News, States push to collect taxes on Internet sales.

[southgeorgia]

Originally Posted by swagger

I'm not talking about business licenses.

Yes, you collect taxes for other counties in Georgia, and you report those taxes to whatever authority is responsible for collecting sales tax in Georgia.

Let's say you wanted to sell to someone in California. Do you know what rate to collect from each customer? Do you know who you have to pay that sales tax to? Do you have a Seller's Permit issued by that authority? If the answer to any of those questions is "No," then you can't sell to anyone in California.

Oh, and have fun filing 50+ sales tax reports every three months.

obviously there would have to be some type of simplification if the law is passed.

i don't see that you would need to reciprocate or purchase any type of license if you are not physically delivering the goods yourself, or going into the area to sell them.

As for keeping up w/ the tax rates, here's my idea on that:

If the states are pushing for it, they should all combine to create a single website that stays updated w/ their current tax rates. All a seller needs to do is login and look up the tax.

You will most likely see some 3rd party software that can access the database and bring all of the information straight to your desktop.

[scorpy01]

Originally Posted by swagger

The moratorium you're talking about was on taxing the Internet as a communication medium or a utility. Look at your telephone bill, your cellphone bill, your gas bill, your water bill, your electric bill..... Do you really want to see those same taxes applied to yet another service that the government has absolutely nothing to do with providing? Their hands are in our pockets deep enough - I'm already feeling Tim Geithner's hand on my behind... I'd rather he didn't squeeze.

Actually, there are a handful of states that do tax internet connections because they began doing so before the moratorium in 98 (I think). My state was one of the grandfathered states.

Sales tax hasn't been collected on out of state purchases (as in mail order) at least since the early 90s. Even in the 60s, I can remember my mom ordering from a store in Ohio, just 10 minutes away, and having her purchases delivered to us in WV to avoid sales tax.

Most states do require that their residents file a use tax form to pay the state any sales tax on goods purchased out of state. Enforcing use tax laws, though, is nearly impossible.