This Will Go No Where
by Big Dog on Apr 13, 2011 at 04:48 Political
Dick Turban, a Senator, will introduce legislation to force companies that sell things over the Internet to calculate and collect taxes for the state (or locality) to which it is shipped. States complain that items bought over the Internet do not have the appropriate taxes collected and they miss out on revenue.
To me this is no different than when someone stops in one state and makes a purchase and then takes the item to his home state. What did the state in which the person resides do to warrant receiving revenue?
The matter will go nowhere for a number of reasons. There are thousands of taxes in many localities and it would be a daunting task to try to program websites to calculate the taxes. To top it off, some states like Maryland will raise taxes on a regular basis so that will mean more work and higher costs for web retailers.
The matter also has some Constitutional issue around it. Matters of taxes are supposed to originate in the House and the man introducing the legislation is in the Senate. Unless he gets someone in the House to introduce it, I don’t see how it can be introduced. Also, this is about state and local taxes so why is a member of the federal government involved in the issue?
Finally, the House is controlled by Republicans and regardless of whether one thinks this is a good idea or not, they do not want to be blamed for imposing taxes on people.
Even if this made it to the Senate I can’t see how they get the 60 votes needed for cloture.
This will be a sticky issue because more and more people shop online. Government likes to find things people do and tax it so it can get more money.
Dick Turban is saying that the playing field needs to be leveled so that brick and mortar stores can compete with Internet retailers.
Why is it that everything has to be a level playing field? Imagine if Major League Baseball required all teams to be the same…
I have an idea though. If Durbin wants a level playing field then have the states and localities eliminate sales taxes all together. Then the brick and mortar stores will be on a level playing field…..
Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
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Tags: dick durbin, internet, taxes
I sure hope it goes nowhere — but you never know. If something like this were to pass, it would just massively expand the black market. It would also drive more companies, especially internet companies, overseas.
What does any government do to deserve the tax revenue it collects?
PS, why does Dick have a Turban? Is he a Muslim or something?