“A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping,” Declan McCullagh reports for CNET.
“The proposal–expected to be made public soon after Tax Day [April 18]–would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes,” McCullagh reports. “Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second most senior Senate Democrat, will introduce the bill after the Easter recess, a Democratic aide told CNET. ‘Why should out-of-state companies that sell their products online have an unfair advantage over Main Street bricks-and-mortar businesses?’ Durbin said in a speech in Collinsville, Ill., in February… Durbin’s bill will be called the Main Street Fairness Act.”
“Making matters more difficult for the pro-tax forces is the decision by Rep. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, not to run for reelection last year. Delahunt was probably Congress’ most enthusiastic proponent of Internet sales taxes, and it’s not clear a Republican-controlled House will be as eager to embrace the idea,” McCullagh reports. “One early indication: Rep. Dan Lungren, a California Republican, introduced legislation in February saying that allowing states to levy “onerous and burdensome sales tax collecting schemes on Internet-enabled small businesses that do not even reside in their state would adversely impact hundreds of thousands of jobs.” Former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is one of the sponsors.”
McCullagh reports, “The Direct Marketing Association, which sued Colorado last year to block a state tax law from taking effect, is preparing to rally opposition to Durbin’s legislation… Support for Durbin’s forthcoming legislation is likely to come from the Alliance for Main Street Fairness and like-minded companies including WalMart and Best Buy.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
No worries. Illinois is broke.. old news.
The house will never go for it since it is a tax.
The mainline democrats will never go for it since it would drop UPS traffic SIGNIFICANTLY. Good old Union UPS traffic.. Did I mention UPS is Union?
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” – Ronald Reagan
There is nothing stopping anyone, who feels they aren’t taxed enough, from donating any or all of their own money to their state, local government or the feds.
As for the notion that untaxed online sales have had a tremendous negative impact on any community’s local economy, the reality is that Walmart and other big box retailers have had a far, far greater influence that goes back years and years.
Also, let’s not ignore the fact that not all online sales are untaxed.
And here’s something else to consider… all the online big guys (Apple, Walmart, every major B&M big box retailer, etc.) already have the infrastructure in place to deal with online taxes… because they already deal with taxes on online sales.
It’s the small mom & pop online businesses (some of whom probably already exist in your local community) that are going to be negatively impacted by online taxes.
So, once again, a government activity designed to promote “fairness” will have the atypical effect of doing just the opposite.
Here in Holland we pay 19% sales tax. On the other hand, college ie free! It is not à bad thing to tax consumption. Nobody likes taxes but who likes bad service from the goverment?
What about Health insurance, is that free too Frans?
Unfortunately, Frans, I think the tea party seems to love and demand bad service from the government, which is why most of America hates them and wishes they would go away.
The Tea Party says, “Government is bad, inefficient, and intrusive. So elect me!” When elected, they prove their statements.
Hahaha that’s funny. The Tea Party movement is just a political grassroots movement of people who think government is out of control. Our history is full of such movements– instead of civil war, the safety valve for anger is the right to organize an opposition. You should be happy with the Tea Party movement. The alternative to this anger is to burn down your house 😉 Start your own movement and make sure you are represented… that’s the way the system works.
Yes Frans, I agree that consumption tax is the most fair. I think I would exempt food for large families but I would not mind a 19% sales tax if we could eliminate all the other taxes and fees which are not equal from state to state or even city to city. People here pay city taxes, county taxes, state income taxes, state sales taxes plus federal taxes and fees. Some services from the government are worth the money, some make us crazy. Many people here pay fairly large taxes, though it does not all go to the federal government. My son’s college is free. My daughter’s college is very expensive… they live in two different states. And you are right– no one likes bad service from their government. I believe in having choices. Government agencies often give bad service because they have no competition. There is no real reward for being the best. We need to work on that problem here 😉
Yes provided it applied to every tax paying entity. Corporations included. That’s never going to happen because things like mortgage intrest for individuals deduction woul kill real-estate starts for at least 2-3 years and bisiness investments would plummet at least fistr the first 2 years. There would be no way for government and lobbyist to put their spin on how to fix or profit from self created economic circumstances. Conservatives say they want lower taxes and when they get them they ship all of our jobs overseas and gut the middle-class at all levels. How about a tax on all the companies that took a tax abatement ti bring or keep jobs in a state yet ended up outsourcing those jobs to Mexico,China, India, and Singapore. I would have no problem with this tax if it were used yo preserve true net neutrality. I don’t buy that states are loosing tons of tax revenue via the Internet sales. Don’t logistics companies have to pay local taxes? For every piece if sales tax goods lost from Internet sales, some poor schmuck working locally for UPS, Fedexand DHL and the US mail pays local income tax which more than makes up for the difference. I don’t see this Democratic senator clamoring fir a tax break for those guys, and they are not unionized. As for first 2010 then 2012 get a F#ck!@g clue and stop being like all the other conservative morons that post on here. For people who claim to be businessmen and know more about economics than their so called liberal counterparts the republicans have been clueless about job creation for the past 40
years, and that includes Regan. Under Clinton the US broke the 5.0% unemployment barrier for the first time since the early 60’s. More of you guys got bigger profits as the rising economic tide floated all boats. During Clinton’s first term he rose taxes and cut them in his second term along with reforming welfare. But you guys couldn’t stand that he got a hummer in the white house so we suffered 8 years sucking the middle class dry and then asking that same middle-class to bail you guys out on your failed bets with deregulation. Now you want to kill that middle class completely by giving tax breaks to corporations that have transferred jobs overseas or are unwilling to pay real costs for harvesting our natural resources and killing our environment? You guys are rich (sarcasm).
Wow you sound like an angry person who should just give up on capitalism and embrace Pol Pot (just kidding) seriously, you should change breakfast cereals or something….
Corporations are just that… a large group of people in a workplace. They operate on profit. If they don’t profit, they can’t exist unless a government props them up, in which case the average taxpayer is paying them anyway. When their costs go up they pass them on to you. Yes there is greed in corporations. There is greed in government too. Post Clinton we still had a good economy. In fact, the unemployment rate was under 5% for much of W’s term. You are right that corporate profits rose with the economy. So did the number of jobs, real estate values, etc. I am not a conservative moron as you say. I have several advanced degrees and I actually agree with some of your points. But where we differ is the idea that only Republicans are guilty of shipping jobs overseas. Unions share that blame. So do consumers who want only the low price. Technology is bringing us to a point where we can outsource almost anyone’s job. If we are going to solve these problems it will take more cooperation than calling everyone else a moron. Good luck with that approach. It usually leads to violence.
aaaah, I am just basking in his awesome knoledge