In early December, we posted about states taking action on online sales tax collection.
As we noted then, states can’t do much without federal legislation, and support is growing in Congress for a bill that would give states full authority to require online retailers to collect sales tax.
But in the meantime, more states have started looking at what they can do.
Hawaii, Florida, and Michigan are all considering bills that would require an out-of-state retailer to collect sales tax if the retailer has an affiliate in the state.
Hawaii is also looking at adopting the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, a set of guidelines that make collecting sales tax easy for retailers.
And while Virginia isn’t considering state action, it is counting on congressional action. The state’s proposed plan for transportation funding assumes that Congress will pass online sales tax legislation, allowing Virginia to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected sales tax.
States have already said that online purchases are subject to sales tax—but most of that sales tax goes uncollected. What they need now is federal legislation, and with each state-level bill or resolution, they’re sending Congress the clear message that the time to act is now. Let’s hope Congress is listening.
What do I think? I think that the author of this post is probably involved in some scheme to profit from the states collecting a sales tax they are not entitled to. Further, I think that anyone who supports states being able to tax internet sales is probably in the government that sucks the life blood of taxpayers. Instead of cutting their spending, as all other people have to do, the greedy states, who can’t say no to their supporters, the lobbyists, run to any possibility of taxing the people even more.
At what point is enough, enough? Can the various governments combine to tax the taxpayer more than 50% of his income? 60, 80%?
Thank you for your comment – though we disagree with your specific concerns, we value your input.
What an absolute accounting horror this will be on small businesses, many will not be able to pay someone to file fifty monthly returns
Thanks for your comment – did you read the bill? It should alleviate your concerns.