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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.

#91

Post by StuntPope »

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…

re: #2 I'm not sure what you mean "if we ever got large enough to compete with large US corporations". It's not like we don't already and at some point we magically hit a point where we have to compete with Godaddy, Verisign et al. We have to compete with them already and ...

#3 yes, you are absolutely correct. Taxes here impede our competitiveness.

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

#92

Post by Steko »

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…

While technically true, this is a bit misleading since VAT is often quoted as the total amount (say "15% VAT") and this is not what is charged at each step (as would happen with a pyramiding gross excise tax). Instead what happens is the VAT is split up and a portion of it is collected at each step.

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

#93

Post by rayiner »

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?

Federalism is a bitch huh.

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

#94

Post by mikeyouse »

dangrossman wrote: post #86
mikeyouse wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you make over $1mm annually? If not, you're exempt from this bill already.

It's not make $1mm, it's sell $1mm. At a 3-5% net profit, that's $30-50k/year before taxes, or so small you can't even hire a first employee yet. And that's the category the online store for my father's retail shop is in.

I'm genuinely curious which type of online store earns less than 5% net but generates $1mm in revenue.

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

#95

Post by dangrossman »

mikeyouse wrote: post #94
dangrossman wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not make $1mm, it's sell $1mm. At a 3-5% net profit, that's $30-50k/year before taxes, or so small you can't even hire a first employee yet. And that's the category the online store for my father's retail shop is in.

I'm genuinely curious which type of online store earns less than 5% net but generates $1mm in revenue.

I'm not comfortable giving out too many details about his store without permission, but here's a list of 83 industries that average less than 5% net margin: http://biz.yahoo.com/p/sum_qpmu.html

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

#96

Post by rgbrenner »

StuntPope wrote: post #90
rgbrenner wrote: post #44

EasyDNS.. the company that closed my company's paid account over a month before the term ended because I informed them we didn't want to renew. If they think paying a modest sales tax is going to offset their terrible service, they are dreaming.

I think I just sent you an email, if you don't get it can you drop me a line at markjr [at] you-know-where What you're describing isn't supposed to happen and I want to figure out how it did.

I got it... I'll get back to you in a bit.. I still have the emails from the ticket.. I'll forward them to you.

I had a very positive opinion of EasyDNS before it happened.. I was lucky enough to have already moved to another service a few days before so there wasn't any site disruption... but your rep didn't know that.

Have 18 domains @ DME now....

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

#97

Post by dclowd9901 »

will1000 wrote: post #88
dclowd9901 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> American economic prowess may decrease relative to the rest of the world Not just decrease but get overtaken by. - Our public K-12 education is a pile of shit and our colleges are riding on a public dollars bubble that makes the housing crash look like spilled water. Any attempt to deal with the problem ignites fury over teachers' rights, causing policy makers to run shitting their pants to the nearest podium to ap…

I agree that America is doing many things wrong, and has many challenges facing it now and likely well into the future. However, I would also like to remind you that America is as a nation, 237 years old . It is a country that was founded by rebels and is often in some sort of crisis and or revolution at any given time. Despite(because of?) this, great things and great people consistently grow from here, and I have n…

These aren't "issues of the day." These are systemic and fundamental problems that lead to downfalls of nations.

During our greatest advancements, we maintained a well oiled machine of an educated constituency, a public-private partnership and a middle class bursting at the seams with potential and opportunity.

Those things have all either been stripped, scammed or atrophied out of the public, and what we're left with is a paralyzed public sector and a private sector that's racing to the bottom of the moral barrel. I just don't see any hope in anything short of some sort of awakening. Call me pessimistic and dismiss me, or at least recognize that something has to change.

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

#98

Post by smokeyj »

coldtea wrote: post #77
smokeyj wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not even arguing in favor of the internet tax. Just against the arguments easyDNS used here against it Is that what you did? The main point was that corporations outside US jurisdiction will have a competitive advantage simply by not being in the US. You rebut claiming competitiveness is a non-factor in considering regulation, citing outsourcing and cheap foreign labor as evidence? > a company can be American i…

> Is that what you did? The main point was that corporations outside US jurisdiction will have a competitive advantage simply by not being in the US. You rebut claiming competitiveness is a non-factor in considering regulation, citing outsourcing and cheap foreign labor as evidence? No, I never claimed " competitiveness is a non-factor in considering regulation ". I merely said, in a lot more words, that competitiven…

> I merely said, in a lot more words, that competitiveness should not be the BE ALL END ALL factor in considering regulation.

Who was making that point?

> Moreover, I said that this kind of "competitiveness" while great for the company that benefits from it, it's not that great for the country that hosts the company and its general population, and it can be a race to the bottom.

How do you know? Would countries that employ child labor be slingshotted into the first-world because they adopted effective regulations? I speculate they'd be unemployed and go hungry.

> It means that the "benefits of a globalised economy" are mainly for company owners, moguls, managers, golden boys and the like, and more often praised than seen in reality.

Again, how do you know? Did Michael Moore tell you?

> Samsung (or Apple) can make billions in the US market, but that doesn't mean you get to add those to the GDP and be happy about it.

What? How does Apple not affect the GDP? What aren't you happy about?

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

#99

Post by tss20147 »

CanSpice wrote: post #47
tss20147 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author and you are confused. There is no internet specific tax being discussed in the US. The "Internet tax" bill just allows states to require companies to collect state sales tax when they sell an item to someone in the state. This is the same tax which is collected by brick and mortar stores within the state. Currently if I buy items online each year when filing my state taxes by law I must declare the value o…

So as a hypothetical business owner in Washington who sells things online, I have to keep track of the tax laws of the other 49 states, and remit 50 checks quarterly (or maybe annually)?

No, you don't. There are certain conditions which the states have to meet before they can start requiring collection. One of which is to certify one or more service providers which can be used to determine the appropriate sales tax to be collected. Currently 24 states have already certified 6 service providers including one free one. It is expected that most states will certify one or more of the existing 6 providers. If you use a certified service provider to determine the tax to be collected and the service provider makes an error you are indemnified from liability. Many e-commerce platforms already have integration with these providers. Besides determining the tax rate the providers can provide reporting regarding taxes collected and automatically file your tax returns to the states. For more info regarding the law go to http://www.marketplacefairness.org/

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

#100

Post by tss20147 »

Falkon1313 wrote: post #84

A few years ago, there was a big case where Massachusetts tried to force (non-internet) retailers in New Hampshire to collect Massachusetts state taxes from people who purchased things in New Hampshire that might in the future be used in Massachusetts. The case got thrown out by the state supreme court because to enforce it would require Massachusetts to force New Hampshire businesses to violate their customers' priv…

24 states have already certified 6 sales tax service providers. It is expected that most states will certify these same providers. The providers have already integrated their service/software with a significant number of the major e-commerce platforms. After all the integration drives business to them. Depending on the service provider and the features used there may or may not be a fee for the retailer.
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