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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?

#21

Post by dcgibbons »

legitsource wrote: post #10
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.

In my area, there are state, county, and city sale taxes. You would need a full address and a database of addresses within city limits in order to determine the proper sales tax.

There are many rural areas in the US where the physical address is not in the USPS database and as such "does not exist" (the USPS only has PO Boxes). That makes using any address neigh impossible for accurate tax calculations.

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

#22

Post by tejaswiy »

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.…

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?

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

#23

Post by DanielBMarkham »

impendia wrote: post #20
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".

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 live in that world any more. The problem here isn't a lack of taxes for some businesses. The problem is an attitude that somehow you can sit above it all and pick and chose who to favor and who not to. It's 20th-century thinking applied to a 21st-century world. The only thing this will accomplish is 1) hurting the poor, and 2) creating a bunch of nonsense paperwork. Commerce will still happen without taxes; it's just the disadvantaged and new businesses that will have extra inertia to deal with.

Yes, if you frame it in terms of "what's fair to business" then sure, the argument works in favor of taxation. My problem is that the argument itself is stated in outdated terms.

The beauty of Congress leaving the net alone wasn't that it was laissez faire. It was that nobody understood exactly what the net meant to the future. Seems like this is still the case, but politicians have decided they've waited around long enough. It's time for their piece of the action.

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

#24

Post by ohhlx »

seliopou wrote: post #8
jacquesm wrote: post #5

For 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…

How does this level the field between brick & mortar and online business?

I manage operations for a small brand that operates both as an online business (recent venture) and brick & mortar (2 stores, 2 different states). It seems that this would help us by taxing us more and increasing our IT costs in terms of implementation? If you are operating a small business (retailers,service provider) in this day and age - it is almost a necessity to have some online presence.

With the existence of simple ecommerce tools like shopify and bigcommerce at the hands of traditional businesses making entry simple - added restrictions may deter these brick & mortar businesses from entering the online space at all.

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

#25

Post by specialist »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #23
impendia wrote: post #20

Earlier 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…

Many of the customers stubbornly remain location-based.

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

#27

Post by bane »

1) There probably should be a sales tax, more and more of the economy is moving onto the Internet, and local state coffers are hurting for it

2) Figuring out local sales tax is hideously difficult, it opens lots of great opportunities for new startups as payment processors who "do taxes right"

3) Other bigger stories have consumed the media

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

#28

Post by virmundi »

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…

So in general it's more complex than I opined in the three minutes it took to post, but it doesn't seem to be impossible. If anything it's complexity merits a service. This would require a few people and sme coordination, but should be doable.

Who's with me? New start up.

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