OT Amazon to begin charging state sales tax

[Ed Pawlowski]

Other retailers do it now. Again, it will be a burden if the states go after the little guy, but the big stores won't be hurt by it. The software is available at reasonable cost. I'm not sure how it works in other states or even in PA today (it has been over 35 years since I collected taxes) but for the 5% collected, I kept 1% for my fee and remitted 4% to the state. On a few million $$$ in sales, that 1% would cover some software costs.

As for writing checks, it is usually done by bank transfer today.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I don't know how it works today, but years ago, I kept a portion of the tax collected as my fee. On big sellers, it would cover costs. I'm sure it varies by state though.

[krw]

...and they know this how?

NJ is only *slightly* better because your governor is *trying* to turn it around. After Corizine, et. al., it's not going to happen, though. NY and NJ will always be cesspools.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Easy. Put the money in a bag. Tag is with the state name on it. When the stagecoach passes through town, give the bag to them to deliver. Here in the east, we have trains running between some cities and they can do it too.

OR

Do it the same way dozens of multi location nationwide stores do it now and have been for the past dozens of years. .

[krw]

Yes...

Who says "they" (Obama and co.) want to "fix" anything? If they wanted to improve the economy, all Obama would have to do is go on more vacations and shut his mouth. The economy would right itself soon enough.

So? What's your point?

[krw]

They're certainly in the best position to do so. They could then certify/define that their database was "correct", letting merchants off the hook.

E-tailers have to pay shipping, too. Maybe B&M stores should be forced to charge $7.95 per transaction to cover "shipping". E-trailers take three to ten days to deliver the products, too. Maybe retailers should require a three-day waiting period too. "Fair" is "fair".

[krw]

Not good enough.

Likely not, or it would have been done.

[G. Morgan]

Huh? You helped yourself to a percent for your "fee"? I don't think that would fly here and now. That is stealing.

Hello, may I help you?

Yes, Mr. Morgan this is the state comptroller. Your tax remittance was incorrect.

Really? By how much?

Well, it looks like you only charged 4% but the rate is 5%

Yeah, I kept 1% for my 'fee'

You did what?

I kept 1% of the sales tax for myself, I needed some software.

Mr. Morgan, could you please come to our office to discuss this?

Sure, tomorrow @ 10a good?

That will be fine, thank you.

"HEY MARCY, CALL THE STATE POLICE FOR A MEETING HERE TOMORROW AT 10AM, WE HAVE A THIEF TO DEAL WITH"

[krw]

Not good enough.

[G. Morgan]

You better hope the statute of limitations is up!

[krw]

It doesn't even give the right town/city.

[krw]

Wrong.

Not even the right town.

[Robert Neville]

Let's concede for the moment that it would be possible to come up with some scheme for collecting cross state taxes and remiting those collections to the states involved. It clearly won't be free and won't be accurate, but let's live with that for the moment.

Noone has answered the question "Under what authority does one state impose a tax collection requirement on a business solely in another state?"

[G. Morgan]

What part did you not understand? I think what's written is pretty straight to the point.

[G. Morgan]

Those stores maintain a B&M presence in the states they sell to. If they don't have a B&M location in that state; they don't have to charge sales tax. Do try to keep up.

How is that 15 minute coding job coming along? It's so easy according to you, let's see what you have so far.

[George]

too.- Hide quoted text -

Now that "krw" has clearly identified they have no useful or valuable input and their only reason for being here is to childishly screw with people for personal entertainment it makes sense to simply ignore her...

[Ed Pawlowski]

I just followed the instructions. The "fee" was not my idea, it was what the state gave you for the expense of collecting. How is that stealing?

[G. Morgan]

Exactly! Right now, there are 1000's of "Black Friday" shoppers converging on Wilmington, Delaware. They come from Maryland, PA, NJ... all states with a sales tax.

Delaware has no sales tax, so does that give authorities from MD, PA, & NJ permission to stop the shoppers at the border and cough up sales tax? I think not.

I just had an idea, I'll open a Delaware Corp. and run everything though that. I won't charge any sales tax to anyone!

[George]

In PA merchants keep 1% of the tax collected. Not 1% of the sale price.

Who writes checks? At least in PA the only way a merchant can remit tax is by ACH.

[George]

No, at least in PA the merchant gets 1% of the tax (not the sale) to cover some of the cost of being a tax collector.