tru-blue 442

Well, I guess it was just a matter of time.
They passed it.

jaunty75

It ain't a done deal yet. The Senate passed it. It has to be passed by the House, too, and resistance there is higher. It will probably pass in some form in the end, but I don't think it's a certainty.

tru-blue 442

^^^My thoughts exactly.

lshlsh2

They will at some point. The goverment is losing to much money, they need more money to waste. Hope that wasn't to political.

Larry

69'442

What does that mean for epay sales? Everything you sell you have to collect tax.

tru-blue 442

Believe it or not Evil-hay are some
of the top ones who are stongly against.
It is a question of $23,000,000,000 Dollars
annually that is at stake! Yes, billion.

jaunty75

If it passes, ebay, Amazon, and all the other online-only retailers will have to collect sales tax. Amazon has long opposed this, but their position has softened recently. Ebay still opposes it, and it's no surprise that it does.

Right now, Amazon, Ebay, etc. have an advantage over retailers with physical store locations in many or all states like Sears, Walmart, etc. in that Sears and Walmart have to collect sales tax, and Ebay and Amazon don't. That gives the latter two an advantage, so it's no wonder they oppose this law.

The online retailers cry that it will be too complicated to have to collect a different sales tax in every state and perhaps every county in every state. But Walmart and Sears already have to do this with their online sales as they have a physical presence in every state, so that argument would seem to hold no water.

Opposition to this bill comes mostly from people who feel that, regardless of its merits or how much it would level the playing field between the brick-and-mortar versus online-only retailers, it's just more taxes that have to be paid. No one really opposes it on its merit as it really IS unfair to the local mom-and-pop stores, as well as the big-box retailers, that they should have to charge their customers a tax that other retailers don't.

By the way, as I've said before, this is not a NEW tax. The argument that all of this is just because the "government needs more money" is kind of hollow because this is money the government already should be getting without having to impose new taxes.

It has already been law for many years in many states that you are supposed to total up your mail-order and out of state internet purchases each year, fill in the amount on your state tax return, calculate the sales tax owed, and pay it. But most people don't do this, and the states haven't enforced it. This would be a way, and probably a better way in that everyone who makes such purchases would have to pay it, to enforce that tax.

jaunty75

I could be wrong, but I would guess not, at least not for the small sellers who are just cleaning out their attic and selling the occasional item. My guess is that ebay will handle the collection and remittance of the sales tax for these types of sales as part of the paying-for-the-auction process.

But this won't be universally true because there are already many commercial retailers who also sell items on ebay, and these companies already collect sales tax from you if you happen to live in a state where they have a physical presence. I know I've paid sales tax at times on ebay purchases.

Nilsson

Here is the real rub, not only do you pay taxes on the items but you still have to pay shipping. That was the real reason for not charging tax was to level the playing field because of shipping costs. I wonder on E-BAY if the average Joe will have to charge tax. I know auctions in Ohio tax is not charged if held on the owners premises. If in a auction house tax is charged.

Redog

That sucks!!

I bought something for my son a few years ago, and it was $2.60 for shipping (it was a Step 2 Chalk board) and I was like "OK cool! I'll pay the $2.60 for shipping and no sales tax, then on the final page is was like.

Item: $30.00
Shipping : $2.60
PA sales tax : 6%

It didn't even give me the option to back out and didn't tell me until AFTER I hit "confirm"

I guess buying stuff from Summit just got more expensive.

I heard that the government want people to pay sales tax in both states. The state you buy the item in, and the state you live in!!

jaunty75

Let's have a reality check here. 6% of $30 is all of a $1.80. You would have backed out of the sale for a buck eighty?



Heard from where? I've not seen this anywhere. It's going to be hard enough to get this to pass the House as it is, and the last thing supporters would want is for it to double tax people. That would assure its defeat.

ELY442

You gotta love America.

jaunty75

As I've been saying....



Internet sales tax bill faces tough sell in House

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130507/DA64I47G0.html

chrismcgurk

if Obama is for it,congress will kill it

Redog

Yes I would have. It's BS that I wasn't told about the tax until I was already charged. Could have bought it at the store and saved the $2.60 in shipping



Heard from where? I've not seen this anywhere. It's going to be hard enough to get this to pass the House as it is, and the last thing supporters would want is for it to double tax people. That would assure its defeat.[/QUOTE]

I heard it a long time ago on another forum. Wasn't backed up with proof. It might have been somebody just talking aloud.

So if I buy tires from Tire Rack, and pick up in their warehouse in TAX FREE Delaware, do I still have to pay sales tax in Pennsylvania? (Although I already asked them about pick-up and they said no)

How will this apply to the city tax rate? Pennsylvania is 6%, but Philadelphia adds an extra 2%. Although it's only pennies, I HATE the way Philly is ran in City Hall, so whenever I can, I avoid buying stuff in the city. It also helps that I live on the city line.

Redog

You would think Obama would have figured that out by now and just dislike every bill he does like

jaunty75

They're right. This law would apply only to internet and mail order sales, where the person doing the purchasing is in one state and the merchant is in a different state. When you buy those tires in Delaware, you are doing it IN PERSON, not via the mail or internet, so the tax is whatever applies at the point of the sale. In this case, with no sales tax in Delaware and buyer and seller both present there, no tax is charged. But if you sat at home in Pennsylvania, called or emailed Tire Rack to order or visited their website to order, and the items were shipped to you in PA, then, yes, you would owe sales tax under this proposed law.

This is true in many states, where the state has a base sales tax rate, and each county can add on something for themselves, so one county will be, say, 7.125% while another is 6.75% and so on. I'm guessing that merchants will have to deal with this.

But like I said in an earlier post, Wal-Mart and Sears, among others (like J. C. Penney, Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, the list goes on), ALREADY have to charge a sales tax on every online sale they make because they have a presence in every state or almost every state. So they already know how to do it, so all of these companies like Amazon and Ebay, who claim it will be just a "nightmare" trying to collect a different tax for each jurisdiction, are full of it. This is what computer software is for. You program in the tax rates, for example by zip code, and it does the rest.

My point is, there may be valid reasons to oppose this law, but difficulty in implementation is not one of them.


As far as what's going on with the passage of this law, the latest I've read is that, not only is there opposition in the House of Representatives, but Speaker John Boehner hasn't yet scheduled a vote on it, and he doesn't seem in any hurry to. He's apparently waiting until whatever House committee sees the bill first is done with it, and they apparently want to make lots of changes. Then it would have to be reconciled with the Senate version, and who knows if it would ever get to a point that both houses could agree.

I now predict this bill ultimately never becomes law.

Redog

There are sooo many other things that need to be done BEFORE they screw around with this.

It's kinda like buying brand new rims and tires, for a car that doesn't run