Comments on: New Net taxes amid taxing times?

States hope to tap into the rich vein of e-commerce through iTunes and other online stores by taxing digital downloads. The only surprise is why this push took so long.

[amerhome]

Because of the substantial economic and environmental benefits of Internet commerce, Internet commerce should be exempted from state and local sales taxes on goods and services. State and local governments currently provide exemptions from sales taxes for a variety of economic activities (sales tax holidays on back to school expenses is but one example), and they should be prohibited from applying sales taxes to Internet sales.

Such an exemption would benefit consumers who shop online. A click of the mouse uses a lot less gas and produces a lot less pollution than a trip to the mall, and the mail carrier and FedEx/UPS trucks delivering the goods will be coming down their street anyway. Americans work more hours than any other society. Both online shopping and teleworking also save a lot of time, a precious commodity for all of us in our society where long working hours leaves too little time for personal relationships and other interests.

The public strongly supports exempting Internet sales from state and local sales taxes. In a 2008 issue of Parade Magazine, readers were asked: ?Should Internet Sales Be Taxed?? Based on 3,125 survey responses, 85% opposed taxing Internet sales. Some of the comments of those opposed:

?An Internet tax would make online shopping less attractive, reduce sales and could force many online retailers out of jobs.?

?The Internet is one of the last ways that small businesses can compete with the big guys. Leave the Internet alone!?

?We?re taxed to death already. It?s a level playing field: Local businesses collect taxes, and online retailers charge shipping. It should be the consumer?s decision which one he wants to pay.?
Congress is being asked to consider a bill allowing at least 22 states to require most online sellers to collect sales taxes.

The Parade Magazine survey clearly demonstrates that the Streamlined Sales Tax Project and similar legislation is completely counter to the sentiments of their proponents' own constituents. It's time for state and local officials to focus on things like reducing their budgets instead of finding new and unpopular ways to get into their constituents' wallets.

Bruce Hahn
American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance

[libertyforall1776]

Stop the greed and stop the tax eaters! Join the Campaign for Liberty!

[FreddieT]

I live in Washington state. According to the article, the state is still in the process of considering taxing digital goods. Yet every time I buy music on iTunes, I already get taxed. What gives?

[HellTempest]

And people wonder why we pirate things.

[aintnorainbowdorothy]

Let me see. An argument for the Fair Fax applies only to the Federal Government. But that doesn't include local and state taxes.
Public schools are paid for by taxes by people. I gladly pay mine since it supports an institution that's necessary to an informed public. That's even though I have no children in school. Private schools, as well as home schools, are not charities and pay taxes. That means tuition is higher than the average of tax paid by an indivdual for good public schools. Private schools also tend to pay their instructors less than public schools and have fewer benefits.
I gladly pay taxes for roads and bridges. At least here in South Carolina we have very decent roads. As far as education is concerned, a child can get a good education in a public school should that child want one. A child who doesn't care won't get a good education, in either private, home or public schools.
We pay only $300 to the state, maximum not minimum, for a vehicle, new or used. But we pay Ad Valorum taxes at the county level for education, police and other infrastructure on personal property, vehicles and other property, for those items that are absolutely necessary today. That easily makes up for the states that charge full tax on those same vehicles. Even public libraries require taxes. Andrew Carnegie died years ago, so that philanthropy disappeared when he didl.
People contend that the IRS would be abolished. But the IRS would go by another or the same name. After all, who's going to collect that 23 percent.
Just think about it ladies and gents. Taxes are here to stay. They've been here since time immoral, not a misspelling of that word either. Morality applies to those who already have morals, either taught at home or learned by themselves. Immorality isn't learned, it's a way of life, the same as a moral life..
The Magna Carta didn't do away with taxes. It just said no taxation without representation, and that only applied to landowners, not the workers.
That's the problem in a nutshell. People want services. They don't want to pay for them. I download music, etc., legally, and would have no problem paying five percent tax on the download. My ISP has to charge me taxes since they happen to be an interstate entity, as are all ISP's I know of.
I use only cell phones and have to pay taxes on them, including one that was passed in the late 19th century. It hasn't been repealed because it's a form of tax and every one knows taxes seldom go down..
Don't let the tea parties, a joke, throw you off. So a few people showed up at courthouses and state capitals. Big deal. They represented less than one-tenth of a percent of the population. As for tea that gets sent to the Federal Government, it goes directly into an incenerator inasmuch as there's no way to know if there's been a foreign substance introduced. Get real people, tea parties mean nothing. During the days of George III, the tea that was thrown overboad meant a lot of tax money. The tiny amount this time is miniscule and was already taxed. And the tea parties weren't just attended by Republicans, but Democrats, Independents and people of all stripe.
Just a few thoughts on the subjects brought up. But thoughts that people need to think about for themselves. The Fair Tax applies only to the Federal Governent. Tea parties mean squat. Public schools are no better or worse than private schools since a child gets the education s/he wants to get.
Examples abound. Think for yourselves, not let others think for you. After all, you can't really fall into the looking glass (mirror for those of you who don't know), and even there the Queen had the capability of saying 'Off with her head'.

[Endbringer]

The FairTax is revenue neutral. It does not increase nor decrease the amount of money the federal government takes. The only people that are against the FairTax are ones who want to use the tax code for social engineering and to limit freedom.

You stated "[Tea Party Attendies] represented less than one-tenth of a percent of the population". It was estimated that 750,000 people attended the hundreds of tea parties. When was the last time there was a tax protest? 1773? This is a big deal because people who do not normally protest or attend rallies like this actually showed up. You think the Code Pink protests and such had 750,000 people? The main stream media promoted those liberal protests that had a few hundred like it was a nationwide movement, yet three quarters of a million people protest our spending and taxes and it's just a small protest that doesn't mean anything. In fact, the media made fun of them!

[samthewill]

this is amazing, makes me sick. because of the government's need to constantly tax everything many of my friends at www.affluence.org are going to stop making new companies... this means less productivity and fewer JOBS... they have no idea what they are doing, what a joke

[CyR00k]

Okay I feel it incumbent upon me to correct some of the errors in thinking in the thread.

1) If you live in state A and you shop in state V, and state V charges a sales tax then you are going to pay state V sales tax regardless of your localities sale tax policy.

2) The reason that this is an issue is that if there is a company in state C and state C charges a sales tax while states D - T do not charge a sales tax, the businesses in state C will likely see a decline in business. Which reduces revenues leading to lower annual earnings and lower taxes on the employer as well as lower annual salaries for the employees and thus lower income tax revenues. This places state C in a competitive disadvantage in attracting new businesses and generating employment for local citizens. The lack of jobs results in more people leaving state C for other states further decreasing state revenues and making state C even less attractive and the cycle continues. However, the states D - T see an increase and become more prosperous.

3) In the above example is the congressman's fear. Unless every state charges a sales tax on digital goods then the sates that do charge one will suffer the fate of state C.

4) The states at this point are running massive deficits and the sales tax may get them closer to a balanced budget; it will not pay for a welfare system, particularly at this juncture when the US is in dire need of rebuilding the entire national infrastructure to accommodate the energy and telecommunications needs of the 21st century.

5) As to the conversation about the US tax rate compared to the EU and Japan. Yes, we have a lower tax rate when you do not include the massive monthly premiums we pay on medical and dental insurance. Were you to add that dollar value to the tax amount you'll find that for comparable health care we pay significantly more in taxes then other countries. The reason I point this out is because taxes in the EU and Japan include medical and dental care which is not paid for by taxes but by high premiums in the US; adding it back in comes closer to equalizing the benefits received for paying taxes. Comparing the taxes without considering the received benefits is a massive blunder that produces nothing but misinformation.