Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Online shopping will only save you sales tax if you live in Oregon or Delaware. Since you live in CA, and I live in NJ, it doesn't save us anything in terms of sales tax.
Montana, New Hampshire, and Alaska also don't have a state sales tax. While an online retailer won't charge you sales tax if they don't have a physical presence in your state, you're still supposed to report and pay the appropriate sales tax to your state's Department of Revenue.
Not that very many people do, but they're still supposed to.
Montana, New Hampshire, and Alaska also don't have a state sales tax. While an online retailer won't charge you sales tax if they don't have a physical presence in your state, you're still supposed to report and pay the appropriate sales tax to your state's Department of Revenue.
Not that very many people do, but they're still supposed to.
You're right, I left out a few states.
Are you suggesting that many people are criminally evading taxes? I'm sure some do, but most people are law-abiding citizens.
I dropped cable a couple of months ago, and have never missed it, even for a moment. I can get all the sports I want free online, there is not a sports even on earth that I cannot watch in HD. plus a fair number of cable channels, inconsistenly, plus BBC. And Jeopardy is on a local OTA station. On a paper-clip antenna, I can get 11 channels, and my laptop video is wired to my $99 WalMart 19-in TV. I have very decent hand-me-down speakers, and for music, I have dozens of YouYube playlists, access to virtually every song ever recorded..
My $139 laptop (Windows 7) won't support high speed, but my ISP upgraded me free to 50Mbps anyway. I have no printer, I can walk to the library for printing jobs. My library also has movie DVDs, but in the past five years, I doubt if I've seen five pictures that I'm glad I saw. I've never bothered to even check out Netflix, but I watched a few things on Hulu when it was still free.
In addition to the above, I have no cellphone and never make toll calls on my landline, I use Google instead for any long distance calls I make. Everybody I know has unlimited LD, so why should I pay for it, too?
So my total outlay is $250 cost of hardware, $50 a month for Internet, and I miss nothing.
Regarding the sales tax discussion above, Texas exempts the first $25 a month, and there is sales tax on any cost of internet service above that.
We've never cared about cable, so it's an easy expense to shave. Any TV watching we do, which is probably more minimal than most, gets done online. Due to work and school needs, we'd be unlikely to go without internet.
Although the cable and internet provider are one and the same, and they really don't like it when you get internet only. We were subject to so much (failed) strong-arming when we dropped the cable part of the package entirely. They really don't wanna deal with people who don't get cable packages.
Comcast is awful with that, they are like the mob they set their own fees and lie and tell you it will cost you more to just have internet than to keep the package you have now.
Comcast is awful with that, they are like the mob they set their own fees and lie and tell you it will cost you more to just have internet than to keep the package you have now.
Distressingly, Comcast is our current internet provider. That will change as soon as there's a viable alternative. When we bought our own router and refused Xfinity, they started calling incessantly, so I blocked all Comcast and associated phone numbers. I hate them.
Just wondered if anyone else goes without either or both. If not, do you consider not having them or would it not be possible?
Kudos! I ditched the TV 25 years ago and never looked back. Now whenever I'm in a house and it's on, it's extremely irritating. If someone wants to torture me, just strap me to a chair, tape open my eyelids, and make me watch commercials and "news" over and over and over again.
I've gone long periods without internet too, but even on a low income I feel like it is worth the expense. I do realize that I may very well be better off without it also. Sometimes it is *too* entertaining.
Are you suggesting that many people are criminally evading taxes? I'm sure some do, but most people are law-abiding citizens.
I guess it depends how "criminally evading" is defined. I think most offenders just don't know that they're supposed to do it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
