states make push tomorrow toward taxing Internet sales

[flowomo]

Some States Push To Collect Sales Tax From Internet Stores

By ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 30, 2005; Page B1

For years, states and online retailers have bickered over whether the retailers should -- and, if so, could -- collect local and state sales taxes on purchases made over the Internet. The states have said they should and could. The retailers have argued that the complexity of different tax rates and categories among states and localities made it very difficult to do so.

Hoping to put an end to that argument, 18 states tomorrow will implement a long-planned move to remove obstacles that the retailers have cited. Architects of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project are devising a computer program that tracks the tax rates of the 18 states and their localities and automatically adds that rate to the bill of every online purchase. The states will also entice online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes by offering amnesty on taxes the retailers haven't collected in the years since the Internet retail boom began.

more: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112804300283656392-6LwpPYtGyOrRYO49e95Ob8bIgTY_20060930,00.html?mod=blogs

[Straight Shooter]

1. Well, we can kiss good-bye another incentive to buying online.

Now they'll raise their prices to cover costs of dealing with the tax issue, plus we'll be paying for the tax, too.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

2. WTF

"The states will also entice online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes by offering amnesty on taxes the retailers haven't collected in the years since the Internet retail boom began."

[msongs]

3. make internet taxes retroactive? probably NOT legal nt

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

4. With the thugs in control now....

[slaveplanet]

5. this is criminal

the internet is a catalog

How could this be legal without making all catalog sales liable?

[fed-up]

6. How many hours of bookkeeping will this add so SB owners can pay 18 bills?

This is the most ludicrious idea I have ever heard of.

So Joe retailer will not only have to keep abreast of the various tax rates of local and state taxes, but he will then have to do a zillion extra hours of bookkeeping to make sure the "computerized program" has done an accurate job. Then he will have to process all the paperwork and mail in his payments.

All this to pay some small town $1.93 (times 1000 different towns) in sales tax??

Maybe if there was a $500 minimum tax owed (per locality) it might be worth while.

[meow2u3]

7. E-commerce taxation is unconstitutional

if the purchase is out of your state of residence.

article I, section 9, paragraph 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

[Branjor]

8. The New Jersey state income tax form

has a line on it where you are supposed to report the total amount of money you spent buying things online and it is then figured into what you owe the state in taxes. It was in the 2004 tax return form.