Blu-ray-collect

I apologize for posting this here, but in case there are folks from Colorado who are not aware: As of March 1, 2010, the State of Colorado will be asking out-of-state on-line retailers (ie amazon.com), that make more than $100k/year, to keep track of how much you spend. At the end of the year, they will ask those retailers, who do not already collect sales tax, to send both the buyer and the State of Colorado Dept of Revenue a total so they can calculate the sales tax we did not pay. Then, we have to write a check to the state by April 15th, 2011 or suffer a 10% penalty for the unpaid sales tax.

Details about the tax can be read here:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...74/detail.html

Yes, I know we are already supposed to pay sales tax, but this is a way of Colorado to enforce it.

Moopher

This should be in the store forum...if there isn't already one in there.

LosingMyMind

Sounds like a good idea.

Abob Teff

And why would an online retailer comply with this? It isn't like collecting sales tax where they get to keep a (small) percentage. It would discourage Colorado residents to shop with them if the resident knew that the retailer was turning over this information. There is more incentive for the retailer NOT to cooperate.

DVD Josh

I've always thought these things are of questionable legality. I'm sure we'll see a SC hearing about it at some point.

Groucho

How does one become a "citizen" of Colorado? Is there a written test where you have to know details of famous Coloradans like Molly Brown and Trey Parker?

Blu-ray-collect

Seriously? Ugh...OK. From "dictionary.com":


cit·i·zen
   /ˈsɪtəzən, -sən/ Show Spelled[sit-uh-zuhn, -suhn]
–noun
1.
a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection (distinguished from alien).
2.
an inhabitant of a city or town, esp. one entitled to its privileges or franchises.
3.
an inhabitant, or denizen: The deer is a citizen of our woods.
4.
a civilian, as distinguished from a soldier, police officer, etc.

Groucho

Anybody remember these:

Dexter Douglas

I still see them around town. It looks like Amazon is pulling ALL advertising from CO as a result of this. I got an e-mail this morning from them telling me that they were closing my affiliate account with them over this. It's absolutely idiotic.

Only a politician could come with a way to fark up getting sales tax from online retailers. Wouldn't it be easier to just require all online outlets to charge tax for CO purchases? Instead, you're going to make the retailer still keep track of what I buy, then send both of us a statement at the end of the year and we get to cut the state a check? Was Yakety Sax playing while they were figuring out this bill?

WallyOPD

It might be easier to do that, but Colorado would have no way to enforce a law like that (although I'm not sure how they expect to enforce this law either).

Dexter Douglas

That's pretty much my point. They have a better chance of actually collecting on the taxes if the sites collect at the point of sale as opposed to pissing off taxpayers when they get a bill and ignore it.

I wish I hadn't deleted the Amazon e-mail, but it asserted that this bill is actually unconstitutional. They said they'd be more than happy to comply with the state of CO if they'd gone about this in what they called "a legal manner".

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

Seeing as it's tax time, you should know when doing state taxes.

States usually tax outside of state purchases but people don't usually report it. This is just trying to get the info from companies and if they do get it, they can enforce it. If they don't have numbers, they can't tax it.

WallyOPD

The Supreme Court has ruled that a state can't force a company to collect sales tax if the company doesn't have a physical presence in that state. That's why Colorado's law doesn't try to force them to collect the tax directly. I'm just not sure why they think the companies will bother spending the time and money to prepare these lists to send to the state.

I realize that they're trying to get the numbers, I'm just saying that I'm not sure how they plan on enforcing this new reporting requirement on companies that don't have a physical presence in the state.

Deftones

hopefully Amazon stands up to them and tells the state of Colorado to F off.

fujishig

The New York workaround to this was to tax them because of the local affiliates, which is presumably why they cut off CO affiliates and are going to challenge this. They did the same to Hawaii.

CA is going the NY route, hoping that the affiliates in CA are numerous enough to get Amazon to think twice about pulling out to avoid the taxes. However, the local affiliates put enough pressure on Arnold that he has vetoed it every time.

cdollaz

It's all part of Walmart's plan to rule the world.

hindolio

i think id rather have amazon rule the world

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I think they know they can't enforce companies in other states to hand over numbers. They're just asking, then the enforcement starts.

WallyOPD

Yes, but they've asked the companies to collect the sales tax directly without success. So my question is why would they expect this request to be handled any differently?

dx23

North Carolina is pulling a similar bullshit on Amazon.com and it's customers and affiliates.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20003065-38.html

fujishig

but worse, with them wanting 8 years of data. That's a lot of back taxes. Already being discussed in the political forum too.