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States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

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Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#511
post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not moral, but some would say being a single country imposes a certain practical requirement that the taxes not be too complicated, if we agree commerce is a good thing and waste is a bad thing.

Congress has the ability to nationalize sales tax collection and remittance for online purchases. In fact, there have been bills introduced in the past that proposed to do just that. We might actually see some movement in this direction now.

I certainly hope so. Trying to manage the 4,000+ tax variations (various state and city/county) is ridiculous.

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything can be construed as 'the price of doing business'. If the EU instead required every retailer with at least one customer in the EU to get a tattoo of the EU flag, in return for getting access to the market, would you also consider that just 'the price of doing business'? My objections to this are: - If an EU country is owed tax by people resident within its borders, then perhaps the country's tax authorities…

VAT (Eu sales tax) is a tax on the seller it is not a tax that individual residents pay at all.

Your statement is wholly incorrect.

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/what-is-v...

That page says that VAT is 'a consumption tax because it is borne ultimately by the final consumer. It is not a charge on businesses.'

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#514
post #258

What no one is talking about here is how this would be handled, especially for a small online sellers. There are almost 10,000 tax jurisdictions ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mccon... ) and you're not allowed to collect sales tax unless you register for that jurisdiction. There is also a fee collected by most jurisdictions to register and most make you send in periodic reports, even if you…

I remember a service already available in the 1990s to compute and collect proper tax in every US zip code. Its not rocket science folks.

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this is another needless regulation that creates more useless rent-seekers?

Governments need to fund their operations, and allowing some businesses to dodge taxes because of arbitrary geographical differences is unfair and distorts markets.

The problem is not the general idea of paying sales tax. It's the complication of having ten thousand different sales tax jurisdictions. Complying with the law should not be such a nightmare you need to hire a middleman.

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#517
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So any service that makes it easier to do business is a “rent seeker”? Does that include Square? AWS? Every site that does e-commerce web hosting?

If the service they're providing is only necessary because of artificial barriers, then basically yes. The banking cartel that controls the payment system is a huge fan of collecting economic rents, yes.

So how do you purport to have a global electronic payment network?

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#518
post #135

The actual (quite readable) Supreme Court decision is here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-494_j4el.pdf Most of the coverage I've seen downplays it, but it should be noted that the question is not whether tax is owed on these out-of-state internet purchases, but whether the retailer should be required to collect it and submit it to the state. Currently, the purchaser is (in 45 of 50 states) legally re…

Is the opinion pdf formatted with LaTeX? Couldn't help noticing the margins etc.

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#519
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the service they're providing is only necessary because of artificial barriers, then basically yes. The banking cartel that controls the payment system is a huge fan of collecting economic rents, yes.

So how do you purport to have a global electronic payment network?

If the EU can manage instant bank transfers that cost less than a penny, the US can manage it too.

Re: States Can Require Internet Tax Collection, Supreme Court Rules

#520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not moral, but some would say being a single country imposes a certain practical requirement that the taxes not be too complicated, if we agree commerce is a good thing and waste is a bad thing.

It looks like people are downvoting @dsr for, I dunno, being a pedant or something, but I think their point is important: Americans really do seem to value the extreme heterogeneity, and even outright waste, of having 50 different jurisdictions to do business in, rather than passing uniform laws at the federal level.

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