Took a Smiley Face out on 9/1/22 cuz it appeared in the posting as a triangle with an exclamation point in it & when re-published it became published 9/1/22 & not the real date of 5/2/13.
Supporters say the Internet Sales Tax Bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for cities and states.
Yes, that’s the Good Ole USofA today ... We are all about Fairness and Revenue.
As much as I wish Congress were not going to start taxing Internet Sales, it is going to become the law of the land. I am resigned to that fact because it means Increased Tax Income to several levels of government and there appears to be no stopping our various governments once they see the possibility of getting more money out of us.
What I am about to convey to you in this Blog Posting is not straight out of my usually foolish head. I will be parroting an article in the Wall Street Journal by a John Donahoe on April 23, 2013. Mr. Donahoe opened my eyes about this issue maybe I can do the same for you.
I have no such hope that Congress will open its eyes like I did. They are too obsessed with “fairness”. In their way of thinking, it is not fair that Mom & Pop Stores on Main Street have to collect taxes but that evil Internet Stores up in the clouds do not have to collect taxes. This results in Evil Internet Stores having an unfair sales price advantage over Main Street Mom & Pop Stores and that is not fair.
If we really want to level the playing field, what they ought to do is require that Mom & Pop Main Street Stores charge for shipping like Evil Internet Store have to charge to get their product to you. When you protest, “Why should I have to pay shipping when you did not have to ship?” You can be told, “It’s only fair.”
The first new fact I saw after Mr. Donahoe started opening my eyes was that Mom & Pop also reside on the Internet. Actually there is a GigaTon of such small stores on the Internet. Mr. Donahoe has this to say...
- Today small businesses that operate online are responsible for collecting sales taxes on purchases made in the state where they are located. That is fair. But the proposed bill would require them to collect sales taxes on behalf of every state where they make a sale. That would make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to succeed.
- Mr. Donahoe says small businesses with fewer than 50 employees or with less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the chore of collecting sales taxes nationwide. This is a reasonable exemption, equivalent to other federal standards, such as those set by the Affordable Care Act.
- This bill, as it now stands, could put entrepreneurs like Colleen Rast out of business. Colleen and her three employees run all of their business operations out of a small office in Kalispell, Mont. Although her apparel-sales business is located in a state without sales taxes, the Marketplace Fairness Act currently under consideration would require Colleen to track and comply with the tax laws of more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. It would create costly paperwork and accounting burdens and subject her to potential audits and litigation from tax collectors in states that could be thousands of miles away from where she lives and works.
I am responsible for the bolding in the above bullet. Don’t you think it was a very appropriate place to put in bolding?
- The $10 million exemption would protect businesses like Colleen's. To put the exemption in perspective, Amazon makes more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes. This would be a reasonable exemption that recognizes that small businesses are vastly different from the nation's billion-dollar retailers. These are very small startups, mom-and-pops and entrepreneurs whose businesses and cost structures are nothing like billion-dollar retailers. They should not face the same tax-collection burdens.
- This isn't a debate pitting Internet Store Sales against Main Street Store Sales. This is actually about big retailers, like Amazon, trying to undermine small online businesses. Amazon supports the bill, while at the same time it negotiates local tax exemptions across the country where it builds warehouses. Small businesses don't have that kind of bargaining power.
Do you think Big Businesses like an Amazon would be sad if their many small competitors went out of business? The Smartfella does not think they would shed a single tear if their competitors were reduced in number.
The late Paul Harvey just came in and asked me to tell you the Rest of the Story. Mr. Donahoe is the president and CEO of eBay Inc. This means he has a vested interest in seeing Mom & Pop Small Internet Businesses survive.
That being said, it is up to us to make up our own minds. The Smartfella believes that asking small businesses to comply with 9,600 Tax Jurisdictions is asking too much and (are you ready for this?) is Unfair!
This posting is so serious that as I was writing it I sometimes became confused that it was really me. I kept saying to myself, “Self, this isn’t Foolishness!” Can you ever forgive me? I’ll get back on track next time.
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
More: If you want to read all of what Mr. Donahoe had to say, click here... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323735604578438643723029594.html
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