Online shopping tax?
 

My argument is that I have to pay for shipping so added tax will stop me from shopping online.
It is already cheaper to shop at stores except for web sites like Connecting Threads.
Keepsake Quilting will lose me for sure.

The other side of that is your state needs revenues. If you shop out-of-state via the internet, you are depriving your state that income. No business wants to collect taxes. They do so because of the law. I saw a study recently on what the various states are losing because of not having taxes on internet sales. It is significant. If they do not get the revenue from one source, they will get it another way, or they will have to cut services.
I owned a retail business if Florida and we formerly had to pay for the privelege of collecting taxes for the state. It was a nominal amount ($25), but never the less if we wanter to be in business!

I live in Illinois and when I did our state taxes this year you had to add an amount to pay for internet and out of state sales based on your income. It did not matter if you bought over the internet or not, you could not leave the line blank.

However, it is the FEDERAL government trying to initiate a tax on internet sales by businesses. If the STATE needs the revenue, it will not end up with it!! The STATE, based on its laws, should be able to charge if they need the revenue. They do have other avenues to collect the tax...if the business has a Sales Tax #, then the business has to report ALL sales no matter where made. Then they have to pay a % of the sales into the STATE government...as least this is the way it operates in my state.

taxes are already to high in AZ.
The Government waste is very high also so I dont care that they want more and more taxes.
Give us a break.

I love going to Keepsake because New Hampshire has NO SALES TAX. Of course they do have a high rooms and meals tax, which is how they got me last month when we went there for an overnight trip and stayed in a motel. Ate a couple meals there, too, but it was worth it for a lovely weekend. As someone said, it's the Fed that's talking about taxing internet sales, that is a different story. If you pay income tax when it comes in (those of us who aren't millionaires who can avoid taxes) it doesn't seem right to pay more when you spend your money.

When you buy online, if the vendor has a "presence" in your state, i.e. a warehouse, call center, office, then they are REQUIRED to collect sales tax. If you purchase something online, and don't pay the SALES tax, you still have the liability to your state for USE tax, which is complementary to a sales tax, and is a tax on the privilege of USING the goods (versus the privilege of SELLING the goods). You have that liability, however, unless you voluntarily pay it to the state, then the state has to find the transaction, and find you to give you the tax bill.

Unless you live in a state that has no Sales/Use tax, such as NH or OR, and about 3 others, then you actually still have that liability.

When you buy in a store, it doesn't matter where YOU live, just where the sale takes place - Location of the store determines sales tax rate.

I just don't think the majority of people will pay the overcharged shipped fees along with sales tax. They will eventually drift away unless there is something they can't buy locally.

I import a lot of fabric from the US , and our tax here is 20% on all imports , so altho you have sales tax I believe ours has to be the most expensive :) but luckily , even with postage the fabric still works out cheaper than buying here :)

I don't mind paying taxes. It's where our tax dollars go to that bothers me.

NO TAX WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!...WHICH WE DON'T HAVE IN WASHINGTON THESE DAYS. WE ARE TAXED TO DEATH. For the lady in Illinois, can't believe they tax you on something you did not spend....definitely illegal taxation.
I would put a penny in the blank. Ridiculous!
D in TX

Exactly!!!!! But I'm going to leave this thread, because if I continue, I'm sure I will be banned for language!!

Now that just plain out stinks!

Beside the sales tax (which is not final), companies are now allowed to add between 3%-5% for credit card purchases. They must post upfront if there are two prices, one for cash and one for credit cards. I don't think I remember how to use cash and only write checks when absolutely necessary. Seems like we're going backwards.

I personally run an online store, and am deeply opposed to being forced to collect sales taxes on out-of-state purchases. Collecting sales taxes on the few in-state sales we make are bad enough, and we get to pay almost $400/year for the privilege of collecting them, between our state and county business licenses.

If they pass an online federal sales tax on web purchases, I do think it will affect our business negatively, even though with that addition online shopping would still have several advantages.

Advantages include being able to get a lot of items not available in your local area, not having to go out to shop thereby saving fuel costs and time, and just the convenience of ordering something and having it show up a few days later on your doorstep.

Online shoppers often complain if they have to pay shipping on purchases. Someone has to pay for the shipping, and any free shipping given comes out of the online shop's margin. This is why most shops have a minimum purchase for free shipping, to make sure the time, packaging costs and labor are covered and they can still make a small profit. You don't have to pay shipping cost when shopping locally, but you do have to get to the store. When was the last time your local store gave you gas money to come and shop with them?

Anyway, I hope they manage to keep defeating this, but I'm not hopeful. If they do, you'll see a lot of online shops go out of business, and you'll get to pay your sales taxes to the few biggies that remain, after which they'll be able to charge you whatever they choose.

What it really comes down to is governments continually increasing greed for more money, to inflate their empires while pretending to give us more "services" that we neither want, or need. We need to shrink government, not raise taxes.

For me being in Canada it's still cheaper for me to buy things on the internet even if I pay tax on the items. Does it take away from my local businesses yes, but let's face it with the economy the way it is we are all trying to cut our expenses. That is hard to do when you need to buy fabric - I pay $16.75 a yard here for fabric and I can buy the same thing in the States for $6 - 7 a yard I will eat the tax for that.

Politicans have never seen a tax they didn't like. It starts out small percentages (to get it approved) and then excellerates. They pass all these laws and exempt themselves from them. Let them eliminate some of their cushey perks before taxing the people more.

Yep, we are over run with taxes already. The gov needs to be downsized. That is the only way to stop the runaway spending & gouging for more taxes for their miss use of OUR tax dollars. We can't run away with our spending & expect our employer to pay for it. After all, WE THE PEOPLE, are their employer. The only way to stop it is at the voting polls. We all do need to take a stand.

The stores don't have a choice, if they are required to collect sales tax, then they HAVE to charge sales tax, or else go to jail or pay huge fines when then they get found out.

As to shipping costs... if you have drive 20 miles to get to a brick-and-mortar store, and you have a vehicle that gets 20 miles to the gallon, then you will burn through 2 gallons of gas to get to the store and back. Where I live, that would be over $7. Which might well cover those shipping costs!

As to Keepsake Quilting... they send out those nice catalogs, which must cost them a pretty penny. I would guess that as long as they do that, they're not going to be able to sell at rock-bottom prices.

We can't have it all... at least, not at the same time... :-)

And sometimes it starts out "temporary" but it never seems to go away.

Where I spend winters down south, the sales tax was 9% - on EVERYTHING, including food. A few years ago they wanted to raise it to 10% - excuse, we need it for the schools. Can't say no to the kiddies, you know.

I thought for sure the voters would turn it down, 10% would be the highest sales tax in the country (it is a combination of state and local). But, no, the sheeple voted it in. Fortunately, we are not too far from a state line, so guess where we do our shopping? Save the local schools, hurt the local businesses. Brilliant.

Our state has a line on the state tax form asking you to pay the state tax on all of your internet purchases. I wonder how many do that or even keep track of it. I have a problem with this in the fact that a brick & morter store has to pay taxes to city and state so they can pay for infrastructure (streets, sewer, water etc.) plus fire and police protection where an internet store does not. I think as long as a store has no presence in a state and I want to buy something there and bring it to where I live, I should only pay the tax on where I bought it if there was an applicable tax. I too think government spends way too much and I fear we are in for some Draconian times sooner than we think.

Actually, internet stores pay just as much in taxes and fees to their local governments as B&M's do, proportionate to their sales, income and number of employees. They pay the same business license fees, the same sales taxes on local sales, the same corporate income taxes (if the state collects those), the same employee-based fees like workmans comp, etc.

I agree that no business should have to collect or pay taxes to localities where they don't operate. If a locality wants to collect taxes, they should collect them from their own residents, who then can by voting, have a say as to how much they want to pay in taxes and fees.</snip></snip>

Will these taxes apply to ebay and goodwill internet shopping? Just wondering.

Break it down...internet, not. Shopping...not (you haven't hit the "purchase" button) Internet shopping =>purchase...calculate the tax.
Also, just consider how many local tax jurisdictions there are in this country...and then put yourself in the place of the folks who have to implement all those various rates into their "back office" software...and then, keep it current.
As Maggie Thatcher said,"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Do this interesting exercise...calculate all the taxes (local, state, federal) you pay on all your purchases for one month. Multiply that by 12 to get a sense of what you're paying every year. THEN, add to that your property taxes, all the money automatically deducted from your paycheck for various taxes for the year. Then, realize that you get to keep the left-overs...so as to buy a home, buy a car, put a kid through college, put clothes on your back, etc.

I have a dream that any and all election days have been moved to April 16. Think of what April 15 is. I'll bet campaigns and political posturing would take on an entirely new face if candidates had to face the voters the day after the voters have filed their income taxes. As it is, we pay taxes in April and then vote in November --nearly an 8- month difference. Just a dream, I know...sigh.

Remember these posts as you hit the voting booth this fall. It will get worse esp with the "healthcare" reform. Who do you think foots that bill???
sandy

They are trying to bleed us dry of any income we can keep in our wallets for our own use! The government and the states get plenty of our money already. They just don't manage it well and that's why they are always looking for more....more ....more.

All I know is I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the internet purchases mentioned on my state (IL) income tax form. The paperwork is gonna be a nightmare. Don't quote me, but they want several figures-like the amount purchased that was taxed (in state and out of state) and the amount that wasn't taxed. The strange part is that some other states have charged me tax-that will have to be figured out.

I have started keeping better records, but now I purchase mostly on line and out of state.

I was lucky to find a form ST 44 and was instructed to write "amnesty" on the top of the page and that covered all my purchases made from 2004 thru Dec 31, 2010. I followed an income chart and paid $15=good deal. Unfortunately the state didn't know what to do with the form (doesn't that just figure) they called me (nice lady) and I had to explain it to her and further referred them back to the state of IL web site.....does that mean no one else took advantage of the form? That's a shame

Regardless of the internet purchase thing, IL has raised the state income tax percentages and along with having to claim my purchases I have increased my withholding so I don't get caught owing money....since most states are in a money crunch I'd prolly advise everyone to think about increasing withholding

Sorry for going on so much about this. I only mentioned all this in case any of your states offer any kind of "amnesty" program and to warn that state income taxes in any state could be on the rise and to handle deductions appropriately. Even if your state doesn't mention internet purchases yet, once a state finds a way to make more revenue-they'll all hop on the bandwagon. Whether I like it or don't like it-I never ever argue with the IRS or state IRS-they are bigger and badder than me

It was on the news again today.
You will have to keep track of online purchases so you can pay taxes on it. What a hassel, it will really hurt online purchasing.
They will track you by your credit card purchases. Big brother is watching you.
It is a law already but has not been enforced.

Is it only through credit card purchases that they are making you pay taxes? What if for example I buy fabric off of someone on here and pay through Paypal (which is just a bank to bank transfer - I can mark any reason for sending the money even personal), money orders or checks cannot be tracked? I don't see how they can track those methods we just need to get creative on how your getting the money. It's very confusing to me - what about the states that do not have any taxes like NH?