Tax free internet shopping ends.

[newood2]

It's over for NY State. Got notice from Newegg, Amazon, etc.
How can this be? Did they change the law on interstate commerce. Now an out-of-state jurisdiction with no franchise or business locate in NY can collect NY sales tax on purchases made online.
I.m sure other States will follow soon.

[Uncle Cracker]

There are only two types of revenue stream... 1) those being monopolized by government, and 2) those that will be. Gov't. lawyers and accountants are highly motivated, and are staying up nights looking for them.

[DonHo]

I'm not sure about NY but here in Oklahoma, if the company has retail stores in Oklahoma they are suposed to pay sales tax. That would be stores like Lands End, Sears, etc. So far companies that don't have stores here aren't collecting the tax. I hope it stays that way.

DonHo

[chopnhack]

Very sad

This will definitely stymie efforts to restore our economy.

[Ed62]

I'm not certain, but I think Indiana might be the same as Oklahoma. Some sites have been charging sales tax for a long time. Others do not.

Ed

[moc]

I.m sure other States will follow soon.

I love avoiding sales tax as much as the next guy, but I really don't see how this is anything but restoring some fairness to the market. If my neighborhood tool seller has to collect sales tax to support the city, why shouldn't Amazon?

This argument is completely separate from any political discussion of how taxes are assessed or collected or used or anything else... it's just a matter of fairness.

I may be in the minority with that opinion, though. It wouldn't be the first time

*moc

[Schleeper]

What's a sales tax?

[crokett]

Here in NC when you file your income tax you are supposed to declare online purchases that you did not pay tax on.

[iceman61]

Here in NC when you file your income tax you are supposed to declare online purchases that you did not pay tax on.

I can see that happening. Just like bartenders & waitresses declaring cash tips.

[LinuxRandal]

There are various rules on the "USE TAX", that depends state to state. The govt of NY, lost taxes to people buying online and not filing USE tax, and forcing even out of state, large (easy target), retailers to collect, rather then, effectively, auditing EVERYBODY. Local retailers of all states B&M to their representatives about their loss of business, due to higher costs (rent, storage, accounting on the taxes), as well as the taxes.

Read online (slashdot I believe), about how the federal government, was talking about legislation (privacy and identity theft advocates were screaming), that would force credit card companies to pass along purchase information, that USE taxes either got collected, or every online retailer started collecting taxes.

Locally (my state), the USE tax, kicks in after a certain $ amount of purchases. Then, TECHNICALLY, one is supposed to pay sales taxes, EVEN on private transactions (CL, Garage sales, etc)

[TB Roye]

In California if you are a resident and buy in Calif. You pay sales tax. If you buy out of state or you buy in Calif and are not a resident they would like you to declare it. Yea right over their dead body. I have had my son in Idaho bid on stuff from Ebay that is shipped from California or purchased thing for me so I don't have to pay Sales tax, then I pick it up when we visit. This is mainly higher priced things 7.75% to almost 9% in some counties can get expensive when you include shipping. Every year the Legislature tries to pass a Internet Sales tax but so far it hasn't passed. Better stop before I go political.

Tom

[Stytooner]

Locks are to keep honest people out. I imagine such state tax regs would be the same type thing. It would seem it would have to be honor based. They may not recoup taxes from everyone, but the ones that do own up would substantially increase the states gross revenue.

I have often wondered just how long it would take to get there with regard to state taxes. I might sell only a few guards a year in Alabama, so that tax burden makes it easy to own up to it. I don't actually charge the extra tax. Just think of it as the cost of doing business. If orders in state were to increase a lot, I would have to implement a charge for taxing in state.

Every ounce of everything I use is already taxed either by shipping to me or by the power it took to produce the items. Same goes for outbound items. They are already taxed on power, land, shipping cost and more.

I am by no means, opposed to taxes. They do make the country a better place to live. However, I think that everyone should be taxed equally. If it's an honor based tax declaration thing in each state, that is certainly not equal. If only some states adopt it, it ain't equal either. I am just not sure how well something like this would actually work.

[dkerfoot]

The issue comes down to enforceability. If I sell to people in NY (and I do), they can declare until they are blue in the face that I need to charge sales tax, but they have no authority to collect it.

It may be difficult for States to collect Use Tax (from their residents), but at least they have jurisdiction to do so.

My guess is that the companies you mentioned have added warehouses or something similar in New York.

Imagine what a nightmare it would be for an internet vendor to try to collect and disburse taxes to every Country, State, County and City that we sell to. I'd literally have to keep track of thousands of tax codes.

I once setup an ecommerce website for a company that had warehouses in 5 States. Not so hard when it is just State tax to worry about, but Illinois and Nevada had different tax rates by County. What made it hard was I needed to charge the tax based on the county of the buyer, not the county of the warehouse. Ugly, Ugly, Ugly.

[pierhogunn]

ah yes, there's that goose that layed the golden egg, I wonder if there's more gold inside of it?

[cgallery]

I wonder if Newegg and Amazon don't have reps or some sort of presence in NY. I believe that if an organization has even one employee working out of their home in a state, they can be forced to started collecting sales taxes in that state.