Supreme Court Clears Way for Internet Sales Taxes

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Thanks for sharing.
This could have a big impact on us. A $5000 piece of gear with 10% tax now costs $5500.
$30,000 means $3000 in tax for high rate states such as mine.
Significant.

I wonder if they intend to get this ramrodded into effect before this Holiday season full of online purchases
 
OTOH, in California, we're supposed to pay "use fees" on most items we buy from online retailers that don't collect sales tax. I always pay those fees. For a couple of reasons. I take every tax deduction I'm entitled to take; only seems fair to pay every fee/tax I'm supposed to pay. And I like where I live; I'm happy to pay my taxes to keep this place great (yes, this isn't paradise. yes, the tax system is far from perfect). Also if I ever get audited, I want to emerge clean and free.
 
This will help us in the retail marketplace as well as all small retail that has been constantly loosing out to internet sales......even the playing field. Here in California, we do have the production tax which many take advantage of.....but we still have a group that, despite having the same price as online legit dealers, will still go for no tax. Also here, those who do not pay the tax are finding out when they go for and try and write down or depreciate their purchase, the state is going "no problem...by the way, where is the tax on this?"...and then they inform you that you'll have to pay the full tax...and often a 2nd Use tax that equals the full tax.....pretty much wipes out the deductions one is trying to get.....that's what I've been told by a quite a few clients.

Jim Martin
 
I wonder if this ruling is retroactive and will allow states to go after taxes owed on previous online purchases?
 
Jim Martin said:
This will help us in the retail marketplace as well as all small retail that has been constantly loosing out to internet sales......even the playing field. Here in California, we do have the production tax which many take advantage of.....but we still have a group that, despite having the same price as online legit dealers, will still go for no tax. Also here, those who do not pay the tax are finding out when they go for and try and write down or depreciate their purchase, the state is going "no problem...by the way, where is the tax on this?"...and then they inform you that you'll have to pay the full tax...and often a 2nd Use tax that equals the full tax.....pretty much wipes out the deductions one is trying to get.....that's what I've been told by a quite a few clients.

Jim Martin
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Agree with Jim. As much as I love not paying taxes when ordering online this levels the playing field for local businesses.
 
First of all people mostly don't go to stores to purchase not because of the sales tax but because of the inconvenience of sitting in traffic, parking i.e time wasting and time has become a precious commodity- now more than ever. Two is that local small businesses most likely don't have branches in other states, but what they do have is a web store that sells out of state. So what they "gain" by attracting the precious miniscule number of customers into their location they will lose on losing the online sales.
Verdict government- 1- businesses, customers- ZERO
I'm actually surprised that the very perceptive, intelligent community like this fell for it so easily.
Oh the power of propaganda hahaha- you ain't seen nothing yet!!!!!!
 
nutmegger said:
I wonder if this ruling is retroactive and will allow states to go after taxes owed on previous online purchases?
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I can pretty much guarantee that you were supposed to be paying your sales tax along with your state taxes at the end of the year. There may be a safe harbor exemption for low cost purchases up to a certain amount, but you were supposed to be keeping track of the state sales taxes that you owed and paying the state along with the rest of your taxes.
 
nutmegger said:
Get ready to pay more for your online purchases here in the USA.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ales-tax-for-online-purchases-nationwide.html

Enjoy, if you can.
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From a consumer perspective, this really doesn't change anything if you do things by the book (which granted, many do not). You were suppose to be paying use tax at the end of the year anyway. From a business buying perspective, If you are incorporated and registered to collect sales tax from your client (when applicable), then in most states you qualify for tax exemption on equipment used in production anyway (to avoid double taxation)

Thomas Smet said:
Agree with Jim. As much as I love not paying taxes when ordering online this levels the playing field for local businesses.
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You are looking at this wrong. Most small businesses operate online to avoid additional overhead, thats just the direction things are going...it's good business for most companies, big or small. That being said, large companies already have nexus in many states which forces them to charge sales tax for online sales. It's the small business that are only located in one state (but sell to multiple states) that are going to take a big hit because all of a sudden they are going to have much more complicated taxes to file and they are going to somehow offset the additional out of state sales tax that they have to collect from their customers.

For instance, I am based out of NJ but many of my wedding clients come to me from NYC. Previously I would tell them their wedding photography woudl cost $5K. Now I have to break it to them that it's going to be $5K and additionally I have to collect NY state sales tax. It makes me lose my competitive edge over NYC based photographers because most people don't end up paying use tax at the end of the year. If I was an small etsy shop, now i am losing an advantage to a "home goods" for instance.

Another question here is if I am going to have to start collecting sales tax on electronically delivered products. Up until now, salex tax is only collected on tangible deliverables (albums, DVDs, etc.) I'm not sure if this is changing, I would hope not.

All in all, I would say that this is going to hurt small businesses while large businesses won't feel much of an impact. I think sales and use tax should be low or non existent, however, if it's something that has to happen then what really should happen, is that there should be stricter inforcement of paying use tax and sales tax should be done away with. It's not good optics for a business when the price of their services or products seem inflated because we are doing the job of the governmetn by collecting their sales tax.
 
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Here in Europe it's been working like that for years, and no, I wouldn't say it helped brick-and-mortar sales up in a quantitatively relevant manner. Even if taxes are identical, I still buy most stuff online, it's usually cheaper (competition is fiercer), and it's definitely more convenient (and that's even though shipping companies here are a disgrace and it's a bit of a pain to actually get the stuff).
 
The taxes in Europe seem a little more streamlined, over here every state charges something different, most every county adds on to that in different amounts, then some cities add on to that... It's possible that a lot of online businesses will stop selling to some places, or will shut down due to the extra labor overhead. If it was a universal amount, reported and paid to a single clearinghouse, I would say that this won't be a problem. But that's not how it is going to work.
 
Gee, what a surprise... One branch of gov deciding that other branches of gov should have more power.

Just as predictable are the claims that this will make it "more fair" for local business. It will not. That is a fallacy. This decision by the black robed deities will greatly enhance municipal governments abilities to loot their local livestock... err citizens more thoroughly. To the contrary, small business competitiveness is greatly enhanced by the ability to sell online to folks in other states and significantly expand their market. The argument being made by some here is that local business's should be protected from competition. That is not fairness, it is the opposite. Fairness is greatly reduced, not expanded by this decision. Competing jurisdictions greatly benefit consumers and humanity in general. If the concern expressed here is truly for local business, then these business's should adapt to the market, not be protected from it.

This will work out quite well for Amazon, state governments, municipal government and their employees financial self interest. It will be a disaster for consumers, citizens and smaller online business' whose previous ability to compete will be severely diminished. It will hurt you.

I can't help but be reminded of the "Stockholm Syndrome" as I read the enthusiasm of some here for this tragic decision.

Government & Big business 135,890- U.S. citizens 0

P.S. Don't even get me started on tax breaks for production... ;-)
 
I don't see a state enforcing sales tax at the point of purchase to have a necessarily bad effect on online businesses as long as it is easy to implement. I mean, we were all breaking the law by not claiming the sales/use tax as consumers anyway. Of course, implementation will probably be a complete mess and end up like the 1099-K mess for people who were getting paid for services by paypal, etc.
 
hotchkiss said:
Gee, what a surprise... One branch of gov deciding that other branches of gov should have more power.

Just as predictable are the claims that this will make it "more fair" for local business. It will not. That is a fallacy. This decision by the black robed deities will greatly enhance municipal governments abilities to loot their local livestock... err citizens more thoroughly. To the contrary, small business competitiveness is greatly enhanced by the ability to sell online to folks in other states and significantly expand their market. The argument being made by some here is that local business's should be protected from competition. That is not fairness, it is the opposite. Fairness is greatly reduced, not expanded by this decision. Competing jurisdictions greatly benefit consumers and humanity in general. If the concern expressed here is truly for local business, then these business's should adapt to the market, not be protected from it.

This will work out quite well for Amazon, state governments, municipal government and their employees financial self interest. It will be a disaster for consumers, citizens and smaller online business' whose previous ability to compete will be severely diminished. It will hurt you.

I can't help but be reminded of the "Stockholm Syndrome" as I read the enthusiasm of some here for this tragic decision.

Government & Big business 135,890- U.S. citizens 0

P.S. Don't even get me started on tax breaks for production... ;-)
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This and what some others said here is spot on. I worked retail 20 years ago and it sucked for customers then--all the bullsh*t extended warranties, sales pressure, not in stock, hard to find, heavy to get home, parking, self-checkout, not enough people on the floor, etc. Today's stores are a nightmare and people shop online because the experience is generally amazing. Thinking that charging more TAX on citizens (god, I sound like a Republican from 2 years+) is going to "fix" local biz is (edit: not correct, imho) and I'm sad how easily people are conned. All of the good smaller camera shops went away years ago in my area...way before the internet was really a thing. In fact, had they survived Circuit City and Best Buy they might have carved out a niche selling online. Small business (retail) are basically dead thanks to Wally Worldmart and Target/The Depot/etc like 15-20+ years ago. All of those places pay sh*t, fight unions, hire 3 part-timers to avoid health insurance for a full-time employee. Wallymart employees get a ton of gov assistance (which is tax payer money mind you) because the Waltons choose not to pay them living wages, so we as citizens pitch-in via welfare programs to help the Walton family out. Otherwise, their employees wouldn't have enough food-energy to wander into work the next morning to treat customers like turds. That's just the most obvious, true, verified, well-documented & vetted example.

Awesome, less cash in our pockets!
 
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This talk about the local business owner fairness reminds me of the communist propaganda state TV when I was growing up in Poland. This is just the beginning guys and girls. Brace yourselves. I've lived through this in full swing...not pretty...The politicians already have their own retirement fund and health care. Nice bubble while they let the rest of us in the private sector battle it out and rot....all in the name of equality and democracy haha- what an utter mockery ...
 
I'm assuming this thread will get shut down now that it is devolving into politics. Taking politics out of it though, I think it is important to reiterate that the lack of online sales tax was not a loop hole, it was just the buyer not following tax law. If you did not end up paying the sales/use tax, you were cheating on your taxes and were lucky not to get audited. Forget whether this helps local businesses, online sales tax is needed to get people to actually follow the tax laws since it is obvious that most people were breaking them. Arguments about whether tax laws makes sense are a separate issue.
 
cpreston said:
I'm assuming this thread will get shut down now that it is devolving into politics. Taking politics out of it though, I think it is important to reiterate that the lack of online sales tax was not a loop hole, it was just the buyer not following tax law. If you did not end up paying the sales/use tax, you were cheating on your taxes and were lucky not to get audited. Forget whether this helps local businesses, online sales tax is needed to get people to actually follow the tax laws since it is obvious that most people were breaking them. Arguments about whether tax laws makes sense are a separate issue.
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You really don't get it do you:
This government mandate shifts the burden of tax collection and distribution on the small business-YOU. Not only you have to collect the tax and raise your prices but you have to distribute the tax to all the states in the US. Your overhead just went up who knows how much. So you raise the price again. How is that sensible, fair or logical to impose somebody's else's obligation on you? I'm stunned by some comments here TBH...
 
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