Are You Ready For Internet Sales And Use Tax?

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Rumblings are being heard of a reintroduction of proposals to enable states to impose use and sales taxes on entities that do not have "nexus" or a location in the state.  That means if you live in Iowa and order from a catalog in Virginia that has no Iowa presence, you pay no Iowa tax.  The proposed changes to the commerce laws would let Iowa tax that sale.

Would that make much difference to you?  Do you order a lot online?  Would Amazon have to start deciding your tax?

In some areas, local governments can impose a local sales tax.  That may be defined by township or other small or obscure division which would be challenging for out-of-towners to tax accurately.  (I received a tax rebate from a company that was taxing me without authority.)

https://www.calt.iastate.edu/taxplace/internet-sales-and-use-tax-far-away

Would your state or locality like to add non-nexus sales taxes?  How would that affect your farming operation?

[sw363535]

Jim

Kansas would like any new tax on anything we can think of....... Even to the point of trying to rope and ride the internet.

It has got to make you smile a bit though (if there is any sarcastic humor in the corner of your mind)

Talk about the ultimate barn door open and all the livestock are gone senario........  For over 20 years.

Good luck lassoing that one.

[Kay/NC]

North Carolina already added the non-nexus taxes some time back, after a protracted legal wrestling match with amazon. Frankly, it does add that cost, but it doesn't level the plying field very much. Most of what we order is nicenonperishable food products, which are only taxed at 1%, I think. The gasoline to drive a 200-mile round trip to a store, where I would pay the same taxe, makes online ordering a no -brainer.

We are fifty miles or more from a decemt bookstore. I read, a LOT! You can't beat amazon's e- book deals, many free Prime members.

[sw363535]

Begs another question............. Are internet sales large enough for the effort..... Sales that cross state lines....... without a company presence in that state?  Many are taxes already.

Has there ever been an accounting?  or is the data used just Al Gore hype?  Will the swap shops like Craigs List be affected if they don't handle the $$$.  Apple books, songs....... pretty cheap sales.

My $2.99 a month to watch unlimited baseball will be hard to get rich on.   🙂

Big tickets get taxed on licensing ----- like cars.    Most are just matching sellers with buyers. ................. Surfing with "free form" thought here.

[Kay/NC]

No, but your threebucks times every 333,000 viewers is another million. Nothing gets done without there being cashflow to support it. Taxation of what we have gotten accustomed to having is low-hanging fruit for governments. We might tolerate a lot, but don't fool with our TV and dog licenses....

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

My guess is the littlel sales would add up pretty quickly.  If every household order $100 from Amazon at Christmas, bought $50 of songs each year, ordered many gifts for direct shipment - I bet it would be $500-$1000 a year from all sources for each family.  Pretty good chunk of money, and don't forget that more taxes means bigger government and the people pushing this are in favor of bigger government because it's their own agency they are expanding.

[Kay/NC]

Jim, that part about bigger government is precisely what I mean about EPA on the other thread. Each permit is another nail in the coffin of freedom. "Permit" implies " permission", which can be rescinded.

Not what my Revolutionary ancestors fought for, at all!

[sw363535]

Kay,

Well, another election is just around the corner so here comes the flow of "wealthy hate", "human activity blame", "capitalism the root of all evil" etc etc etc  movies and books to be named best sellers with or without sales, all in prep for the "Robin Hood" parade of guilt mongering.  I read two columns this morning on wealth inequity.....         Your comments were right on target.  

IMO we hear the inequity talked in terms of income and net worth, but the real "Easy fruit" is property....   In no other way is wealth inequity so extreme as it is in Property ownership.  And the EPA laws, applied as written, have given government jurisdiction over the use of private property.  My neighbor is reseeding his lawn without an environmental impact study.  He is 82 and thinks it is his yard.

Now,  It would be very Zimbabweian to just confiscate property and give it to the poor.---- Who would pay the pay taxes for them?  But that would fulfill our need to blame the rich and penalize them

But it looks like it will be very American to confiscate control of property through the permitting process, maintain a tax flow, and manage property use for the poor at the government level.  That would insure government jobs for the enlightened and reduce burdon on the ignorant masses.

Jim,

You are right..... pardon my previous sarcasm....

I can't understand why these economic cheats have been given a free pass for over 20 years.  It would have been easy to tax through the delivery system from the start.  Did we need all that paper wealth on the west coast to fund our political aspirations or were they turned loose for 20 years to finish off our "mom and pops" on main street?

Our beloved Apple has never been the stellar company in terms of manufacturing outsourcing, labor relations,  providing service, or even product reliability.  But has got to be leading the economic US business world in tax avoidance.  

We have been convinced that the world is entering a new realm of economic internet activity that reshapes the future and takes away the need for infrastructure.  It will live above the rules of present commerce.  Our government bought it.  Hook line and sinker.

If it were farmers trading like kind goods and services without a cash flow,  IRS would be going after it and back taxes.

Internet sales should be the same.--- say back to 2000.

I know of a couple of convenience stores out of business because they didn't get the fuel sales taxes paid just right. in the last few years.  Why is the internet trade any different?  Our intelligent elitests are not so smart.

[Kay/NC]

SW, I have dealt with "takings" of several types for roughly 25 years now. 

First, it was our right to farm on a farm in VA.  That was zoning abuse.

Then it was this permitting process in NC.  That is regulatory abuse.

Had a big battle over a road ROW in VA, which was an abuse of eminent domain.   

Right now, dealing with an employee issue that had started looking like another potential abuse of our family, but I am nipping it in the bud.  Even I have my limits. 

We have fought back to the extent possible.  It is expensive, in both monetary and life force costs, to do so.