N.Y. Orders Large Web Retailers To Charge Tax

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Most of us tried being optimistic but I think we all knew this day was coming. We kept our fingers crossed but it seems that the politicians have succeeded in screwing residents of New York. Is this the first of many states to start charging taxes for online sales? Anyone that lives in New York has five weeks left before the tax kicks in so you better hit the [H]ot|Deals forum and stock up. Thanks to Opus356 for the linkage.

The state estimates this new Internet tax will bring in $50 million this year and $75 million next year. The Retail Council Of New York State hopes the new rule is the first step toward collecting sales taxes on all Internet commerce.
Click to expand...
 
Good luck with that. A circuit court will issue an injunction shortly.
 
Thats crap! I want to know how the legislators have planned to distribute tax funds collected to various states. Collecting tax is already a nightmare w/ different county's tax rates, now bring in the fact that this will complicate matters so much more.
 
Ouch, still it will be hard to monitor except from big reputable sites.

O well, most sites still are so much cheaper than B&M that it is still better to shop online (especially in NY!).
 
Large web retailers should just stop selling to people in New York. People get pissed. Politicians lose reelections and other states think twice before trying the same move.
 
I am really so disgusted with the situation the country is in. I live in NY and this makes me so PISSED OFF. Just when people are barely making ends meat they impose another tax. I buy 95% of goods online. Why drive to the store with $4.00 a gallon gas!?!?!? Lets make it harder on them. THE RICH GET RICHER AS THE POOR GET POORER. CAN'T WAIT TILL THIS DUMMY IS OUT OF OFFICE.
 
Why does NY think they have the right to tax goods that do not originate in the state at all? If you think about it people in NY already have paid tax.

Follow my logic: People earn money through jobs or investments are taxed by the Fed and the State. There is your tax right there!! If the state has no income taxes, then I could see an argument.

The only states that do not have state income taxes are:

Alaska
Florida
Nevada
New Hampshire *
South Dakota
Tennessee *
Texas
Washington
Wyoming

*Taxes some investments
^^
These are the only states who should be able to tax internet goods. The rest of the 41 need to take it from income tax and drop all this nonsense.

That or congress should just pass a flat internet tax for all states. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah this sucks. It is only NY now, but I am sure many other states will follow suit when they see how much money it raises. It was only a matter of time though. From a lawmaker's standpoint, there is really no reason that an online store should get a break that B&Ms don't. It still completely sucks though.
 
This really sucks. You know even though this is NY only for now, if the big retailers don't stand up and take it to court then there will be no stopping it. If this works for NY it will hit other states by early 2009. I am sure the other states are just looking at NY as a test case to see how badly the people take it. If come November and anyone up for election that voted to have this implemented is reelected, then you can bet there will be 49 other states that will be jumping on board the band wagon.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Large web retailers should just stop selling to people in New York. People get pissed. Politicians lose reelections and other states think twice before trying the same move.
Click to expand...

Smartest thing said so far. QFT! If I had a store I would do this very thing.
 
Hopefully Amazon and a few allies will foil this. The government is here to help! :rolleyes:
 
It does suck. But this will only get worse as state governments try to shore up budgets hosed by the declining economy. Like the federal govt (but not quite as bad) they have pork and are afraid to cut it.

Times are a changing. The net gives people a way to access goods and services without burning fuel, it should be a buffer for the times ahead, but it looks like the 'tards in office don't quite grok that.

I live in WA, we have no income tax, but we do have a sales tax. I would prefer to not pay sales tax on stuff I buy from out of state. So far I don't, but I'm sure we'll follow NY if NY gets away with it. This is an interstate comemrce issue and the feds will put the smack down on it, or take their cut.

Then you have the poor saps in CA, sales and income tax at the state level. Add in their imploding real-estate market and, depending what part of the state you live in, things suck. A lot.
 
ianken said:
It does suck. But this will only get worse as state governments try to shore up budgets hosed by the declining economy. Like the federal govt (but not quite as bad) they have pork and are afraid to cut it.
Click to expand...
They could do it by not waisting so much damn money.
 
Hmm, would that mean that New Yorkers get double taxed? After all, you're supposed to put down out-of-state purchases on your NYS income tax form anyway.

I don't see how NY can enforce this; at least by what little info given in the article. What the heck do they mean by "click-throughs"? Are they aiming only for the large retailers?
 
well of course, it all makes sence.. look at all that tax money not being collected and stolen from the people and put into the pockets of corrupt politicians so they can get a 10k/night whore while their wife is taking care of the kids.. next time you place that taxed online order you can feel good that your helping the law making assholes get laid or get a nice new boat..
 
Now it might not be such a good deal to buy a tv off amazon.
Fuck NY its such a gay state idk why it even exists and why all the politicians are all douches.
 
Once I graduate college I'm moving to Texas. The more I live in NY, the more I learn to hate it.
 
you know this could kill alot of online retail stores , as consumers figure why wait for a product if it cost nearly the same as the local brick and mortar . it will cause a poss chain reaction of sorts , less online buying increase prices to reach overhead $$$.
i really hope it doesnt come to this.
 
Michigan's governess will be all over this, she just loves taxes and fees, anything to drive business out of the state.:rolleyes:
 
The last dying echo of Spitzer-ness is heard from. :eek::rolleyes::p

Meantime, unless the etailer has facilities in state, this is a violation of interstate commerce.

The reason Congress has to pass an internet sales tax is that federal law interstate commerce laws forbid this type of interference with the conduct of interstate business.

All the businesses have to do is say FUCK YOU NY. End of story, best of luck trying to sue us in federal court over it.

The reason CA folks get taxed so much on internet sales is that most of the best big etailers are located in CA... aka in-state... so they gotta charge/collect and pay.
 
JOESKURTU said:
Follow my logic: People earn money through jobs or investments are taxed by the Fed and the State. There is your tax right there!! If the state has no income taxes, then I could see an argument.
QUOTE]

Wow im not the only one with that logic!!
Click to expand...
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
The last dying echo of Spitzer-ness is heard from. :eek::rolleyes::p

Meantime, unless the etailer has facilities in state, this is a violation of interstate commerce.

The reason Congress has to pass an internet sales tax is that federal law interstate commerce laws forbid this type of interference with the conduct of interstate business.
Click to expand...
I'd really like to see NY try to overrule the federal interstate commerce act.
 
It's been the law here in California to declare all out of state purchases on our state income tax forms and send in the unpaid sales tax to the state... So if it ever gets implemented in California, the *way* the tax is gathered will change, not the fact that citizens are or are not supposed to pay it. (The reality of the situation is that more people will have to pay since I bet the "voluntary" disclosure rate is quite low.)

Since I live in California, most of the good (price, service and trustability) computer parts mail order places: newegg, mwave, zipzoomfly, clubit, frys, etc, etc, are already located here, so I've had to pay sales tax for anything from them anyways since the beginning of their existances. 90% of the parts cost from my latest self-built computer came from California based retailers, so I coughed up the sales tax anyways. My ready built computers have never been purchased sales tax free.

It's no big deal for a large e-tailer to collect sales tax based on delivery location, all they have to do is look it up on a database. Dell.com, Circuitcity.com, Bestbuy.com, hp.com, ebgames.com have been doing it for years now. I don't think the requirement to collect is really all that bad since it also levels the playing field for in-state vs. out of state e and retailers. Honestly it won't cost me much more $$$ since I don't buy all that much from out of state e-tailers. I don't like paying more taxes, but the level playing field argument IMO deserves some consideration. That's just my opinion..
 
this blows. I live in NY.
I guess i'll move to Texas sooner rather than later.
 
Yea, governments. The only things in the world that can make more money simply because they want to.
 
hi,

I live in the other state, NJ. NJ is hurting for money. If NY is a successful test case, then I can see NJ quickly doing something very similar. As for any tax collecting issues, I cannot say any thing on any real authority. However I do not see how you could collect tax on items that are outside the area of responsibility if there is no place of business inside the state. In other words, to make it work in a legal sense, NY would have to attract the Internet businesses to set up some form of shop in the state to collect tax from that web site. For those who shop at newegg, CA, NJ and TN are places that have sales tax added to the order. Would Newegg have to have an office to in NY for it to legally collect sales tax?

I would like to see how well this law would stand up in a federal court process. It may rethink the whole tax free goods on the net thing. Besides one good thing the congress has done in recent years is repress any real attempts towards taxed shopping on the internet. Besides it is not bad enough we have paid more of our fair share of taxes to various agencies during the year. When you sit down and calculate how much one really pays in some form or level of tax, our tax rate is much higher than what we think it is.

shaggy
 
Lou Cypher said:
Michigan's governess will be all over this, she just loves taxes and fees, anything to drive business out of the state.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Michigan law already requires that people report their online purchases that they pay tax on them at the time of income tax.

Of course, enforcing it is a pipe dream.

I'm curious --didn't the Federal government impose a moratorium on Internet sales taxes for another several years? If so, I'd think the state of New York would be in violation.

By the way New Yorkers; sounds like Senator Clinton is really standing up for y'all there.
 
Its ridiculous, having to pay duties to import goods from ANOTHER STATE?!

Whatever happened to the Federal government having a say over Interstate commerce? werent we supposed to have a federal law not a state law? how can a state enforce THEIR taxes on another state? This cannot happen, it violates the constiution because there is no law that allow states to tax eachother...

UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

/rant
 
bbf said:
It's been the law here in California to declare all out of state purchases on our state income tax forms and send in the unpaid sales tax to the state... So if it ever gets implemented in California, the *way* the tax is gathered will change, not the fact that citizens are or are not supposed to pay it. (The reality of the situation is that more people will have to pay since I bet the "voluntary" disclosure rate is quite low.)

Since I live in California, most of the good (price, service and trustability) computer parts mail order places: newegg, mwave, zipzoomfly, clubit, frys, etc, etc, are already located here, so I've had to pay sales tax for anything from them anyways since the beginning of their existances. 90% of the parts cost from my latest self-built computer came from California based retailers, so I coughed up the sales tax anyways. My ready built computers have never been purchased sales tax free.

It's no big deal for a large e-tailer to collect sales tax based on delivery location, all they have to do is look it up on a database. Dell.com, Circuitcity.com, Bestbuy.com, hp.com, ebgames.com have been doing it for years now. I don't think the requirement to collect is really all that bad since it also levels the playing field for in-state vs. out of state e and retailers. Honestly it won't cost me much more $$$ since I don't buy all that much from out of state e-tailers. I don't like paying more taxes, but the level playing field argument IMO deserves some consideration. That's just my opinion..
Click to expand...

Wisconsin has something like this as well on our state tax forms. Ours says something about products/services purchased from out of state sources that were used and/or stored primarally in WI must be reported. Naturally I am sure everyone collects all their old receipts form the year and figures out how much sales tax they owe. Yep I am a good little tax payer, no need to audit me...

If online purchases are to be taxed then it should be when the sale happens. All the online shops I frequent know I live in Madison, WI so they can add the 5.5% right when I hit the checkout button (insert your local info where appropiete). A national tax might work but I think it would get stalled somewhere along the line.

I am one of the few people who realize taxes are needed to make our country run though. Yeah a lot of our tax dollars are wasted by our elected officals but there is not much that can be done about that. Simple fact: The bigger an organization (government, church, business, etc.) gets, the more innificent it gets. And our government is a very big organization. Its hemmoraging money all over the place but we still need to make that up somehow to pay for the truely needed things.
 
Just wonderful. I wonder if the site they are collecting from has to be IN ny.
 
Why is enforcing it hard?

We have a system here with registrations called ABNs. It is a single identifying number that you use with the tax office. If you earn over a certain amount, no matter the source, then you have to register to pay GST (tax). Tax is done online quarterly. It's very simple to implement this sort of thing to track and enforce income taxes.

We even have a register fully accessible online to let you check the abn status of a business, if they are registered for taxation purposes, so they can't rip you off and just keep the tax for themselves.

Also you can defeat the system by just paying cash, people do it, they know it, but THAT is what is hard to defeat. Collecting these taxes in general is a breeze.
 
Damn no edit, I should add though, that it works for us because we don't treat our different states as though they are different countries. We're more unified than that. ;)
 
I've lived in NY my whole life, and I have always had to PAY on my yearly income tax filings. And now that I think about it, I don't know anyone personally who has ever received a refund from their NYS taxes.

Not to mention the fact that the county I live in has one of the highest tax rates in the nation at 9% (it was over 9% until recently when they lowered it slightly). And the city I live in has an unusually high real estate tax rate. I own a small home on about 1/4 acre lot and I pay nearly $4,000 annually in real estate taxes.

I live in a small town and have to drive 30 minutes to an hour to get to a shopping mall where I can buy electronics (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.). Therefore, I do most of my shopping online. While I will still save on gas by shopping online, being charged sales tax on my purchases will definitely make me think twice when buying anything.

While the federal government is doing things to try and stimulate the economy, the states seem to be placing more restrictions on purchasing. I can only suspect that things will get much worse before they get any better. The forecasters may have been right this time, looks like we may be in for some hard times.
 
MV75 said:
Damn no edit, I should add though, that it works for us because we don't treat our different states as though they are different countries. We're more unified than that. ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, the states were/are different countries, to some extent. :p We wanted the states to be seperate like this, as far as I understand it...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top