New sales taxes for small online businesses
javis el errante
Buenos Aires Posts: 6,136
I've just received this email from eBay. Can someone explain a little further? Does anybody know Amazon's position about this issue?
Dear javier gastón,
Congress is considering online sales tax legislation that is wrongheaded and unfair, and I am writing to ask for your help in telling Congress "No!" to new sales taxes and burdens for small businesses.
Whether you're a consumer who loves the incredible selection and value that small businesses provide online, or a small-business seller who relies on the Internet for your livelihood, this legislation potentially affects you. For consumers, it means more money out of your pocket when you shop online from your favorite seller or small business shop owner. For small business sellers, it means you would be required to collect sales taxes nationwide from the more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. You also would face the prospect of being audited by out-of-state tax collectors. That's just wrong, and an unnecessary burden on you.
Big national retailers are aggressively lobbying Congress to pass online sales tax legislation to "level the playing field" with Amazon. And, as they compete with big retail, Amazon is advocating for this legislation too, while at the same time they are seeking local tax exemptions across the country to build warehouses. This is a "big retail battle" in which small businesses and consumers have a lot to lose. But eBay is fighting, as we have for more than 15 years, to protect small online businesses and sellers and ensure healthy competition, value, and selection that benefit consumers online.
The solution is simple: if Congress passes online sales tax legislation, we believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide. To put that in perspective, Amazon does more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes. So we believe this is a reasonable exemption to protect small online businesses. That's what we're fighting for, and what big companies such as Amazon are fighting against.
I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea. Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business. Click here to make your voice heard. Together, I believe our voices can make a difference.
Sincerely,
John Donahoe
President and CEO
eBay Inc.
Dear javier gastón,
Congress is considering online sales tax legislation that is wrongheaded and unfair, and I am writing to ask for your help in telling Congress "No!" to new sales taxes and burdens for small businesses.
Whether you're a consumer who loves the incredible selection and value that small businesses provide online, or a small-business seller who relies on the Internet for your livelihood, this legislation potentially affects you. For consumers, it means more money out of your pocket when you shop online from your favorite seller or small business shop owner. For small business sellers, it means you would be required to collect sales taxes nationwide from the more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. You also would face the prospect of being audited by out-of-state tax collectors. That's just wrong, and an unnecessary burden on you.
Big national retailers are aggressively lobbying Congress to pass online sales tax legislation to "level the playing field" with Amazon. And, as they compete with big retail, Amazon is advocating for this legislation too, while at the same time they are seeking local tax exemptions across the country to build warehouses. This is a "big retail battle" in which small businesses and consumers have a lot to lose. But eBay is fighting, as we have for more than 15 years, to protect small online businesses and sellers and ensure healthy competition, value, and selection that benefit consumers online.
The solution is simple: if Congress passes online sales tax legislation, we believe small businesses with less than 50 employees or less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales should be exempt from the burden of collecting sales taxes nationwide. To put that in perspective, Amazon does more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes. So we believe this is a reasonable exemption to protect small online businesses. That's what we're fighting for, and what big companies such as Amazon are fighting against.
I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea. Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business. Click here to make your voice heard. Together, I believe our voices can make a difference.
Sincerely,
John Donahoe
President and CEO
eBay Inc.
... I am not in the business of being liked anymore ...
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Essentially what they are saying is that a lot of companies both big and small that have an online presence should be charging everyone in the United States the sales tax they would be paying if they bought something in their own city or state.
A lot of companies do not charge local sales taxes.
For example....
If you lived in a state that charged sales tax and you wanted to buy a copy of PJ ten from your local record store you would have to pay the price plus whatever the sales tax was assessed
However, if you bought that from a small online store they might not charge you sales tax.
Even though they really are supposed to.
Another example,
6 years ago I bought a snowblower from Troy-bilt online and they did not charge me Colorado Sales tax
they should have
If I bought the same item from my local Home Depot I would have payed an addtl 8.31%
Ebay is saying that online businesses shouldnt have to charge, collect, or be responsible for sales taxes
And although I very much believe in buying and selling locally whenever possible, I've also found it useful to purchase books online for customers though eBay and even on rare occasions, Amazon. Even though most of the time I purchase those items for resale-- I'm making little or no profit on those items, doing it as a customer service for people who are not comfortable purchasing on-line-- I would be willing to pay the tax anyway, although ideally and more fairly I would be able to defer that tax using my resale permit.
Who's sales tax? local to the retailer or local to the buyer? why not half of both?
Having to do the accounting for 50 different states' sales taxes, different municipal tax payments and even different levels on different products, to simply do the accounting necessary could be a huge infrastructure investment for small businesses. As with anything, there is computer software that can make this easier, but even that has bugs, even that is a costly investment for any business wanting to sell online. Lots of internet operations are small in stature. Now it is easy to say it is the cost of doing business, don't like it don't go into business, but don't be surprised when more people end up needing assistance because the percentages of taxes they will now have to pay around the country may might eat half of their profit margin.
As the article said, Amazon fought this legislation for years. They have since developed a new strategy revolving around same day delivery, this would only be possible at a reasonable cost if they had warehouses throughout the country. They will get those sales tax exemptions and be in no different situation than they were in before, except they will be able to crush brick and mortar stores who's only real advantage right now is same day availability at no extra charge.
This tax isn't a good idea and isn't very well thought out. There are already states who charge sales tax online, there are already retailers who pay it, if a state wants to charge someone they can. This doesn't need to be done at a federal level.
It is terrifying when you are too stupid to know who is dumb
- Joe Rogan
a very good friend makes his living selling on Ebay and a year or so ago he had to start paying tax's after selling X amount of dollars worth of goods on Ebay.
Godfather.
The only problem there is whatever party that enacts that won't be president next election.
It still won't stop me from doing the majority of my shopping online. The savings in gas money as well as the hassel of going to a brick and mortar still give online retailers the upper hand. I come home from work and "poof", there my package is waiting for me.
It's purpose: To extract maximum taxes from the citizens they represent.
:fp:
Plus, face-to-face customer service is all but lost. Yet another source of irritation avoided.
If you ever wander into our store I guarantee you will enjoy the face to face encounter. And you don't have to buy anything- the friendliness is free!
(although we might tax your feet just for fun and because we love The Beatles
I should've clarified - the bad customer service I mentioned rarely applies to the small businesses I visit.
But if it is Amazon vs. Walmart, online wins.
Keep up the good fight, Brian!
Thank you, Jason P :thumbup:
This country has never collected higher revenue, it's time to start cutting taxes and spending. People are hurting.
I agree that our tax dollars are not always well spent but I also believe that we do benefit from some of those tax dollars through public health, roads, transportation, police and fire fighters etc., and rather than just complain about what doesn't work well we are obligated to be active in holding our representatives responsible by making calls, writing letter, voting in as informed a manner as possible, etc.
Ever come across an original copy of An American Prayer by Jim Morrison?