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Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

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Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#31

Post by justinsb »

chc wrote: post #29
justinsb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect if you tried to do it federally it would be a violation of States' rights and thus unconstitutional.

There's always a way around that. Most likely you'd just do it like many other federal carrots — "This tax is levied on all online purchases and will be distributed to the state of the recipient provided that state does not impose any additional taxes on the purchase." You're not depriving the states of their right to tax the purchases, but it will be onerous to their residents if they don't go along with the federal…

That sounds like it could work - nice hack!

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#32

Post by justinsb »

sbierwagen wrote: post #30
justinsb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect if you tried to do it federally it would be a violation of States' rights and thus unconstitutional.

Lots of things are violations of states' rights. (nationwide drinking age, enforced by revoking federal highway money; national handgun ownership age, etc) The actual question is if there's enough political capital to get it through congress, in the face of united opposition from the low tax states and the republican caucus.

Fair point (particularly in view of the sibling suggestion).

I do think this answers the OP though - it's probably just not important enough to be worth the fight!

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#33

Post by bradgessler »

gtaylor wrote: post #8

I'll gladly pay an additional 6-10% to keep avoiding Wal-mart or Target or even Home Depot. There are people like me who just really hate having to suit up and go shopping. I don't like the traffic, I don't like getting ripped off, and I don't find in-store shopping a fun or magical experience like some do. I can pull up Amazon and read ratings/reviews, see what kind of problems people ran into with products, and mak…

If you walk into Bestbuy and show them the item you intend to purchase from Amazon, they'll match the price. With taxes, and assuming you don't have to drive out of your way, this can be more convenient than Amazon. If you need something overnight, it's actually cheaper than Amazon.

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#34

Post by benaiah »

gtaylor wrote: post #8

I'll gladly pay an additional 6-10% to keep avoiding Wal-mart or Target or even Home Depot. There are people like me who just really hate having to suit up and go shopping. I don't like the traffic, I don't like getting ripped off, and I don't find in-store shopping a fun or magical experience like some do. I can pull up Amazon and read ratings/reviews, see what kind of problems people ran into with products, and mak…

I'd buy a LOT more from Amazon if I didn't live in Alaska and have to wait at least a week and a half for shipping. I hate shopping - if I could reliably get something in a couple days, I'd almost never even need to leave the house, except for groceries.

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#35

Post by kudu »

justinsb wrote: post #25
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All it would take is an Act of Congress, but it's political. Birmingham, Alabama has a sales tax of 10%. New Hampshire has no sales tax. How do you set the rate nationally without making enemies?

I suspect if you tried to do it federally it would be a violation of States' rights and thus unconstitutional.

The federal government has a broad power to regulate commerce under the Commerce Clause.

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#36

Post by cbhl »

gph wrote: post #24
minouye wrote: post #12

From the report: Our data consist of daily transactions for 2,807,476 households from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013, and include both banking (i.e., checking, savings, and debit card) and credit card transactions. We observe the date, amount, and description of each transaction. I'm a little disturbed that they had access to complete transaction information for roughly 2% of American households. Is it common p…

Not to defend the banks, but in what situation could date/amount/description become personally identifiable? I guess it sort of depends on how descriptive the description field is, but if it just lists the product(s) then I don't really know how you'd ever be able to verifiably match it with a name.

An '08 paper from Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov at the University of Texas at Austin showed that, in a large dataset, the combination of a large number of transactions could be used to de-anonymize individuals.

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak08netflix.pdf

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#37

Post by umsm »

bradgessler wrote: post #33
gtaylor wrote: post #8

I'll gladly pay an additional 6-10% to keep avoiding Wal-mart or Target or even Home Depot. There are people like me who just really hate having to suit up and go shopping. I don't like the traffic, I don't like getting ripped off, and I don't find in-store shopping a fun or magical experience like some do. I can pull up Amazon and read ratings/reviews, see what kind of problems people ran into with products, and mak…

If you walk into Bestbuy and show them the item you intend to purchase from Amazon, they'll match the price. With taxes, and assuming you don't have to drive out of your way, this can be more convenient than Amazon. If you need something overnight, it's actually cheaper than Amazon.

Bestbuy is very hit-or-miss. It really depends on the people working there.

Some employees are very informative and helpful while many aren't.

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#38

Post by baddox »

bradgessler wrote: post #33
gtaylor wrote: post #8

I'll gladly pay an additional 6-10% to keep avoiding Wal-mart or Target or even Home Depot. There are people like me who just really hate having to suit up and go shopping. I don't like the traffic, I don't like getting ripped off, and I don't find in-store shopping a fun or magical experience like some do. I can pull up Amazon and read ratings/reviews, see what kind of problems people ran into with products, and mak…

If you walk into Bestbuy and show them the item you intend to purchase from Amazon, they'll match the price. With taxes, and assuming you don't have to drive out of your way, this can be more convenient than Amazon. If you need something overnight, it's actually cheaper than Amazon.

Depending on your work or living situation, that might not be more convenient. I'm in SF with no car, and I wouldn't even consider going to Best Buy.

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#39

Post by mzs »

I'm curious, in states that have this, how does it work? Is it all online sellers that did not previously collect sales tax or just a few big ones like amazon? Does it show-up on your shopping cart directly or do you have to do forms quarterly say?

Re: Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

#40

Post by gtaylor »

bradgessler wrote: post #33
gtaylor wrote: post #8

I'll gladly pay an additional 6-10% to keep avoiding Wal-mart or Target or even Home Depot. There are people like me who just really hate having to suit up and go shopping. I don't like the traffic, I don't like getting ripped off, and I don't find in-store shopping a fun or magical experience like some do. I can pull up Amazon and read ratings/reviews, see what kind of problems people ran into with products, and mak…

If you walk into Bestbuy and show them the item you intend to purchase from Amazon, they'll match the price. With taxes, and assuming you don't have to drive out of your way, this can be more convenient than Amazon. If you need something overnight, it's actually cheaper than Amazon.

From where I live, it's a hassle for me to go to any of these big box stores. It's not going to be this way for everyone, I just really don't like going shopping.

The primary benefit of Amazon for me is not having to deal with a brick-and-mortar store.

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