WebProNews

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Whenever your average joe schmo gets into a position of power they think there god and can do what ever it is they want. Cops, Politicians, Prosecutors, TV News Reporters, Your Parents, Priest, Teachers and Gang Bangers.

Cops: I have had nothing but bad experience's my whole life and I am no criminal. They will lie, cheat, or steal to get what they want.

Politicians: They all lie and cannot be trusted. The presidency election needs to stop being called a race, the only races I know of are all fixed.

Prosecutors: They are out for blood and slave labor. Every goverment needs some sort of slave to help sustain its economy better. Not many people know this so lets keep the next part as quiet as possible, the goverment makes the laws that creates the criminals. The more criminals and laws you have the more profit your country will make.

TV News Reporters: When will they actually start reporting stories that they write. I'm really tired about hearing  when brittney spears throws a tantrum, thats your local news though. You better off to buy the dam enquirer, atleast its entertaining. Also, The local news stations in Arizona have so much bias towards the democratic candidates its unbelievable.

This is part of an article (rant) I am writing for http://www.arperture.com and you can read the rest there.

Washington State is gearing up to do the same thing. The excuse that they came up with was hilarious. (It is Unfair to the brick and mortar merchants who advertise and display products and then lose out to online merchants.)

This state will start it out by having all Washington merchants collect taxes based on the purchaser’s home address (county). After the wrinkles are ironed out they plan on shifting over to out of state commerce for additional revenues.

It will take a company the size of Amazon to survive the bookkeeping and tax collecting burdens. There is no way that I would be able to do it and I would have to cease all internet sales and go completely out of business.

Perhaps taxes wouldn’t seem so bad and pointless if at least a part of it got spent for something worthwhile.

We need to be careful about how online taxes are conducted.  If New York starts taxing non resident affiliates, That means those affiliates are being taxed by more than one state. That means the state that has a governing presence on the affiliate and a state that does not.  (I can't see where that should be considered legal.) 

Can you just imagine, if this is allowed, how it would destroy internet marketing?  The multiple taxation of different governments on one sale would destroy the profit of the sale. Not only that, but, being an affiliate of a company required to collect taxes on your sales for a state that has no governing presence over you.  That's called taxation without representation people.  And  wouldn't you terminate business with that company? I would!

I like the old way. Pay taxes to the state and local governments where your business has a physical residence. Pay taxes to the federal government. It's simple and common sense.

I agree that sales tax should be paid at the point of sale.

But beyond that, It seems that we have the whole tax thing upside down. All tax should be paid to our most local tax/government entity, probably the city or berg in which you live or work.

All "higher" tax entities -- state and federal -- should receive their share of that tax from the entity just below it. For instance, the cities would finance their counties, who would finance their states, and the states would finance the feds. All state and federal taxes should not be paid by invdividuals or companies directly, but through their constituent tax entities. This would contribute toward local democratic control of taxing.

States should not have to go to the feds for money, nor should cities have to go to the state. We have it upside down. Rather, the feds should have to go to the states, and the states should have to go to the counties, who would in turn go to the cities, who would go to the individuals and companies that reside therein. That way there would be no taxation without representation, which is what will happen when the Internet is taxed.

A totalitarian government is characterized by political authority, which is the authority to tax, that exercises absolute and centralized control. Real democracy requires decentralization.

Guys...let the economists figure out what should be taxed and what should not, so that commerce is not unduly affected and enough money is collected to do what we need it to do.  Anybody who thinks they can have any kind of reasonable life without paying taxes for roads, schools, law enforcement, medical oversight and care, etc, etc is just a d**ned fool.  Good economists understand the elasticity of demand with respect to price of different goods and services, and only falter when politicians get into the fray.

I love the internet, because I can shop at a plethora of retailers (even wholesalers) in a short time and not have to drive all over the countryside to waste time and fuel. Sales tax is a small part of the equation.  Freight (shipping) is getting worse and worse for a lot of reasons.  Also, some sellers use the shipping and handling line to make all of their money, like Sears did with the catalog before they lost their minds in the early 90's.

The internet also has allowed prices of a lot of the things I want to fall because so many people can see a lot more information about competitive pricing (like on eBay, Amazon, etc.) and because perceived scarcity is disproved, making some not willing to pay as much, since there are more available than was thought. 

I think New York will have a tough time collecting from out of state sellers, but all states will have to do something as internet sales continue to grow.  The question is obviously beyond most of us, and should be decided by impartial people who truly understand economics.  Fair and equal taxation is what is needed, and if we pay as we spend, rather than as we are paid, we won't have this big tax preparation business and so many tax cheaters and tax incentives (loopholes) that only the rich can exploit. Depends on the execution.

Do the Amazon affiliates in New York make that much money for Amazon?  If not, I could see Amazon just just restricting the affiliate program to every state except New York.

This from the state that allows Indians reservations not to charge sales tax on cigs and gas.  Some of you speak of an unfair advantage against brick and mortar retailers - why is it then NYS does not enforce its own tax laws?  Did someone say political correctness??

NYS Dept. of Taxation officials go to such lengths as recording the license plate numbers of NY cars at NJ malls.  They have set up road blocks and sting operations on the VT state ine to catch regular folks who seek to save a few bucks on a carton of cigs.

NYS has a instatiable appetite for tax dollars.  Ask any producer who lives here.  Taxes are unAmerican and I applaud anyone who figures out a legal way to avoid paying them. 

Keep the internet tax free.

The "right" thing to do.... the fair thing to do is to impose state sales taxes based on the customer's delivery location. The real problem is that to do so is to put an unreasonable burden on the merchants to manage the collection and remittance of a multitude of different state tax rates (not to mention other individual local taxes that might piggy back on the state tax). 

Having said that, I believe there is a real legal argument against any jurisdiction imposing anything on the residents and merchants of another jurisdiction.

The only way I see to handle these problems is when and if this country ever drops the income tax and replaces it with a national sales tax, then perhaps the feds could have merchants report by state the taxes collected and the feds would pass those taxes to the respective states. This of course would work best if there is only one tax rate imposed and not different rates for different states. I suppose this would have to be a separate interstate commerce tax collected at the same time as the federal sales tax.

The scary thing about having congress set up such a system is that they don't know how to keep things simple. Eventually the whole system will become a quagmire of special provisions, diversion of funds to benefit Senator Bird's save the rocks project and other special interests.

Okay, so you want to escape government taxation and live with the consequences? Great. Get ready for higher taxes in everything else, from the newspaper to the grocery store to the gas pump, and everything else that depends on government taxation and regulation. Face it, folks, taxation is the way we fund the government, and if you don't fund the government, the government will find ways to fund itself. I'd rather pay it up front, so I know where the money is going and how it will be spent, than let the government find covert (and potentially illegal) ways to gather their revenues.

I guess I'll have to purchase online from Mexican companies, and let's see if NYS can collect sales taxes from them!

The bottom line is that the State of New York loses millions of dollars of tax revenue every year to internet dealers that hid behind the shield of the internet at the expense of every single brick and mortar business in the state.  Every dollar that is lost must be regained or cut from this lost revenue has to come from in state residents through higher taxes or cut services because the internet dealers Amazon, E-bayers and others fail to contribute to the local economies of the places they take funds out of because of the legal issue of where the commerce actually takes place. 

New Yorks position is that it takes place at the point of purchase - where the goods are shipped to - to ensure they get their piece of the pie and protect the businesses in their communities.  I only hope they win, and the other 50 states follow suit.