One of the more sensible arguments, you pay taxes and receive services to your local and state government, the b and m stores want out of state companies to pay sales taxes while not receiving services.

Small business is already facing a magnitude of regulations that inhibit the primary function of business, to serve the population and make money while doing it. Simplify PLEASE

Obviously, this shows that any taxation is going to REDUCE business, and REDUCE revenue for the state.
The more states that do this, places like Amazon may drop their affiliate programs entirely. You know what it means? More money for Amazon from people buying directly from them instead of affiliates!
Completely backwards from the intent of the laws.

From what I’ve seen and heard, it seems like Congress folk have no idea what it takes to be an online retailer, they seem to think it can be just a guy in his basement putting nothing out, where a brick and mortar store needs buildings, employees, so on.
Well, guess what! An online retailer that handles more than, say 10 orders a week, needs huge buildings to store their stock, employees to sort it, and to package it, and employees to deal with customers. On top of that, they need to pay to ship it to people! That’s an expense that brick and mortar stores do not have. On top of that, the prices are still lower!
If anything, this sounds like CA is trying to divert revenue from online businesses and bring it back to local brick and mortar stores. Failure. Failure failure failure.. Talk about twisting laws for personal gain.

The only true solution is to some how come up with a flat internet rate, pay it to one place, which then sends the taxes to each state. Someone said that it would cause a major issue to have businesses pay out to 51 states. That’s not exactly true… Each county and even city can have a different sales tax percent which means you could end up sending out hundreds or more sales tax returns each month, quarter, or year depending on how you pay your sales taxes. This is impossible for even the biggest of companies… Let alone the small to medium size businesses. It has to be easy and at this point needs to be done. Everyone knows you need to pay your sakes tax on your tax return but we all know this doesn’t happen and has put the country and states in the mess we are in. It is a mixture of many peoples faukts, not just the banks. They may have allowed things to happen and put you in a home you could not afford, but who ultimately signed the loan docs and agreed to take the risk?

Technology today can calculate shipping costs in seconds for almost any location in the world. Ebay, Overstock and many others including NetChoice all maintain that multi-jurisdictional interstate sales tax calculation is too difficult, however all maintain vast computer infrastructures capable of keeping track of millions of global transactions including commissions, cost of goods, and even incredibly complicated Value Added Taxes, Provincial Taxes and many other taxes and fees across many different country borders. I assure you sales tax calculation, collection and remittance for online sales tax legally due is easily accomplished.

The Main Street Fairness Act will assist many businesses of all sizes to realize unknown profits making them more competitive. The online component of my business is in its infancy. After examining possible avenues of growth I was immediately confronted by the tremendous burden of tax collection and remittance in my own state as well neighboring states. I said to myself, “there has to be a better way!” So I turned to the Internet.

There is a simple solution: TaxCloud (http://taxcloud.net).

The statements by large Internet merchants and others continue to confuse me. My company now utilizes a PayPal checkout button seamlessly integrated with TaxCloud.net. Now my business is enabled to calculate, collect and remit sales tax for any jurisdiction in any state. It is simpler in most cases for my business to calculate and remit sales tax than to deal with shipping. If my business can manage to collect legally due sales tax simplifying my customer’s lives, why is it so hard for Ebay, Overstock and their affiliates as NetChoice claims?

Technology available freely on the Internet (like TaxCloud) is more than capable of seamlessly handling sales tax calculation and remittance. Sorry everyone, the “too burdensome” argument carried merit in 1967 and in 1992 (when SCOTUS last ruled on this matter), but in the era of modern computing where Ebay maintains a dominant position, multi-jurisdictional sales tax calculation and remittance is easily accomplished. TaxCloud accurately calculated sales tax for any jurisdiction for any state in less than 13 MILLISECONDS!

So what is the real reason Ebay and other companies choose to evade supporting our schools, hospitals, infrastructure, libraries, public parks and so much more by refusing to easily collect and remit sales tax legally due?

It is clear that the real burden of sales tax falls upon the consumer, and there is no burden to business of any size. Any business can easily calculate, collect and remit sales tax legally due utilizing modern technology while simultaneously realizing greater efficiencies and profit. Consumers truly benefit by eliminating the burden of having to track and remit sales tax due on Internet purchases.

The MSFA (Main Street Fairness Act) is proper legislation enabling states rights to collect sales tax legally due while maintaining states individual rights to tax independently. Remember the Boston Tea Party. Origin based sales tax fails to maintain state’s Constitutional autonomous taxing authority.

Unrealized to most consumers are the true costs of permitting and embracing the illegal practice of tax evasion. This year Connecticut enacted the largest tax increase in it’s history. The increase included eliminating clothing exemptions, raising the sales tax rate %.35, %1 on all luxury goods over $1000 and tax on alcohol went up %20. CT is not alone. West Virginia now taxes groceries to make up for lost sales tax revenues resulting from increasing convenience of online shopping. Rhode Island as well as doubled, that’s right a %100 increase, on all park entry and parking fees. Property taxes in states such as NY have increasing at an alarming rate to maintain funding primarily for education.

Lower income wage earners are actually the hardest hit. Without the means and available credit to participate in online sales their only option is to shop locally paying increased sales tax rates, such as in CT, paying the tax bill for those who selfishly continue to evade their tax obligations. More interesting is the fact that for every million dollars in sales a brick and mortar company provides 3.8 jobs, while large online merchants provide only .8 jobs for the same amount of sales. Tax policies are not created or imposed to provide segregation of businesses. The passage of the MSFA will level the playing field benefitting many businesses and workers in every state.

Sales tax is a fair and impartial tax billed directly to the consumer and in no way harms businesses when applied fairly and equally. Mall vacancy rates are now over %20 nationally and increasing as more brick and mortar stores continue to close their doors. As more stores close jobs are lost, homes are lost and…. you get the picture. The real burden is now upon the millions of small businesses who provide many more jobs and opportunities to find ways to compete with the large Internet retailers.

The real burden today is upon the consumer and the many small to medium sized businesses being consumed by misinformation. I discovered that by progressively employing modern technology my small start up business is now able to compete in any state without fear of nexus laws or affiliate relationships, and is more efficient and profitable. The Main Street Fairness Act will enable states rights to collect sales tax legally due providing much needed revenue, create and save many jobs, and most importantly permit states to eliminate other harmful taxing methods while simultaneously removing the many burdens confronting businesses today.

I applaud Amazon for their Integrity publicly supporting the Main Street Fairness Act.

do not collect taxes*

There is no solution because there is no problem. The commerce clause says and always has said that states cannot regulate interstate trade. The supreme court on more than one occasion has said that taxes are a regulation, therefore states cannot reach out across their borders into another state and withdraw revenue in the form of taxes. It’s not complicated. This is another time when everyone is running around with their hair on fire screaming about the founding fathers and the constitution yet they find that that very document doesn’t allowed them to put their hair brained ideas into play.
Sales taxes are regressive taxes anyway and they turn every business into an accounting house for the state. If they want to collect their taxes, let them collect it. Send everyone a bill but don’t put the burden of collection, reporting and payment on to the backs of every business in the country.

This is an easy one. Do I trust Facebook and Google more than the idiots who run our country? Yes. Is there anyone in Washington, DC who is not willing to tax anybody or anything so they feed their own agendas? No one I know of. Would I give a responsible job to someone who has consistently failed to a good job in the past? No. And if these morons cant competently manage the money they are given now, who in their right mind would give them more? Lets raise more money by dissolving both Houses of Congress and restructuring the election process; beginning with shorter terms of office and far less pay. It works for juries; why not Congress? The internet is fine the way it is; if it aint broke, dont fix it. The hilarious statement about fair competition made me laugh (something our country hasnt had since 1945). And taxes go a long way toward eliminating competition rather than creating it (study economics). If a tax was absolutely necessary (and I have grave doubts it is), the only compromise I would see of any value would be to only tax any business that was in the top ten per cent of the retail market on the internet. This way small businesses would not be affected and h burdened with an additional new tax. This, of course, would still impact consumers (especially the beleaguered middle class)and cause an increase in prices of practically everything sold on the internet across the board. These intellectual midgets in Washington don’t fully understand the ramifications of their tax ideas. They don’t follow the thread of the action all the way through where it hits the honest-working people of our country. Just like the same morons who want to plant an import tax on Chinese goods because they cant compete with the Chinese “because they dont play fair in captitalism”. That gave me my biggest laugh of the year. The only thing that would do would increase the prices across the board for lower and middle class Americans for the 90% of the clothes they buy in Walmart and other places; not to mention all the other products that the Chinese provide for us at reasonable prices. Talk is cheap. Saving the average American taxpayer money is far more important than harebrained tax schemes. When the motley crew in DC actually comes up with a scheme for that, then I would consider the possibility that they are actually working for the people, you know, the other 99% of us.

Best Regards,
Arthur H Tafero
Professor of Strategic Management
Jimei University, PRC

They dismantled the country for their own gains.
Redes de proteção

Why should people be taxed on what they buy and what they earn? It’s ridiculous. Tax one or the other. That would make things a lot simpler.