4 ms·

Cash-hungry states eye online retail for tax revenue

6 points by duck 16y ago

patio11 16y ago
Crimety, the LA Times has decided to become Demand Media with worse web design...
da5e 16y ago
I've found that whatever savings the prices of online goods offers is mostly offset by the ridiculously high "postage and handling" charges. And the handling charges are not consistent even for the same item. It's a scam.
- dangrossman 16y ago
  Unless you get Amazon Prime (which is free for a year if you have a .edu e-mail address). Free next-day shipping on the millions of items sold at Amazon. You can get your groceries, tools, electronics, home decor and furniture there, often cheaper than in stores... two days to your door for free.
chadmalik 16y ago
its not fair to store owners that online stores are tax free. level the playi g field.
- KevinMS 16y ago
  That's a very legit opinion, no idea why its getting down-voted.
JangoSteve 16y ago
Small online retailers argue that collecting and paying sales taxes to states would be difficult or impossible to manage, given the thousands of tax jurisdictions across the country, each with its own rates and rules for what items are taxable. Others counter that simple computer software can handle the task easily. This seems like it'd be a great opportunity for a new company (or how well does Quicken already do this?). And of course this would be the perfect time to get started, before these kinds of laws start going into effect in more and more states. As a consumer I feel like I'd much rather just pay sales tax to the retailer at the time of purchase rather than having to keep up with it and file it with my tax return (assuming those are my only two choices). But as a small online retailer that'd be such a pain having to pay taxes to 50 different states potentially.
rmc 16y ago
The European Union has a similar set up (since each country has a different VAT rate). it's simple here. You pay VAT in the country the website is in. If the company has substancial business in another member state, they need to charge that member state's VAT for those purchases (e.g. Amazon.co.uk charges the Irish VAT rate (of 21%) rather than the UK VAT rate of 15% if you are posting to Ireland)

6 points by duck 16y ago

Crimety, the LA Times has decided to become Demand Media with worse web design...

da5e 16y ago

I've found that whatever savings the prices of online goods offers is mostly offset by the ridiculously high "postage and handling" charges. And the handling charges are not consistent even for the same item. It's a scam.

dangrossman 16y ago
Unless you get Amazon Prime (which is free for a year if you have a .edu e-mail address). Free next-day shipping on the millions of items sold at Amazon. You can get your groceries, tools, electronics, home decor and furniture there, often cheaper than in stores... two days to your door for free.

chadmalik 16y ago

its not fair to store owners that online stores are tax free. level the playi g field.

KevinMS 16y ago
That's a very legit opinion, no idea why its getting down-voted.

JangoSteve 16y ago

Small online retailers argue that collecting and paying sales taxes to states would be difficult or impossible to manage, given the thousands of tax jurisdictions across the country, each with its own rates and rules for what items are taxable. Others counter that simple computer software can handle the task easily. This seems like it'd be a great opportunity for a new company (or how well does Quicken already do this?). And of course this would be the perfect time to get started, before these kinds of laws start going into effect in more and more states. As a consumer I feel like I'd much rather just pay sales tax to the retailer at the time of purchase rather than having to keep up with it and file it with my tax return (assuming those are my only two choices). But as a small online retailer that'd be such a pain having to pay taxes to 50 different states potentially.

rmc 16y ago

The European Union has a similar set up (since each country has a different VAT rate). it's simple here. You pay VAT in the country the website is in. If the company has substancial business in another member state, they need to charge that member state's VAT for those purchases (e.g. Amazon.co.uk charges the Irish VAT rate (of 21%) rather than the UK VAT rate of 15% if you are posting to Ireland)