How to charge tax nationwide on the internet
Subject:
Internet Sales Tax This was posted in the Saint Petersburg Times, 22 July, 2013
I believe I
have a simple solution to the proposed Internet Sales Tax. The dilemma
is that e-commerce dealers may have to correctly collect from and
submit taxes to 50 states, each state must be broken down by the county,
a total of 3,143 counties.
As an e-commerce reseller, we've been
watching this, and to the best of my knowledge, no such software exists
that can handle it. It would be a huge burden for the small, medium,
even "large" reseller, with the exception of Amazon and Walmart, of course, who are promoting the idea of an internet sales tax.
My solution: Make
it a standardized sales tax, of say 5%, and that tax would be paid 1/2
to the state, and 1/2 to the county where the business is actually
based. This would cover all sales, in state and out of state, for items
ordered over the internet. This levels the playing field and adds
little to the overhead of the reseller. It may even create some
competition between states and counties to encourage e-commerce
businesses to locate in their jurisdiction.
Addendum:
While only 45 out of 50 states collect sales tax, in the other 5, the
money could go to the local government, or if they
elect not to (or cannot, by constitution), then the money could go
right to the federal government, perhaps right to Congress, who would
agree to that in a heartbeat.