Internet Taxation May Be Imminent

redfenix writes " Here, there, and everywhere, the words "Internet Tax" are being uttered with intentions of bolstering state budgets. It may be inevitable that products purchased on the net will be taxed someday. The real question is: can the fragile internet economy really help local tax economies now?"

Moral of the Story

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what you get when you liberals vote for tax and spend Democrats

Come 2004 vote for George Walker Bush
a true American Hero!

Take tips from the English goverment

[nother_nix_hacker]

If this happens do you think it would work like English road tax (the older the car the less you pay?) My 1Ghz box should be cheap to tax by then! :)

Microsoft has the best idea, copy them!

[Neck_of_the_Woods]

Just call it Tax#, and everyone will just jump on board!

Re:Why not cut spending/waste/fraud?

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

This "Internet tax", it's not calculated per-packet, is it?

Re:Actually you are 150% wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

"Unless they taught me wrong, of course. Which is highyl possible with our education system"

What an unfortunate spelling error. ;)

Semantics!

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Internet Taxation May Be Imminent"

So... if it may be imminent, then it's not imminent, right? Heh.

Re:Blame it on the regime

[Anonymous Coward]

At least he cut $300 million from the budget that funds paying for heating in homes that have trouble affording their gas bills. That oughta help.

Tax Cuts?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they wouldn't need to tax internet sales if Bush weren't pushing a $674 Billion Tax Cut [216.239.33.100].

So Long, budget surplus! So long, fiscal responsibility!

Look, I know you don't really mean it. Surely, you understand that the tax cuts Bush has already gotten passed, and those that follow, are not just, "tax cuts for the rich," like some people suggest. It may look like Reaganomics, but I assure you, that by giving tax cuts to rich multinational companies and the rich people that run them, we are on the path to fiscal wealth. Obviously, until that time, the government needs money to operate. Who better equipped to keep the government coffers flowing than the middle class/working poor? They've got their jobs to pay the taxes, the rich guys have got the money to go out (of the country) and create more jobs, and the government has the money to give more money to the rich guys. Everybody wins!

Re:Push a Spm Tax Instead

[wowbagger]

Since spammers try to hide who they are, getting them to register for a tax would be difficult at best.

A far better option would be to sell hunting licenses for them.

I know I'd sign up.

Enlarge your penis....

Enlarge THIS! BOOM!

Re:South Carolina

[DarthWiggle]

Oh, and by the way, yes, we have computers here, and no, we don't lynch people any more.

Just getting that out of the way.

Re:No New Taxes!

[Anonymous Coward]

No way, man: my librarian is an idiot.

Re:So..

[swb]

We probably should be. The taxes are not charged not because someone feels that you should be exempt from taxes, but rather because it is extremely difficult (i.e. impossible) to figure out the taxes. It is unreasonable to require each retaler to file and keep track of all 50 states rules/laws/tax amounts.

I understand that they have a new device that all the kids are talking about called a "com-pu-ter" that is pretty amazing at keeping track of stuff like this. You match up something like the state's abbreviation and it returns the percentage sales tax. I guess it's pretty useful.

But I guess they're not in widespread use, because there's very few nationwide retail chains who are able to keep track of all those complicated rules. The ones that are nationwide I think are getting smaller, like Wal Mart, Target and Best Buy, primarily due to the business overhead they face trying to keep track of all those state taxes.

They'll never thrive like E-Toys, reach the profitability of Amazon, or any of the other successful internet businesses that don't have to charge state sales taxes. What a help it has been.

Re:So..

[Kanasta]

Hate to rain on your parade, but remember this place called 'the rest of the world'?

Damned well better not try to charge us sales tax based on ANY of your 5x state laws...