Internet Sales Tax Bill

Lawmakers are trying to sell the idea that the small business will benefit from this law. That is not true, the small retailers will be hurt the most. In my community we have a couple of specialty stores one for musical instruments and the other deals with sewing materials. In both cases it its a family business that does 90% of their business over the Internet. The amount of the tax will not deter people from buying from them but the paper work to be registered to collect the tax in each community and figuring out how much to charge will drive them from the business. They are going to have to hire an accountant or lawyer almost 1/2 time just to keep up with the changes in the laws and filing procedures for between 9000 and 11,000 different tax districts. I have a small business and have to pay sales tax quarterly. It takes me about 15 to 20 minutes plus about 2.5% of the bill to pay the tax through a special Internet site. I have to file even if there is no tax due. How many thousands of dollars is it going to cost me in to pay an accountant or in lost time from my business every year just to file the sales tax forms? At what point is it not worth being in business?

It will be up to the seller to know all the laws and what tax to charge. What happens if the seller forgets to charge you or charges the wrong amount and in a year or two the state gets around to looking into the seller and finds that you paid less or no tax on an item you purchased can the state come after you for failure to pay your taxes and hit you with back taxes and fines? If they know you did not pay in one case could they go after your online records and see if you have any more "Unpaid taxes"? Some states ask you on your income tax form for the amount of out of state purchase that may be subject to sales tax in your home state. If you have avoided sales tax on the Internet they could go after your credit card purchases and charge you with filing a false tax return, and not paying sales tax and again hit you with back taxes and heavy fines. Right now it is too costly to go after you for the out of state purchases and they have no probable cause but this law could open up that issue and states may find it worth their while to do so.

The people who are pushing this are the Big Chain Stores. They are doing it to eliminate competition. Just like many of the super rich they have got theirs and don't want to give any to competition. I see the Internet as a change in the business model and it gives the little guy a chance to make some money. My fear with this is that government will get greedy and start to want sales tax at the point of sales or event the point of shipment so you the consumer could end up paying sales tax in several different locations and having to file tax returns with each local to get your money back so you only pay tax once. My brother was an an economic council for a large city and they had a major Internet distribution center and they were considering a way to tax every order that left the center just like they tax people who purchase in that city even if they don't live there. My brother, the lone person with business experience, pointed out that if that were the case the company could simply move to a different city or state costing several hundred semi skilled jobs to the community. These were decent paying jobs with benefits. Units of government need to take a serious look at how they spend the money rather than always looking for ways to raise more money. You are right we do need to look at the money trail for these politicians and make it more transparent. One thing pointed out in the 2012 election most large corporations give to both sides to gain access to the politicians no matter who wins. Voters have to keep them selves informed by more than talking points and realize that Mr Smith can give a million dollars to Senator Jones but Mr Smith still has only one vote just like you and me. Good points Debater.