Begin forwarded message:
From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.net>
Date: May 21, 2008 11:13:24 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>, ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Internet Sales Taxes
At 08:11 AM 5/21/2008, Robert Atkinson wrote:
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?
Actually, it is "big box" retailers and "category killers" which are most in favor of sales taxes on Internet commerce. Why? Because such taxes make it more difficult to escape the grip of these large, downtown-decimating national chains by ordering from smaller businesses that set up shop on the Web.
As these large corporations turn downtowns into ghost towns, small retail businesses stand to be put out of business by the big guys unless they are able to reach out to the world via the Net, tapping a larger customer base than is likely to exist in a small town or even many small to moderate-sized cities.
The large, national chains, on the other hand, already have a physical presence in every state and thus must already charge sales taxes even when they sell via the Web. Obviously, they don't like the edge that this gives to the small businesses they'd love to put out of business -- and, hence, want to eliminate that small but crucial advantage.
In short, taxing e-commerce favors the big guys such as Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble, which is why these and other very large, nationwide chains are the strongest and most vociferous advocates of it.
--Brett Glass