There is an interesting battle waging in California and if lawmakers in every state are smart they will take notice.
With a dismal budget situation in California, law makers are hoping to strike it rich by wanting to tax e-commerce transactions.
Currently, there is a disparity between “brick and mortar” stores and online retailers and that has caused the battle lines to be drawn.
As it stands, brick and mortar stores in every community pay taxes. Those taxes help pay for infrastructure in their community as well as the state. Internet retailers conducting online transactions, however, do not have to tax unless the business has an actual physical presence in the state.
Online retailers don’t want to pay taxes because it lets them offer lower prices. Amazon.com has already spent more than $5 million to fight this battle in California. While Amazon may be on the attack it is really all Internet companies who sell over the Internet that don’t want to pay taxes.
As the Internet and online retailers have grown, states and communities have lost valuable community businesses as well as valuable tax dollars. Billions of dollars are at stake and it only makes sense for all states to start taxing e-commerce transactions.
For California and other states to pass legislation to have online retailers to start paying tax is is a small step to allowing dollars to flow back to a state’s communities.
Chris Walker
Editor & Publisher
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
http://www.infowars.com/internet-tax-...
September 7, 2011 at 12:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
http://www.infowars.com/democratic-se...
September 7, 2011 at 12:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/cla...
September 7, 2011 at 12:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Malique (anonymous) says...
"Those taxes help pay for infrastructure in their community as well as the state."
...
"Billions of dollars are at stake and it only makes sense for all states to start taxing e-commerce transactions."
Why does it "only make sense"? If my Internet company has no physical address in the state, why should I have to pay taxes to maintain the infrastructure? Physical businesses rely on the infrastructure so it makes sense that some of their profits go to maintain it. This sort of thing isn't a necessity for online retailers. Why punish the business owners who found out how to do business more efficiently? Less taxes means more money in the employer and employees' pockets. That means more money going into the economy. Why take their money to pay for a local infrastructure that they don't even use to do business?
Also, please ban forum spammers like reddog.
September 7, 2011 at 1:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I shop online all the time because I can't find the items that I want locally, and I don't drive long distances to shop. SO, I let my fingers do the shopping.
That said, I do wish to say that I have noticed more and more online retailers collecting sales taxes. The last two transactions I made, one in Maryland and one in Nevada, asked for the name of my state in order to charge the proper amount of Kansas sales tax. Whether they are paying that to Kansas and other states is another story. They might be pulling a Madeleine's trick. I'd like to think, however, that they are honest and that the hullabaloo in California is informing them to charge sales tax and pay it to the states involved. That's the Pollyanna in me.
All that aside, I agree that each transactor should be paying a sales tax. It's only fair to the communities wherein we live. I don't mind at all.
But my question is this: How are you going to keep online stores honest? Will computers now contain transaction chips that report such shopping information to a central intel point. Or will such chips be a requirement for online merchants? Oh my, there goes that running amok again. Brave New World.
September 7, 2011 at 1:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
create, when i had an online business, i just raised the price a little and didn't charge sales tax, even tho i paid my sales tax on wholesale items. i just didn't have the time to keep track of all the different taxes in different states and countries.
September 7, 2011 at 2:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
scarlett, yes, I can see where bookkeeping would be a nightmare, especially for an individual. However, so many of these online merchants are big guys like Amazon or Footsmart. I'm guessing that those companies who do charge sales tax have some kind of setup that allows their computers to do all that computing for them, but that's just a guess.
I have a friend who does online business. I'l have to ask her about this.
I always wondered when all this online business that takes in billions of dollars was going to catch the attention of states. I do know this, it has been keeping the post office and UPS and FED X in business.
September 7, 2011 at 3:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
RON PAUL and internet tax.
http://forum.davidicke.com/showthread...
September 7, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
Well the post office or USPS may not be doing businesses, very soon and there will be a significant number of people on the jobless rolls .
Regardless of what anyone says, the U.S. is in deep trouble .
JMO
September 7, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scarlett01_98 (anonymous) says...
create, actually this debate has been raging for several years among big and small online stores and wholesalers. the online sellers are against it, big time! the states have been trying to find a way to regulate sales for a long time now. i don't really think it can be done... jmo
September 7, 2011 at 5:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Food for thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=B...
September 7, 2011 at 11:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
I think in the end the government entities will find a way to tax internet. I spoke with Matt Zimmerman about this a couple of weeks ago. I told him that, like all politicians, the idea that people have money in their pockets drives them absolutely crazy. It's like an itch they can't scratch.
They're going to figure it out and we're going to pay through the nose. I remember when we moved here. We purchased a car in Wichita. We paid the sales tax. I came back to Emporia to register the car. I was told that I had to pay sales tax. I said I already had and showed them the bill of sale. They said I needed to pay the "Emporia rate." I asked why, since I hadn't purchased the car in Emporia. I got two answers. "We need the money." "You should have bought a car in Emporia."
September 8, 2011 at 6:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tourguide (anonymous) says...
Netloafer, Yep they do that to everybody. I found it so much cheaper to register 2 of my cars at my home in Missouri. And Property tax on my pickup was $600.00 higher in Lyon county. Since I have homes in both states, I KEEP both cars tagged in MO. & just drive back-n-forth. The taxes on the Emporia home is just as high as my other, yet it is half the size & value. Go figure..
September 8, 2011 at 7:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
"We need the money." "You should have bought a car in Emporia."
What kind of an answer is that? A pox on their houses!
Somebody in charge down there needs to teach those ladies how to answer that very question correctly and NOT with the attitude they ordinarily conduct themselves. They are the reason I pay my tags online anymore. A lot of people tag their cars in Coffee County because the rates there are lower. Lyon County is just cutting it's own throat over and over again by sticking it to their own people.
September 8, 2011 at 8:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
tourguide,
It is not so hard to figure out .
The leaders of Emporia, have managed to put the City and its taxpayers some $40 to $60 million in debt and need the money, so they say . And yet the leaders of Emporia blame everyone but themselves, saying the citizen taxpayers of Emporia want, demand such extravagant spending !
I would like to know exactly which of the citizen taxpayers of Emporia it is, that demand such extravagant spending, such as, expensive " Rocks ", " Clock Tower, placed in the absolutely worst place in Emporia, a " Round a bout " nightmare, a $ 50,000 Public Library, statue, a several million dollar EHS, foot ball/practice field carpet and yet it would appear that EHS foot ball games are still played at ESUs' Welch Stadium, the closing of 2 perfectly good schools and building a several million dollar addition onto EMS .
Is/was it the 15 or 20 or so taxpayers/self appointed leaders who believe they absolutely know what is best for all of Emporia's taxpayers. You know those few people who have managed to absolutely control the City of Emporia/City Commission/City Manager for quite some time now ?
I for one did not ask for, nor demand any of the above unnecessary or unneeded spending/expenditures . What I have said for decades is, I don' t object to spending taxpayer funds on needed necessities, public services, such as maintaining the Citys infrasturcture, i.e., street repair/resurface, sidewalk repair/replacement, storm drainage system maintainance/repair/replacement, water/sewer/solid waste maintainance/repair/replacement , Fire protection, Police protection, Ambulance Service, etc., etc. .
I for one did not ask for, nor demand that the City Commission use taxpayer funds to support any " leech " organizations, such as the RDA, CVB, ARTS COUNCIL, etc., etc. .
So, you see, tourguide, it is not so hard to figure out why the City of Emporia and Lyon County has some of the highest taxpayer, taxes/tax burden in Kansas and quite possibly the U.S., for a City/Town its size. And shrinking, dying, because,
I might add, of the needless spending of the self appointed leaders, City Commission, City Manager and the tax payers tax burden the spending has caused !
JMO
September 8, 2011 at 8:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
Create
My encounter with the city about sales tax for the car was in December, 2002.
I don't know if things have improved as far as customer service goes. I do know that the added sales tax still applies. In my case the Wichita sales tax rate was lower than Emporia's. I doubt Emporia would give rebates if the sales tax in area of purchase were higher than Emporia's.
September 8, 2011 at 8:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tourguide (anonymous) says...
Create, But I did buy my Lincoln @ John North. And I paid my sales taxes here. My Vette came from Tim McGraw Charities so the taxes were in Tenn. I don't mind paying taxes within reason. But seems Lyon / EMPORIA is out of control. IF I could move my kiddo to MU, we would be gone now. Till then we will put up with all the crap the city is dishing out.. I guess Im lucky cause I go home when it gets too bad.... LOL wana buy a house ??
September 8, 2011 at 9:03 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Thanks anyway, tourguide. No thanks. Couldn't sell my own house for what I think it should be worth right now given the housing dilemma with regard to valuation. Those of us who have kept up our mortgages still get to lose out right along with those who caused this mess to begin with.
September 8, 2011 at 9:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluebonnet (anonymous) says...
I recently ordered something from Amazon and had to pay sales tax.
September 8, 2011 at 4:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
Emporia and Ks has tax on everything and yet the idiots cant make do with all the money. The secret is to cut out all the over paid higher ups like the city manager
September 8, 2011 at 8:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )