Sales and Property taxes in areas of metro KC. (buying, closing)

[kcmo]

Here is a good graphic showing some of the taxes across the metro.

[Samantha S]

Ah, now I see where you got your numbers. Thanks for posting the graphic, I couldn't make it out. Easily misleading stuff, that.

[TinaMcG]

A few days ago, I read that Congress is taking up a bill that would apply local sales taxes to online purchases. It is expected to pass. We've had a free ride on that for such a long time; I wondered when this would happen. States and local governments have lost billions in tax revenues over the years due to online sales with no sales tax. I don't like it one bit, but I'm not surprised, especially in this economy.

[rogerrabbit]

They haven't lost billions. They just havent collected it. And they should not be able to either.

[Samantha S]

Originally Posted by rogerrabbit

They haven't lost billions. They just havent collected it. And they should not be able to either.

Well, that's certainly debatable.

If I buy something, it's arguable that I should pay whatever the sales tax rate is at the location that I buy. The only question is: what's the location?

Is it where I'm sitting? Or is it the location of the merchandise when I buy? I don't think the ambiguity or debate-ability of the answer should result in a complete exemption.

Put another way: just because we can argue about it, doesn't mean that sales tax isn't owed.

And yes, it's certainly true that the billions in uncollected sales tax has in fact been "lost", because had each of the millions of retail purchases been made from the retailer in person, sales tax would have been collected. So the sales were made and no tax was collected at either end. So someone lost out. They just have to decide who.

I didn't mind taking advantage of the loophole (I figured the savings in tax was just spent on shipping anyway so I really wasn't saving much, if anything) but I have no problem with them closing it.

[kcmo]

As somebody that owns an online business, the problem is that mass amounts of paper work and other BS that would go along with it. Trying to collect sales taxes in every state from every sale would be a logistical nightmare, not only for the retailers, but the states themselves. That’s why most states are not even interested in doing it.

The only way around it would be some sort of national sales tax collected on all internet sales that would be distributed to each state based on population or something. Even that would require a lot of overstate by some federal agency and would be nearly impossible to enforce on 99% of the millions of Ecommerce websites out there.

Till something like that happened, don’t look for much progress on this.

[bls5555]

Originally Posted by kcmo

As somebody that owns an online business, the problem is that mass amounts of paper work and other BS that would go along with it. Trying to collect sales taxes in every state from every sale would be a logistical nightmare, not only for the retailers, but the states themselves. That’s why most states are not even interested in doing it.

The only way around it would be some sort of national sales tax collected on all internet sales that would be distributed to each state based on population or something. Even that would require a lot of overstate by some federal agency and would be nearly impossible to enforce on 99% of the millions of Ecommerce websites out there.

Till something like that happened, don’t look for much progress on this.

I do business online also. Collecting sales tax from everyone and filling out the proper paperwork and distributing it would be a nightmare. It should stay as is. Sales tax is charged if the person buying is located in your state.