Internet Sales Tax Is Not About Fairness

If you listened to the politicians tell it, the story of main street retailers desiring online shops to charge and collect sales tax is all about equity. To quote McEnroe,”You can’t be serious!”

Here’s the”debate” introduced by stupid politicians as proxy to the primary street retailer. Online stores do not have to collect sales tax, therefore customers are not buying from Uncle Bob’s Gift Store because Uncle Bob’s must charge sales tax. Therefore, so as to make things”fair”, all online stores should be made to charge and remit sales tax.

This issue inflames my sense of logic, but let us put their logic to the test and, once and for all, solve each the discrepancies between online and brick and mortar shops. Let’s make everything 100% honest. And let us use taxes to get it done!

My shop can never allow a person to touch or smell the thing they are interested in buying. We can only offer video and pictures that are poor substitutes at best for actually holding a product. Go have a look at an Apple Store if you do not believe me. Thus, I propose a tax on physical stores so I am able to provide holographic and smell-o-vision solutions to my site traffic! Now, this might be costly, so the tax will be hefty. But, hey, no expense should be spared in the name of equity.

Secondly, brick and mortar shops like steeply lower credit card processing rates compared to an internet shop. An internet store’s prices are two to three times more costly than the”card present” transactions enjoyed by physical stores. That equates to approximately a 2-3% difference (per transaction!) My online store must simply consume. Ghastly unfairness!

What’s more, our incidence of fraud is much greater than brick and mortar shops. We must eat those costs also. This can not be, you say? Well, don’t worry because we now have a weapon of mass unfairness destruction at our disposal. Taxes!

I propose brick and mortar shops pay a 2% Credit Card Processing Rate Fairness Tax.

Third, our clients need their buy shipped to them. This is a very costly undertaking for the merchant that’s passed to the client and oftentimes far exceeds the cost of sales taxation. By way of example, a delivery fee of $5 on a $40 buy is a 12.5 percent”tax”. Additionally, it makes it impossible for our clients to get their purchase as fast as a physical shop. Despite all of the hullabaloo regarding same day shipping, the truth is it isn’t practical for any online merchant except those who already have brick and mortar stores!

Even Amazon has said they could not roll out same day shipping on a large, national scale. Well, Amazon has to have forgotten about taxes! I propose a Same-day Product Delivery Tax. It’s a 5000% tax on most of brick and mortar purchases. I know that sounds hefty, but we are talking about fairness.

So, I think for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, we have to make this sacrifice today. The funds will be redirected to both private and public institutions of higher learning to invent a teleportation device so that online purchases can be delivered the exact same instant they are bought.

The point here is that there are an infinite number of differences between online and brick and mortar shops. These gaps typically equate to costs that the online merchant needs to bear a physical shop doesn’t. Online shops must pay to picture their stock, hire web developers and copywriters, pay web hosting fees, fork over PCI compliance fees, and a lot more.

As soon as you bring”equity” to the equation, you have thrown capitalism from the window.

To put it simply, saying that online shops not having to collect sales tax puts them at a distinct advantage over physical stores is ludicrous. The main reason why online shopping is popular is because it’s more convenient for many clients. They enjoy the experience. No tax policy could possibly change that.

In actuality, the final result of all this will not be that Uncle Bob’s earnings will increase. They will stay the same. In fact, they will probably continue to erode as online shopping continues to become increasingly more popular. All we will accomplish with this”equity” taxation is funneling more money from customers and companies into the hands of authorities. Sounds good for a market on the mend and authorities without a idea of budgets! I can just hear the politicians bellowing, “Feed me! Feed me!”

Evidently, the sole motivation for this”equity” issue is money. Countries are cash-strapped, so they trot out this crap about”equity”. It sounds good. But politicians do not realize that online stores aren’t virtual. I don’t work out of my home. I have a physical center. I have employees. I ship physical products. There’s nothing virtual about my company.

For a politician to assert that I am successful because of not having to charge sales tax outside Missouri is dumb and reeks of arrogance. Many online businesses, the same as brick and mortar stores, succeed and fail regular due to the quality of the performance, the dedication of the employees, as well as the soundness of their business plan. The taxing coverage of politicians (many of whom haven’t run a company in their own life ) have little impact on this particular struggle. To suggest otherwise is to reside in a dream world.

Proponents of an internet sales tax frequently forget about”use tax”. This insidious monster was made because nations were pissed that their components were crossing state lines to avoid paying sales tax on big purchases. All taxpayers are supposed to report and pay use tax on items they buy from out of state. The use tax rate is almost always equal to the sales tax rate. Fundamentally, states need their”cut” on whatever you buy regardless of where you bought it. I told you it was insidious.

The problem for the states is that no one reports their usage tax. Well, who’s fault is that? Every nation uses hundreds (if not thousands) of tax employees and what they are basically saying is they are not able to apply their own laws. So, they wish to force businesses who don’t live within their state (and who don’t benefit at all from the taxes collected!) to do their job for them. However, it’s all about”equity”, right? Give me a break.

Regrettably, online stores are a simple scapegoat. It was not that long ago that every news story warned consumers that purchasing online may easily lead to their identity being stolen. This newest”debate”, that state budget crises could be fixed by eliminating the”advantage” enjoyed by online shops, has been pushed (apparently ironically ) to the forefront from the world’s largest online store, Amazon. Therefore, if Amazon is for this new tax, it must be OK for many online retailers, right? Bah!

Since Amazon continues to open a growing number of warehouses throughout the nation, they are being made to collect sales tax in a growing number of states. This puts them at a pricing disadvantage to other online shops because Amazon’s main competitive advantage is price.

Therefore, Amazon is attempting to force Congress to do what they can not — beat their competition on price — all in the name of”equity”. Go figure.