Boston's own implementation of the Tea Act, only 240 years later...
The Massachusetts Software Tax
71–80 of 201 posts
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#72Until people realize that all taxes are theft, they're doomed to have new taxes imposed on the most productive of them. It's really a simple test to see whether taxes are theft or not: if there was no way for IRS to find out how much money anyone made, would people still be paying taxes? My guess is that 90% of people who preach about the social contract and helping the poor would keep the money.
The fact that taxes are operational theft is why taxes that affect everyone are seldom passed. Specific industries or products are targeted because there's less resistance.
For example, many people will sneer at this tax yet cheer on other taxes they don't have to pay.
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfunded liabilities are spent money coming due. You can cut services in other places, but that's a similar tradeoff. At the end of the day, why live in a state that taxes you like California but gives services like Tennessee?
That's sort of how I feel about U.S. taxes in general. I paid somewhat lower taxes in the U.S. than Denmark, but it felt like I got a ton less service. Despite paying taxes, there was no public healthcare, even public university charged thousands of dollars in tuition, transit wasn't great, unemployment insurance was relatively poor, public services like libraries were overcrowded, housing assistance had a 10-year wa…
I would prefer to pay for services I use then to have the money stolen from me by force while people pretend it is moral because it is called "taxes"
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#74MA resident. The biggest problem with this is the timing: tell us in July that it goes into effect on January 1, we can deal. Tell us it goes into effect in a week? Hah.
That and the fact that the line between custom software and customizations of pre-written software isn't very clear (or if clear, draconian). The way they wrote it, a custom WordPress template sounds like a customization (therefore taxable), but a site not hosted in a CMS is custom (non-taxable).
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#75Is there a reason this article doesn't mention what the actual tax rate is? According to other articles, it's 6.25%, but that omission from this article seems glaring. Is it because that number is perceived as low, and mentioning it undermines the argument of how dire opponents think it is? (Genuinely asking, not trolling; my employer is almost certainly going to be hit by this tax.)
I think it's not mentioned because it's not a separate tax with its own rate, but a change in what categories of transactions sales tax applies to. Therefore the rate is just the regular sales-tax rate. The controversy is over what should be covered by sales tax more than the rate.
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#76This is going to increasingly become common esp as governments try to cover budget gaps. We just went through a sales tax audit for our SaaS company and so are expecting a good size bill for taxes not paid + penalties. Yes - fun stuff. Honestly, the gov't folks are playing whack-a-mole here trying to keep up with fast-growing areas that don't fit the old "you sell this widget for $X" model they're used to. And so the…
California's unemployment rate is 8.6%, 1 full point higher than the national rate, in spite of the booming tech sector. A lot of people in California are doing terribly. For example, Imperial county's unemployment rate is 23%. Around half the counties are still over 10%.
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#77my classmate's ex-wife makes $63 an hour on the laptop. She has been without work for seven months but last month her check was $18401 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more here... max38.cℴm
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#78And it’s not just Massachusetts developers that have to deal with this. It’s anyone who has clients who have “software” that is being “used” in Massachusetts. Talk to your lawyer if you doubt me on this one, but Quill vs. North Dakota means that it is the well-settled law [+] of the United States that you cannot be liable for sales or use taxes enacted by a state which you don't have a "nexus" in. What exactly consti…
my classmate's ex-wife makes $63 an hour on the laptop. She has been without work for seven months but last month her check was $18401 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more here... max38.cℴm
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#79Until people realize that all taxes are theft, they're doomed to have new taxes imposed on the most productive of them. It's really a simple test to see whether taxes are theft or not: if there was no way for IRS to find out how much money anyone made, would people still be paying taxes? My guess is that 90% of people who preach about the social contract and helping the poor would keep the money.
If taxes are theft, then your use of roads, police, courts, eating at restaurants approved by health inspectors, and much more -- that's all theft of your own.
Sorry, but taxes are not theft in any general way, by any stretch of the imagination.
Re: The Massachusetts Software Tax
#80This is insane . Either add a sales tax (fixed %) to all B2B transactions (like UK VAT, which you're exempt from if you're tiny) or just don't. This minefield of regulations about what's taxable and what isn't will just make it much more expensive to sell things, as people pay for lawyers/accountants to figure out what "tax" to add to every outgoing invoice. Since this will decrease consumption, it will reduce other…
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/index.htm?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=p... Not quite easy but if your business turns over more than £79k then you will have registered for VAT in the UK. A US state VAT system would, presumably, result in a matrix multiplier (52 by 52 or whatever the number of different rates are) and require companies to track transactions in the various states.
52x52 would be so easy compared to what we have right now, with sales tax varying street by street based on vague and inconsistent categories. Plus wouldn't it be closer to adding two out of 52 numbers together? Either way you can fit the rates on a single piece of paper and be done with it.