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| vigilantex69 | 04-22-2013 09:02 PM |
PREPARE TO PAY UP: Senate Bill Jeopardizes Tax Free Shopping
Quote:
States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday.
Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.
The bill would allow states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where shoppers live.
The Senate voted 74 to 20 to begin debating the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.
Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.
"I believe it is important to level the playing field for all retailers," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor. "We should not be subsidizing some taxpayers at the expense of others."
In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few people comply.
"I do know about three people that comply with that," Enzi said.
President Barack Obama supports the bill, but its fate is uncertain in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, opposes the bill and will count the vote in its legislative scorecard.
Many of the nation's governors -- Republicans and Democrats -- have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales, said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. Those efforts intensified when state tax revenues took hit from the recession and the slow economic recovery.
"It's a matter of equity for businesses," Crippen said. "It's a matter of revenue for states."
The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.
"Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest volume sellers," Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy said in a recent letter to senators.
On the other side, eBay has been rallying customers to oppose the bill.
"I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea," eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to customers. "Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business."
The bill is also opposed by senators from states that have no sales tax, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
"Supporters of this online sales tax bill are trying to muscle it through before senators find out how disastrous it would be for businesses in their states," Ayotte said. "I will fight this power grab every step of the way to protect small online businesses in New Hampshire and across the nation."
Baucus said the bill would require relatively small Internet retailers to comply with sales tax laws in thousands of jurisdictions.
"This legislation doesn't help businesses expand and grow and hire more employees," Baucus said. "Instead, it forces small businesses to hire expensive lawyers and accountants to deal with the burdensome paperwork and added complexity of tax rules and filings across multiple states."
But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill requires participating states to make it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.
"We're way beyond the quilt pen and leger days," Durbin said. "Thanks to computers and thanks to software it is not that complex."
Read more: Senate bill jeopardizes tax-free online shopping | Fox News
| Definitely worth monitoring. I have no doubt eventually this is going to come down. I am not sure how eBay would approach this. I am guessing they will hike fees to include a sales tax proportion of your sales? That or require you to charge the buyer sales tax?
How does it work for those of you that sell as a business and have to pay sales tax on your sales? I know certain people that are registered do, not sure how it works stealth. |
| golden_monkey | 04-22-2013 09:29 PM |
its going to be a complete cluster fk for the small biz / small seller. YOU will have to do it.. eb4y isn't going to collect this for you the same way you have to pay the state sales tax.
this is a move by the big boys to crush the little guys... you'll notice amazon supports this as well. |
| Sandy D | 04-22-2013 09:30 PM |
Sure they do, with all the wasteful spending going on they need a way to pay for all the useless crap they are doing. |
Time to go SUPER STEALTH!!!!
Aspkin, get working on it bro! |
| dallasreed | 04-22-2013 10:38 PM |
Just keep your sales per business under 1M a year and you're exempt. |
| vigilantex69 | 04-22-2013 11:18 PM |
Quote:
The White House today endorsed the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would be a tax hike for purchases made over the Internet. The White House claims the tax would "level playing field for local retailers."
"The Administration strongly supports S. 743, which will level the playing field for local small business retailers that are in competition every day with large out-of-state online companies," reads the Obama administration's statement on the policy.
Although States presently have the authority to tax the sale of goods or services sold from out-of-state vendors, they are prevented under current law from requiring the collection of such duly-enacted taxes. As a consequence, while local small business retailers follow the law and collect sales taxes from customers who make purchases in their stores, many big business online and catalog retailers do not collect the same taxes. Because these out-of-state companies are able to play by a different set of rules, this disparity undermines the ability of cities and States to invest in K-12 education, police and fire protection, access to affordable health care, and funding for roads and bridges. This bill would eliminate the unfair advantage currently enjoyed by big out-of-state online companies over local neighborhood-based small businesses.
In recent years, collection technologies have improved and States have made significant strides to cut red tape and simplify their tax systems. At the same time, Internet-facilitated sales continue to grow as a share of total transactions, contributing to ongoing State budget pressures. In recognition of these developments, a broad and growing group of bipartisan State and Federal leaders — including governors, mayors, business and labor groups, and members of Congress from both parties — has called for commonsense Federal legislation to make the system more fair.
| Leave it to the current administration to continue to raise taxes....=} |
| vigilantex69 | 04-22-2013 11:19 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy D
(Post 442954)
Sure they do, with all the wasteful spending going on they need a way to pay for all the useless crap they are doing.
| :cheer:
Finally someone says it! |
| unkown5454 | 04-22-2013 11:23 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by vigilantex69
(Post 442971)
Leave it to the current administration to continue to raise taxes....=}
| Criminal enterprise at its finest. Tax the hell out of your citizens the same way the mafia shakes down the innocent. |
| Sandy D | 04-22-2013 11:37 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by unkown5454
(Post 442976)
Criminal enterprise at its finest. Tax the hell out of your citizens the same way the mafia shakes down the innocent.
| Well planned and organized purposely to pay for certain insider things and for those people who wont work or earn their own keep.
Remember, the more reliant someone is on someone else the weaker they are as a total.
We are watching the largest scam on Americans ever happening. |
| vigilantex69 | 04-23-2013 03:55 PM |
What are the thoughts as to how this is going to shake down for eBay sellers? |
| slim jim | 04-23-2013 04:49 PM |
well ebay is fighting to make the exemption up to 10 million (i am sure this is for their own interests to not lose bigger customers)...i didn't understand it fully but i believe there is also a loophole where brick and mortar stores will be exempt from collecting |
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