MooMooMooMoo

I don't know the day this is going into effect.

FYI:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/suprem...95365697899871

rduncan

Initially I saw several postings on how Amazon (until recently) was cheating States of Tax Money, etc. Then more recently I've been seeing how are mom and pop type sellers on Etsy, for example, going to handle the few sales they make on their home made craft type items. I can see eBay implementing something to assist sellers but there are many small sellers that are screwed (if they comply). Plus I wonder if sellers are responsible only for State Taxes, for those that have that tax, or also County/City amounts as well. New Mexico has a Gross Receipts tax and the rate varies throughout the state from 5.125% to 8.6875% depending on the location of the business. In these troubled times we live in......

Decker

Oh shit....

AGuyNamedMike

Wait, thread title should be corrected from

Internet Companies Must Charge

to

States Can Collect

But yeah, end of an era.

Josh-da-man

Six of one, half dozen of the other...

MooMooMooMoo

As an (almost former) net indy retailer, your concerns are spot on. Wa state, where I live has a system where I have to track & report every in state sale individually by Zip Code (each city has a different tax rate). I used to pay an accountant more than I owed the state!! to deal with the paperwork. As my business is 98% dead, it's not a big deal for me at this time. I do suspect I will not accept orders from sales tax states in the future as this gets implemented, though.

I agree, we will likely be left with a few more ebays & Amazons & very few indies. I thought this country's economics were built on competition?

MooMooMooMoo

Sorry for the typo in the title!

g

it doesn't really affect very small sellers. You need $100,000 in sales to South Dakota or 200 sales to South Dakota to be affected. Other states will have to have similar rule or go to Supreme court with new case to lower this.

zyzzle

Does this mean that Ebay is now required to collect state tax on ALL sales?

If so, holy shit, and it makes much, much less sense to shop online now. Of course, Amazon "got the ball rolling" 5 or 6 years ago in Calif, which is when my Amazon buying dropped practically to zero.

Nail in the coffin for Internet sales, and hopefully this will boster B&M stores to get them back into the fold.

If the Supreme Court could find a way to tax goods and servies at 90% they'd do it. Collusion, graft, and greed extends to the highest court in the land.

We'll all rue the day not too far into the future, when state sales taxes are at 15 - 20% and this forced collection will make the 1990s - 2000s seem like the Wild West days.

It happened years ago in Euope -- I think VAT is 17.5% there, and the states will now covenienty raise taxes to get the US there, too.

Trevor

Nail in the coffin for internet sales? You’re not seriou.....oh, I see.

ben12

The selection sucks in most B&M stores these days. I buy online more to get what I actually want for a fair price than anything else.

Troy Stiffler

Nobody cares about internet sales tax. It's easier to buy and gets delivered to your door. And the tax collection data has become so easy to handle, there's no reason to not charge sales tax.

It's a good time to be Avalara. Exquisite positioning.

zyzzle

Don't get your comment. What is Avalara?

And, you don't care to be charged an essentially 10% surcharge on all your online purchases now?! Must be nice, must be nice....

fumanstan

Yeah, it won't do shit.

Troy Stiffler

Avalara is the biggest/best tax automation software around. They're basically the "big data" that can be applied to any eCommerce business, from a home based business to big box retail. It automatically picks up which packages ship to/from which zip codes, automatically submits tax payments, integrates with almost every eCommerce platform, etc.

Now that the government is locking it down, small businesses can no longer ignore sales tax filings. If your 1099-K's are for $500k, you're listed as a retailer, and you don't pay sales tax anywhere, that's suspicious.

Amazon has been in Arizona for a long time. And I do buy products at the store (gasp!) too. I don't remember a time when they weren't charging sales tax. Online buyers (and sellers) have been circumventing sales tax for twenty years. I remember when I first started in eCommerce, I was floored by the idea that you don't have to pay tax unless you happen to ship within your state. It's always seemed like cheating to me.

I suppose I'm not a big shopper. But if I buy a $500 TV from Amazon, and have to pay $40 sales tax, that is all part of buying that TV. I don't feel cheated having to pay the tax.

The whole concept of pricing "now vs then" is too big to understand. How much do you save buying from a warehouse? Shipping? Inflation? If a $10 item costs $9 in 2000, and $10 + $1 tax now, is that really a big deal? How much of a markup does the retailer actually have? Will people stop buying the product online, now that it has 10% sales tax applied?

BobO'Link

I've never understood why you don't just pay sales tax for the state or town in which the vendor is located. If I go to Memphis and purchase something I pay Memphis sales tax, not the sales tax for my home town in Arkansas. I don't get to "get off" in Memphis and then file some form in AR and pay the local tax or show proof of AR residence and then pay that sales tax when shopping in Memphis. Why should internet sales be any different? Doing it that way would greatly simplify things. Sure, I'd pay taxes in some areas that are higher than my local taxes - but others might be less. That's just how it works when I purchase outside my home town in person.

Yeah... I know... it's all politics. Our local mayor constantly screams that local tax revenues are down because of internet sales. He, like many politicians, are clueless and have their collective heads in the sand (or another nether region). Local tax revenues are down because local vendors don't offer everything people want or at a price they'll accept (and I'd guess more the former than the later). I know I'd buy more locally if I could get what I want/need, but I can't so I shop the internet for those items.

Put the taxes where they belong. In the hands of the town in which the internet shop owner lives. Maybe then you'd see towns/cities make efforts to attract/encourage those type of businesses. Heck... maybe you'd finally see a reduction in sales taxes as everyone scrambles to compete with those states which have no sales tax.

Or just create another useless/unneeded government entity to collect a flat "US sales tax" and distribute it based on population density. Shouldn't cost much more than they'd collect.

I don't get "sales tax" at all. It's a regressive tax and should be eliminated in favor of one balanced to income/family size. Oh... wait... that one's screwed up too!

Viper187

How can these idiots expect to enforce the shit anyway? They're not going to spend money to extradite out of state ebay sellers over not turning in sales tax. It's ridiculous. SCOTUS has their heads up their asses, as usual.

Nick Danger

There is already a law that allows prosecution of anyone whose website is used by a prostitute. Have you noticed that Craigslist simply got rid of the personal ads rather than risk it?

It would be easy to craft a similar law that would allow the prosecution of a website for hosting people who sell goods and services without paying sales tax. The enforcement would be performed by the websites. Ebay, Etsy, and Amazon Marketplace would charge the buyers sales tax.

Viper187

Hard to believe nobody has ever made a proper challenge to those bullshit prostitution laws. The same arguments that keep abortion legal should've been used to strike down prostitution laws ages ago. A woman should have the right to do what she wants with her own body...including selling access to the fun parts.

Nick Danger

I give money to an organization that has been fighting FOSTA-SESTA, among other things.

DVD Polizei

The writer of this ZDNET article must have their head up their ass as well, because there is no way in hell these B&M stores will benefit, as if they have the same amount of stock as online competitors.

B&Ms have failed. Their management has failed. Their CS has failed. They failed on purpose.

Even with tax implemented, I still wouldn't shop at a B&M store on a regular basis.

Viper187

Exactly. I'm eagerly awaiting Gamestop's downfall, and I'm glad Kmart is finally gone. BB doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but their stores fucking suck. I'm surprised Barnes and Noble isn't going down faster too.

thetao

FYI, this issue isn't totally settled. New Hampshire and other sales tax-free states are considering their options, some of it on a national level:

https://www.nhbr.com/July-20-2018/NH...les-tax-fight/

PhantomStranger

eBay will be the real loser when this gets implemented across the country. Half the reason eBay is even competitive is its largely tax-free advantage over traditional net retailers like Amazon.

Outlets like Deepdiscount and ImportCDs lose almost all their price advantage when they start charging tax everywhere. It's going to wipe out the DirectToYou net fronts in media.

Viper187

DD is fucking garbage anyway. I've always hated that joint. It only ever got worse over the years.

I just hope this doesn't go into effect across the country for a while. Most sites are already fucking me cause I'm in PA, but at least ebay and a few others are still ignoring it.