
If it is not collected for them, there is nothing to remit. Let each town bring its own law suite against Amazon.
Which is pretty much exactly what they are trying to avoid.
The problem with a VAT is that is a great cover for weasel politicians who don't want anyone to realize how badly they are doing their job. As you noted many would simply think that the business is paying and not them.
A tax that is totally obvious and applied in one place (example, no other taxes except a 38% sales tax) is a great thing because it would make people do a lot more thinking on election day.
Absolutely, there is nothing at all complicated. If you can quantify something you can have a computer look up process that can use that information.
Typically the state sales tax agency acts as the agent for other sales tax collection. In my state it is the department of revenue. If you are a merchant in my state you collect 6% sales tax, if you are a merchant in Philadelphia or Allegheny counties you collect 1% more and remit it to the state. There are line items on the submittal to indicate which county gets the additional funds.
Folks seem to not realize how much data is available and how powerful modern databases are. As I mentioned in another post my little town is actually represented bu three legislative districts. I can go to the government web site and pump in my address and it will instantly tell me what district I am in and contact info for the appropriate rep.
George wrote in news:jaljga$2vu$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
One of the real problems with instituting a VAT is that merchants, anxious thata they may not recoup the taxes they'd have to pay, increase their prices to cover any possible shortfall. That means there will be instant 10% or higher inflation. At least that is what was experienced in Holland upon instituting the VAT. (European VAT can go higher than
20% depending on the "luxury" status of the merchandise).Whom do you think will get hit by a 38% more than others? WHo will be able to afford it best?
Really, please identify where I claimed a ZIP code is sufficient.
Are you actually capable of a dialogue or just juvenile insults?
So whats the difference? The unfairness is that brick and mortar businesses are mandated to be tax collectors. If you buy something from them they are mandated to collect whatever taxes are applicable. So if the state is say 5%, and the county is 2% the merchant must collect 7%. Why should another merchant no need to do that?
So what is the problem? Did you ever consider the powerful databases that exist today and how much information is in them? My little town can definitely fit in the miniscule category and it is divided up into three different districts. I can go to the government web site and pump in my address and it will instantly tell me what district I am in. If I pump in an address one block away it correctly tells me that location is in a different district.
And even the days of being anonymous because you live in a rural area are largely gone. I border on a rural area and previously folks had an address such as PO Box 222, Smithville where Smithville happened to be ten miles away. Under e911 each building now has a physical street address that is verified by GPS and recorded in a shared database. So even the tiny little dirt road in the middle of nowhere has a name and the one property on that road has an address. All can be instantly located by government agencies.
Who is the "we" you use? You are notably the only one in this group who specializes in name calling and personal attacks instead of actual adult dialogue.
Agreed, most places will likely subscribe to a service that maintains an up-to-date sales tax database, just as many companies do for payroll taxes.
There is a line on my state's income tax form where you're supposed to be reporting all of these out-of-state purchases and cough up the sales tax you owe. I'm pretty sure most people ignore it, besides, that would be a lot of purchases to keep track of.
Reality is that the states can't just ignore it anymore. It's a lot of revenue lost.
nancy
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