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Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

blog2.easydns.org

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Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#61

Post by vy8vWJlco »

coldtea wrote: post #22

> What lawmakers fail to understand is that taxation specific to the internet, ostensibly to boost revenues into government coffers, in practice will probably diminish them as US businesses lose competitiveness against foreign companies. And what you fail to understand is that if everything is sacrificed in the name of "competitiveness", then every country will be in a race for the bottom. It already happens, with ou…

My only real problem with a "race to the bottom" is when the competition is between countries with differences on subjects like human rights, since then it puts pressure on those involved to lower their own standards on those important issues as well, until they reach equilibrium. Otherwise I'd call it healthy competition, which I consider constructive in any democracy.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#62

Post by rgbrenner »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #32
coldtea wrote: post #22

> What lawmakers fail to understand is that taxation specific to the internet, ostensibly to boost revenues into government coffers, in practice will probably diminish them as US businesses lose competitiveness against foreign companies. And what you fail to understand is that if everything is sacrificed in the name of "competitiveness", then every country will be in a race for the bottom. It already happens, with ou…

The world, sir, will get along just fine as the US slinks into its sunset years. As an American citizen, I can assure you the writing is, and has been, on the wall.

“[T]he United States cannot afford another decline like that which has characterized the past decade and a half….[O]nly self-delusion can keep us from admitting our decline to ourselves.”

– Henry A. Kissinger, 1961

I guess if you repeat it long enough, you'll eventually be right.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#63

Post by tptacek »

dangrossman wrote: post #45
rayiner wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's bad about it?

I don't have time to read 50 states' tax codes, file 50 tax returns and potentially be audited 50 times a year. What small business does?

Most of them. As soon as you have any real cash flow, you engage accountants.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#64

Post by gambiting »

rgbrenner wrote: post #49
gambiting wrote: post #10

In EU internet purchases were always taxed, and yet online-only competitors still manage to compete with brick-and-mortar stores very successfully. So this article is quite bollocks.

With one additional part: VAT is paid on imports (on any package over a certain value). Correct me if I'm wrong, but an import duty was not part of the sales tax bill.

This is not what VAT is. Import duty is separate. VAT is paid on EVERY step when the product is sold/resold. So the wholesaler pays VAT when buying a product from the manufacturer, then a local shop is paying VAT while buying the product from the wholesaler, and then the customer is paying VAT once again while purchasing the product. Oh,and if the value of the product is over a certain value, they need to pay VAT again if they want to resale the product to somebody else as well! So you end up paying VAT even several times in this chain from manufacturer to the customer.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#65

Post by Guvante »

grecy wrote: post #19

The US government will just mandate that any online business doing business with US citizens has to collect that tax on behalf of the IRS. Quarterly deposits will be acceptable.

I doubt that would work with NAFTA, and allowing Mexico and Canada a free ride but taxing farther countries would be odd.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#66

Post by adventured »

dangrossman wrote: post #34
fryguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the person that's paying for the product being taxed, and the merchant is merely collecting that tax. At least, that would be my interpretation.

If a foreign state I've never stepped foot in can set laws I have to obey, force me to remit money to them, and audit my accounting under penalty of imprisonment, it doesn't really matter who's doing the paying. Today, only people within the state can be forced to obey and be audited by that state. This bill gives the power for a state to create and enforce arbitrary laws on non-citizens. It's at least a sufficiently…

Stick around, in the next few years we might just get a federal VAT to go with the state sales taxes.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#67

Post by wcfields »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #15
davidw wrote: post #5

This tax could make Oregonian consumers pretty popular: nothing to collect, no tax, no hassle.

On the flip side, it'll remove a major reason to start a business in Oregon or another state without a sales tax.

Recent transplant to California, and I now have to go back to Oregon whenever I make a major purchase. A weekend trip to see friends, have an Amazon order shipped to them.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#68

Post by rgbrenner »

gambiting wrote: post #64
rgbrenner wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With one additional part: VAT is paid on imports (on any package over a certain value). Correct me if I'm wrong, but an import duty was not part of the sales tax bill.

This is not what VAT is. Import duty is separate. VAT is paid on EVERY step when the product is sold/resold. So the wholesaler pays VAT when buying a product from the manufacturer, then a local shop is paying VAT while buying the product from the wholesaler, and then the customer is paying VAT once again while purchasing the product. Oh,and if the value of the product is over a certain value, they need to pay VAT aga…

Yes, I know what VAT is. The US does not have VAT, and would need either an import duty or a requirement that sales tax be paid on imports for the situation to be equivalent to the EU... and that is not part of the bill AFAIK.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#69

Post by dangrossman »

ojbyrne wrote: post #58

This post is idiotic for at least 3 reasons I can think of: 1. The tax is not "specific to the internet" but is designed to make it so that internet-only businesses are required to collect the same taxes that bricks'n'mortar businesses are required to. 2. EasyDNS's right to sell to US customers is regulated under a giant freaking, bureaucratic law known as NAFTA. If they every got large enough to compete with large U…

Brick-and-mortar businesses collect, at most, two sales taxes. Even if a customer from every single state walks in their door. They can engage one local accountant and pretty much have all their questions about tax classification of different products/services, filing requirements, etc. covered.

Online retailers will have to collect, at most, 53 different taxes, under 53 different tax codes, remitted to 53 different entities all with audit rights. That's not really the same.

Re: Go ahead, pass the Internet tax. Your (foreign) competitors thank you.

#70

Post by dangrossman »

tptacek wrote: post #63
dangrossman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have time to read 50 states' tax codes, file 50 tax returns and potentially be audited 50 times a year. What small business does?

Most of them. As soon as you have any real cash flow, you engage accountants.

My accountant would not be able to handle a XX-fold increase in the number of tax codes, forms and filings he has to handle per-client. We're going to have to train more accountants.
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