Will the Internet Sales Tax Save Brick and Mortar Businesses?

[Volobjectitarian]

Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest

I suppose they didnt cover Bastiats broken window fallacy in your 15,000 hours of govt education, but its not too late, you can probably find a free copy online.

You can be quite sure that no state run indoctrination center of any letter/number designator (K-12) has ever spoken the name "Bastiat" out loud within their own walls, much less actually taught anything related to the man and his writings.

And this Internet Sales Tax to me feels more parallel to the "Petition of the Candlemakers"

[Floorist]

It won't affect my purchases. Most of my business supplies I either have to buy on line or drive 200 miles round trip to get. No one local will stock them. I have tried to get local businesses to carry them, to no avail.

[KaraG]

Originally Posted by TimAZ

Have you actually dealt with the departments of revenue in different states? Their attitude and dysfunction make dealing with the IRS seem like a walk in the park. “Good computers” mean nothing when the rules and forms change on a weekly basis.

My business for 33 years had industrial customers world wide and 99% of orders were online sales. We were regularly audited by Colorado and Texas because they refused believe that all of our sales were exempt and we owed no tax. When we closed our facility in Texas it took two years and multiple letters to convince those stupid SOBs that we no longer had a nexus there.

Exactly, I'll take another IRS audit please, instead of 49 more states requiring me to file sales tax returns 1, 4 or 12 times a year. I hope our sales are under the limits to have to register with other states and start filing.

This whole thing was done backwards. The sales tax should go to the online company's state, that's where most of the infrastructure is being used. How easy it would be, no extra returns, just more money for that state. Then they would try to attract more businesses for that revenue.

[Eumaois]

Originally Posted by craigiri

To some degree YES to the OP question.
I have a combined 40+ years in both bricks and mortar and in online work.

It's come to the point where so much online is a scam. Grey market, bait and switch, etc.

Fleabay is a scam. Many Amazon vendors are also.

I was just telling the wife yesterday after a week of wasted time "if you want the real deal on electronics go to BestBuy and get the authorized unit with full backing"......

So, yes, in a sense the internet sales tax will help bricks and mortar. It will also help the treasuries of the various states. So it is mostly a good thing, IMHO, although...of course, the selfish in me likes stuff cheap.

"Fleabay"? Of the jabs a eBay, you pick that one?

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks

One can argue the ethics of collecting a tax when one doesn't have a physical presence in the state forever,...

There is no ethical issue. The tax is levied on the sale of the goods or services, not on the person buying the goods and services.

Originally Posted by Scooby Snacks

....but a lot of the reasoning behind collecting this tax was to even the playing field between online retailers and brick and mortar retailers. Will it do that?

No.

No one buys things on the internet to avoid paying the sales tax.

No one even thinks about sales taxes.

People shop on-line for selection and convenience, and those are the only two reasons.

I buy things I cannot get here. Absolutely no one anywhere near me sells water buffaloes. The closest place was a hippy shop in New Jersey, but I'll be goddamned if I'm going to drive the Pennsylvania Turnpike and pay those tolls when they should be paying me for every pot-hole, broken road surface or 100 meters of one-lane I have to drive.

But guess what? That shop sells on-line, so I bought a pair of water buffaloes.

I just bought a laptop on-line from Amazon a month ago.

Why? Because neither Wal-Mart nor Best Buy had the laptop I wanted.

Why should I waste my valuable time going all over the Cincinnati Metropolitan Statistical Area hoping against all hope that some retailer will have the laptop I want?

That's stupid.

I buy Greenies for my dog on Amazon. Why? Because PetsMart sells them for $46 and I can get them for $32 on Amazon.

No matter if I pay $46+ sales tax or $32+ sales tax, I win buying on-line.

On-line shopping isn't going anywhere, so y'all need to take a deep breath and get used to it.

One more thing....shopping on-line gives me 3 distinct advantages: product specs, customer reviews and customer questions.

You will never get that in Brick & Mortar.

Brick & Mortar will never give you product specs and I would be better off asking my dog for help, because sales people have no knowledge about any of the products being sold.

[ottomobeale]

Smart small shops have an online presence also.