Internet Taxes

First thing:
It wasn't just a "Supreme Court" ruling, it's the fucking Constitution. The power to regulate trade between the states is delegated explicity to the Federal gov't. That means that if I buy something from you, and we live in different states, neither of those states can intervene in the transaction in any way (except to arrest us if we're selling babies or something). It would take an amendment to the Federal Constitution to allow states to tax interstate commerce (and if you know me, you know that I'm gonna tell you what a FLAMINGLY HORRIBLE IDEA THAT IS).

Second thing:
Even if it were legal, there's no logical argument in favor of doing it. The ostensible reason we pay sales tax in the first place is because state gov'ts run various promotions (think of your state's tourism board) for all the industry and commerce within that state. So to pay for what would otherwise be "free advertising", states tax businesses a certain percentage on each sale. But we all know that's just a fantasy, as 9 out of 10 businesses pass that tax directly onto their customers (as happens with ALL taxes). Obviously then, sales tax cannot logically be collected on any out-of-state purchase. If I buy a bottle of nitro solvent at a Gart Bros., I pay tax on it because the state of Colorado (theoretically) does promotional work on their behalf. If I order that same bottle of solvent from MidwayUSA, I don't pay tax to my state, because the state of CO certainly doesn't promote a company in MO, nor do I pay any tax to the state of Missouri (MO is Missouri, right?) because I'm not under their legal jurisdiction (nor do they promote anything here).

Third thing:
The other (stupid, illogical) argument for taxing internet sales is that 'net sales have an advantage over local brick&mortar sales because of their no-tax status. Bullshit. For one thing, there's shipping. If I order a $100 widget and it costs $7.30 to ship, I might as well have bought it locally and paid the 7.3% sales tax. No-tax status is not an artificial aid to internet vendors, it needs to be looked at from the other perspective: the collection of sales tax is an artificial HINDERANCE to local vendors. If States want to "level the playing field", all they have to do is repeal their local sales taxes.

Fourth thing:
This ties into point #1. So-called "e-commerce" is fundamentally equal to plain, old-fashioned, century-old mail order. You could even call it "e-mail order", because the only difference is how you transmit your order details and payment information. The only other difference is that the catalog is electronic, but many e-vendors have a printed catalog as well so that's moot. It's very illustrative to see how many e-vendors have added a print catalog to their operations, as well as how many decades-old mail order outfits (Eddie Bauer, Victoria's Secret, Cabela's, etc) now have online ordering. Since the two are fundamentally equal, it would make absolutely no sense at all to tax one and not the other. Therefore, any change of regulation that makes taxing internet sales possible would make taxing catalog mail order sales possible. Can you imagine what would happen if it didn't? People would browse online, write down the product numbers (or names, and find the numbers in the catalog) and either fill out the order form and mail it in or call up the 1-800 order number (BTW, phone ordering is less secure than even unencrypted internet ordering), all JUST TO AVOID THE TAX!!!

Fifth thing:
Christ, people, TAXATION IS THEFT!!! No one, and I mean NO ONE payes taxes voluntarily: they are COERCED from you, you pay them under the THREAT OF VIOLENCE. All taxation is immoral. We've known this for over 200 years, let's put sound moral theory into practice. End taxes, Vote LP. http://www.lp.org


MoNsTeR

The economy is going in the crapper and .coms have been dying away for months and they want
to bring internet taxes. What a bunch of BS.

i can't think of a single good reason that Internet vendors deserve tax breaks over regular retailers.

Aren't internet sales suffering enough already? This would kill e-commerce as we know it.

fuck net taxes you fuckity fucked fucks

My Road Runner service already went up 5 bucks effective this bill. I'm afraid I wont be paying more than $50 for internet service. It should be getting cheaper, not more expensive.

the e-commerce shop i frequent the most is BOOKPOOL. Can't beat 30-40% off tech books.
Then it would be amazon, express, expedia and cdgirls. j/k about the last one

When upgrading systems I usually fish around pricewatch or anandtech forums for good deals. But who knows if the price is right i may just buy my nforce mb and tasty palomino cpu from the ShugaShackShop >;)

The main reason I shop on the web is to avoid the 8+% sales tax in my state. If they start taxing all sales, I'll just go back to buying at local stores. Grrrrrrrrrrr...

Well, here in Canaduh, we pay taxes on everything we buy online (and a wh00ping 15.025% too in Quebec) and you know what? Online shopping S00KS here and it's simply not worth it to buy online. I believe there will always be people who need a human contact when they buy, so regular retail stores won't die because online stores have no tax. Bottom line is, if you want to kill online stores, throw taxes in there and fall back on Canaduh level :P

And don't get me started on how these taxes are used by our government...

I read an interesting article a while back about internet taxes. What is to stop a local brick and mortar place here in town (think of a television dealer selling a $3,500 HDTV system) from saying to its customers:

"If you dont want to pay sales tax today, then walk over to our computer over there that's hooked up to the intarweb and place your order online."

I don't think legally the seller could say it that way, but he could seriously imply the issue. The result: The customer would have effectively saved themselves $288.75 (assuming a 8.25% sales tax rate) and the states would NOT be getting their $288.75.

i expect they'll extend the moritorium. With the current economy and way dot.coms are dropping like flies it wouldn't make much sense to introduces taxes into the mix.

There once was a http://canada.buy.com that is now a dead link...wonder why, especially since http://us.buy.com seems to work so well. Maybe it's the extra 270 million potential customers one has, but maybe taxes didn't help the canada one either :P And the exchange rate isn't a problem, since they were selling at Canadian prices with Canadian money... oh well

This isn't really an internet thing, more a mail-order thing in general, isn't it? Historically I've rarely paid sales tax when ordering from a catalog either, so far as I recall...

Think about this.. can YOU imagine a world without internet? (look further then mp3/porn/divx/online gaming)

gpedit.msc
User config
windows settings
internet explorer
security
security zones and content ratings
import the current security zones settings
modify settings
internet and local intranet change the settings to enable, disable, disable, enable, enable

:)! You have no idea how fucking happy this makes me...

taxes == SUCK

how are internet vendors supposed to compete? Well I thought we practiced Capitalism in this country, which means you figure out a way to make a profit or you go out of business (unless you're an airline, power company, etc).

I remember on my last tax return there was a check box that asked me if I had purchased anything over the internet. I looked at the table and promptly filled it in. It was $1.

the finger thing means the taxes

If those morons make an internet tax, they'll be to blame when the economy goes to shit. As it is, people aren't buying stuff right now because they feel that the economy is unstable. If you add another tax (on internet goods), people will stop buying more stuff.

I wonder how this is going to work if you order stuff out of the country.

Does anyone know how taxes work if you buy a used car online from out of state? You could save thousands that way.

tax this! *grabs nuts*

Better sell off my eq characters quick muahhahahaha

This subject is way over the head of the average Shack surfer. Amusing to read, yet futile.

If I'm going to end up paying nearly the same online that I would at the local mall, I'm going to support the local economy. That goes without thinking.

I hardly buy anything in the mall now-adays (except for clothing) because the online prices are so much better (plus there's no state tax and a lot of times free shipping) but if the greedy bastards want to put their dirty little fingers in the pie it's going to force a lot of online retailers to get flushed.

This is no different than taxing interstate commerce because that's what it is. Authoritarian taxes shouldn't exist first place, but taxing interstate commerce has already been deemed off-limits. If we allow this to happen, physical interstate commerce could be next.

Anyway, who gets the tax money? Your current state? The state the business resides in? It'll be a huge fight if it becomes a reality.

FIRST POST!?

Man.. if sales over the net are taxed, I be fucked.

It's already expensive enough when you're lucky enough to be saddled with a currency worth less than half the US dollar, but throw taxes on top of it.. pain.

but you throw taxes in there and internet vendors are gonna have a much tougher time competing with prices

But wouldn't it be just a tad more fair? :-)

taxes and shipping screw that
internet dies

Internet taxes == no good.

Why did my first post get whacked?

Taxes?!?! We dont want no stinkin taxes!