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Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

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Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#11

Post by lavezza »

virmundi wrote: post #7
wikiburner wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next two paragraphs after the one you mentioned were possibly more relevant: Opponents predict a bookkeeping nightmare. Online retailers would have to keep track of more than 9,000 sales-tax regimes. Internet companies in states with no sales taxes — Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon and Delaware — would have to build a collection apparatus from scratch. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, called the legislation…

Look at this as a SaaS opportunity. Create a clearinghouse to manage all of the "software". Fairly simple API, you give me the State of the person, perhaps ZIP to find County level taxes and out comes a {"state":".08", "cityX":".01"}. Leave it to the client to handle exact cost calculation. As for the states that don't have sales tax, they can pay the clearing to provide a {"state":"0"} for all requests.

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 delivery address would have to be accurately mapped to multiple, overlapping taxing authorities (state, county, local, school district, etc.) and every item you sell would have to be mapped to multiple tax categories (clothes and shoes not taxed in A, clothes (but not shoes) taxed in B, shoes (but not work boots) taxed in C, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#12

Post by DanielBMarkham »

It's been a very busy news week. Reid picked just the right time to slide this in -- the air has been sucked out of the room by other stories.

Congress had a hands-off approach to the internet for some time, and it took off like wildfire because of it. All that's changing now, it seems.

I'm disappointed that there's so many avenues of attack for legislators that it's effectively impossible to cover all of our bases. With big players like WalMart and the states involved, it's a wonder common sense has held out as long as it has.

For those of you buying into the "level the playing field" bullshit, I don't want a level playing field. This isn't kid's soccer where nobody keeps score and everybody gets a prize. I want goods and services delivered to me as efficiently as possible. Used to be this was the corner store, then the big box store, then the internet store. Might be something completely new in 20 years. Can I pay it? Sure? Will it bother me? Not a lot, really. The only thing this is going to do is screw poor people over who were getting goods a few percentage points below what they used to get them at. It's terribly regressive -- the very opposite of a "level playing field"

Big players coming in and screwing over the poor? It should be a scandal.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#15

Post by DoubleMalt »

lavezza wrote: post #11
virmundi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at this as a SaaS opportunity. Create a clearinghouse to manage all of the "software". Fairly simple API, you give me the State of the person, perhaps ZIP to find County level taxes and out comes a {"state":".08", "cityX":".01"}. Leave it to the client to handle exact cost calculation. As for the states that don't have sales tax, they can pay the clearing to provide a {"state":"0"} for all requests.

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…

That kafkaesk mess just makes the business case more compelling.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#16

Post by pc86 »

lavezza wrote: post #11
virmundi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at this as a SaaS opportunity. Create a clearinghouse to manage all of the "software". Fairly simple API, you give me the State of the person, perhaps ZIP to find County level taxes and out comes a {"state":".08", "cityX":".01"}. Leave it to the client to handle exact cost calculation. As for the states that don't have sales tax, they can pay the clearing to provide a {"state":"0"} for all requests.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#17

Post by doktrin »

Is the argument that there should be no sales tax, or that online businesses should be exempt from it? Alternatively, is there some specific compliance issue or formulation in the proposed legislation that is poorly thought out?

I'm genuinely curious, as (in principle) the fact that online businesses have been exempt from sales tax largely strikes me as an anomaly and not some new standard.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#18

Post by mpyne »

lavezza wrote: post #11
virmundi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at this as a SaaS opportunity. Create a clearinghouse to manage all of the "software". Fairly simple API, you give me the State of the person, perhaps ZIP to find County level taxes and out comes a {"state":".08", "cityX":".01"}. Leave it to the client to handle exact cost calculation. As for the states that don't have sales tax, they can pay the clearing to provide a {"state":"0"} for all requests.

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…

It seems to me that this is something that a state law permitting Internet sales tax could (and would have to) work around. E.g. charge a 0.5% lower "Internet sales tax" but have it apply to absolutely everything for ease of bookkeeping.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#19

Post by nateabele »

doktrin wrote: post #17

Is the argument that there should be no sales tax, or that online businesses should be exempt from it? Alternatively, is there some specific compliance issue or formulation in the proposed legislation that is poorly thought out? I'm genuinely curious, as (in principle) the fact that online businesses have been exempt from sales tax largely strikes me as an anomaly and not some new standard.

Mail-order catalog businesses, which have existed for decades?

You only pay tax in jurisdictions in which you're physically based (for an internet startup, this would be wherever you're incorporated). This axiom has held in US tax policy for about as long as there has been US tax policy.

Kinda ties in with that whole 'no taxation without representation' thing.

Edit: for clarity.

Re: Ask HN: Congress is Passing an Internet Sales Tax: Why Doesn't HN Care?

#20

Post by impendia »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #12

It's been a very busy news week. Reid picked just the right time to slide this in -- the air has been sucked out of the room by other stories. Congress had a hands-off approach to the internet for some time, and it took off like wildfire because of it. All that's changing now, it seems. I'm disappointed that there's so many avenues of attack for legislators that it's effectively impossible to cover all of our bases.…

> 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".

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