[IP] Fed Internet Sales Taxes

I hear this a lot and I always wonder: Will they tax 800-number orders
as well? They are the same thing, just two ways to get a company to
mail you a product. The "web" is just a way to remove the human
operator from a mail order service.

If not, I think I'll start using 800 numbers again, which will cost
the businesses a lot of $$.

--
TTFN,
patrick

On May 21, 2008, at 10:11 AM, David Farber wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Atkinson <rca53@columbia.edu>

Date: May 21, 2008 10:07:38 AM EDT

To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>

Subject: For IP: Internet Sales Taxes

Dave,

A call in Wall St. Journal for imposing sales taxes on internet

commerce:

http://online.wsj.com/article/portals.html

Excerpts:

Real World Needs 'Net' Taxes

May 21, 2008; Page B9

Do you think that billionaire Internet moguls should continue to

benefit from a tax loophole that hurts parks and schools, and makes

it harder for your neighborhood bookstore to keep open for business?

I didn't think you did.

***

For starters, by giving online businesses a permanent advantage

over their bricks-and-mortar competitors, it helps those who need

it least -- huge, profitable e-commerce companies -- at the expense

of often-struggling local retailers.

In addition, the tax policy is regressive. It disproportionately

benefits the upscale citizens most likely to shop online. Worst of

all, as commerce increasingly moves online, state and local

governments are being deprived of the sales-tax revenues they rely

on to run schools, build roads, pay police and firefighters, and do

all the other things they're supposed to do.

A dozen years ago, one might have been able to make the case that a

holiday on collecting sales tax would help the fledgling Internet

get off the ground. I don't think that was particularly true even

in 1996; it certainly isn't now.

***

Opponents of the tax collection are fond of the effective but

dishonest slogan that collecting a sales tax would amount to a new

"tax on the Internet." But making Amazon collect sales tax on books

is no more "taxing the Internet" than requiring stores to collect

taxes on Valentine's Day chocolates amounts to "taxing falling in

love."

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