This is going to be great for Europe!
Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
91–100 of 116 posts
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it's a wonder common sense has held out as long as it has. > I don't want a level playing field. If you explicitly advocate that some businesses should be treated more favorably than others with respect to taxation, even if they are selling the same goods to the same customers, fine. But the opposite point of view is surely not "bullshit".
The bullshit part is trying to apply a geographic model of governance and taxation onto a technology that is location-independent. It has nothing to do with treating businesses one way or the other. Politicians want to view economic data as somehow being "owned" by a county, state, or country. So they make policies that are supposed to manage (for lack of a better word) commerce inside those boundaries. But we don't…
...The bullshit part is trying to apply a geographic model of governance...
You could use a VAT, but that won't appease the state constituencies looking for more revenues. Taxes are hard, full of unintended consequences and conflicting stakeholders.
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#93Theoretically, I am OK with the government not giving a wink and a nod to certain classes of business. I am also theoretically OK with not allowing vast amounts of money to pass around without taxation.
Practically, of course, implementing these ideas could be very nastily done and make no one happy but certain privileged people who attempt to squash competition.
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
A little more difficult than that. I grew up in Pennsylvania. My zip code was for the town next to the township I lived in. There were taxes for stores in the town that weren't levied on the township (two different local gov'ts). Also, PA doesn't tax clothing while Maryland a few miles away does. So every item you sell would have to be categorized in some way (and maybe differently in different areas). So, every deli…
To get the most precise taxation possible you would need to get the customer's address and calculate their zip+4. This is ignoring the fact that exemptions would be a nightmare. The only thing I could think of that would be worse than needing to manage that massive API would be if I was a business owner who had to access multiple APIs for DC plus all the states with sales tax.
> The only thing I could think of that would be worse than needing to manage that massive API would be if I was a business owner who had to access multiple APIs for DC plus all the states with sales tax.
So you're saying that putting together that SAAS would be a slog and its very existence would be a moat to other people who don't want to slog through.
I.e., a great biz opportunity. :)
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#95I noticed the $1 million exemption for small businesses. How will that work? If you sell for 11 months without collecting taxes then find yourself going viral around Christmastime and crossing the $1 million mark unexpectedly, are you suddenly liable for all those prior sales?
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand this line of thinking. People already pay sales taxes in big box stores, so in this case, it's more like the Government is artificially encouraging online businesses and penalizing physical stores. Both kinds of businesses being subject to the same rules is a good thing surely?
Problem is that my business is in VA, and I'm now subject to complying with taxing authorities in, say, California, where I don't have representation or a physical presence. It is unconstitutional in principle.
> Problem is that my business is in VA, and I'm now subject to complying with taxing authorities in, say, California, where I don't have representation or a physical presence. It is unconstitutional in principle.
It is not "unconstitutional in principle" for Congress to regulate interstate commerce in general, nor is it "unconstitutional in principle" for it to do so in a way which permits States to tax foreign businesses selling into the State the same way as local businesses selling in the State in particular.
Unless "unconstitutional in principle" is just a fancy way of saying "something newbie12 doesn't like".
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#97So will we see VPNs in Delaware spike from this? It's not clear to me if this is just extending already existing state sales taxes to the Internet, or if these are new, additional taxes.
> It's not clear to me if this is just extending already existing state sales taxes to the Internet, or if these are new, additional taxes.
It is Congress allowing states the option to extend, under certain conditions designed to ease compliance burdens, existing sales and use taxes to be collected as sales taxes from internet-based vendors selling into the state.
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#98Because it is inevitable? Ebay is one of the few large entities fighting it, I think they are trying to get a small sales exemption.
> Ebay is one of the few large entities fighting it, I think they are trying to get a small sales exemption.
There is already small sellers exemption: "-A State is authorized to require a remote seller to collect sales and use taxes under this Act only if the remote seller has gross annual receipts in total remote sales in the United States in the preceding calendar year exceeding $1,000,000. For purposes of determining whether the threshold in this subsection is met". From Section 2(c) of the act: http://www.marketplacefairness.org/bill-text/
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#99For now I don't care because (1) I'm already paying sales tax and (2) This is a US centric thing, if anything it levels the playingfield / is an advantage depending on where you are. The fact that there was a time when you did not have to pay sales tax should be seen as a gift, if there is one thing that seems to be a certainty over the long run it is that if there is a flow of money sooner or later it will be taxed.
Yes, it definitely does level the playing field between brick & mortar business and online businesses, and to a certain extent amongst states. What would have been really interesting is if the taxes revenues went to the state that the business was operating out of. Unfortunately, that'd probably just mean more tax revenue for either Delaware or the existing tech hubs of America. I think it's because of this fact that…
> Yes, it definitely does level the playing field between brick & mortar business and online businesses, and to a certain extent amongst states.
Which is the source of much of the opposition: Reps from sales tax-free states oppose it because the current regime encourages internet-based retailers to locate operations in those states, an incentive which will be removed if states with sales taxes can apply them to sales from vendors in sales-tax-free states.
Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
To get the most precise taxation possible you would need to get the customer's address and calculate their zip+4. This is ignoring the fact that exemptions would be a nightmare. The only thing I could think of that would be worse than needing to manage that massive API would be if I was a business owner who had to access multiple APIs for DC plus all the states with sales tax.
> The only thing I could think of that would be worse than needing to manage that massive API would be if I was a business owner who had to access multiple APIs for DC plus all the states with sales tax. So you're saying that putting together that SAAS would be a slog and its very existence would be a moat to other people who don't want to slog through. I.e., a great biz opportunity. :)
You're probably right on that one. There is a comment elsewhere in this thread that mentions a SaaS company that handles sales tax automation and reporting, so clearly there is some money to be made.