Internet Sales Tax?

[puffy]

John Conyers a long time congressman from Michigan is pushing for a bill that would require anyone selling on the internet to add state sales tax to the price of the product.This of course would include pipes and tobacco.Let us hope it doesn't happen.

 

[kcvet67]

They've been trying to do this for over a decade. The paperwork involved with collecting sales tax for one state can be ridiculously complicated, if a small retailer were made responsible for collecting tax for all 50 states and filing the correct forms they wouldn't have time to actually sell anything. :crazy:

 

[spartan]

Yup. Not going to happen unless they make some SUPER software this is compatable with EVERY SINGLE E-TAILER EVERYWHERE.
Good luck! ::

 

[spartan]

I heard that was in the works too. Like there will be "data plans" for the internet in the future if we are not careful.
Automatic updates will count towards the amount of content you're allowed to DL and all that jazz. Kinda scary...
Hopefully that proposal died a horrible death. Accompanied with vultures of course.

 

[tiltjlp]

I doubt it will happen any time soon. individual states don't have the authority to force a business in any other state to collect taxes for them.

 

[withnail]

I doubt it will happen any time soon. individual states don't have the authority to force a business in any other state to collect taxes for them.

Could they be taxed as they enter the State where the person who ordered it lives?
There is a similar sort of debate going on in Europe at the moment. If I travel from my home in the UK to France and buy a load of tobacco, paying the French tax and duty, I can bring them home without having to pay anything to the UK government because Tax has been paid to a European Union member country. There is no fixed limit to what I can bring back, but it must be for my own use. So, if I loaded up a van with cases of tobacco, customs could seize it as it is unlikely that it is all for me.
Some internet companies allow you to buy tobacco from other European Countries. They claim that the products are bought by an individual for their own use and so is the same as if they went and bought them in person. Customs argue that it is different because the person placing the order hasn't physically visited that country to buy them. Because UK tobacco tax is the highest in the world, there is a lot of money at stake. The matter will probably be decided in the European Court.