very OT: Amazon to now collect sales tax from Ohioans
So, that was fun while it lasted. As if the government does not get enough from its residents already. It's only a matter of time before all states are required to pay sales tax on Amazon (and other online retailers) purchases.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2015/05/29/amazon-to-collect-sales-tax.html
You guys should move to Oregon.
I think it is only fair that Amazon pay state sales tax on their transactions. If states really want to collect taxes on all online retailers they should band together and create some clearinghouse where retailers can simply and efficiently file all of their various sales taxes in one place. Othertwise this will be a major compliance issue and many retailers will have trouble keeping up.
The things I buy from Amazon I will continue to buy from Amazon. Their absolute cost advantage on many items will not be affected much by this. I have never bought from Amazon solely to avoid paying MI sales tax. That part was just gravy.
But the "there's no sales tax on the internet" has always been a loop-hole that never should have existed in the first place. It gave a massive BS advantage to online retailers because people have been SUPPOSED to be paying sales tax on their online purchases, but of course no one actually does. So basically, online shopping has just turned everyone into massive tax cheats. (Don't get me wrong--I've made huge purchases "tax free" on the internet as well).
Forcing places like Amazon to collect sales tax just like local businesses do it really the right thing to do, even though it sucks. The only other option would be to abolish all sales tax, and that would be beyond devastating to the budget of pretty much every state in the country.
So basically it was a massive "fun while it lasted" loophole that will be gone in all 50 states sooner rather than later.
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it will be shipping address.
Anything you are going to save on sales tax by shipping to a 3rd party in a low-sales-tax state would be negated by having to pay for someone to ship it to you from that state most likely, except on items that are super expensive and very small, like jewelry. But I imagine someone will still set up a business around this somehow.
Requiring any online retailer to collect sales tax from any state with which they do business will be unfairly burdensome to small businesses. The onus should should remain on the buyer to claim the purchases when filing their state returns (as is the law in Michigan).
That is rainbows and unicorrns stuff. It has already been shown that somethin like 95+% of people do not claim any of their online purchases on their taxes. So that has already been proven to be a massive FAIL.
Even semi-honest people just check the "I'll pay whatever the average amount is" which is pretty much BS since it is completely unrelated to your actual online purchases.
So I use Amazon to "browse" and read reviews mainly. From there I'll check out other sites and attempt to purchase from them or eBay. Amazon is a near-last ditch effort for me.
Thought this was a posbang.