Poll of the Day > U.S Supreme Court rules that states may tax online retailers.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/606463186/with-billions-at-stake-supreme-court-rules-states-may-tax-online-retailers

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states can collect state sales taxes from online retailers on consumer purchases. The decision overruled a decades-old precedent that had protected out-of-state sellers from being required to collect such taxes.

States stand to gain billions of dollars with the ruling, which marks a new era in an Internet economy that has boomed over the past decade and become a dominant force. Home goods seller Wayfair and other e-commerce companies had attempted to challenge a South Dakota law that levies taxes on purchases made through certain online retailers.

The decision will also have dramatic consequences for small online retailers that do business in many states.

"The Internet's prevalence and power have changed the dynamics of the national economy," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

The 5-4 decision defied the usual conservative-liberal lineup with Kennedy joined by liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and conservatives Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. The conservative chief justice, John Roberts, dissented along with liberals Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Forty-five states rely on sales taxes for revenue, and for states that have no income tax, sales taxes are very important. Estimates of how much money the states are losing vary dramatically, ranging from more than $200 billion over five years to a recent estimate from the Government Accountability Office of between $8 billion and $13 billion per year.

Indeed, Justice Gorsuch once called the current system "a judicially created tax shelter."

And, in 2015, Justice Kennedy suggested that he was prepared to overrule the Supreme Court's 1967 and 1992 decisions in light of modern realities.

For much of the last decade, states have been pressing Congress to fix the problem, to pass a bill that levels the playing field. But Congress, buffeted by anti-tax groups, has walked away from the issue.

It was bound to happen eventually.
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i figured they would do that since most people are buying online. it sucks, but ive been doing it for 2 years or so now. it was really nice to have no taxes on purchases.
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If you live on a boarder of a state , and the next state has lower tax rate, set up a PO box with to have stuff mailed there
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What's the matter? Don't you want your "free" healthcare?
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Ah well, I'll just have major purchases in Oregon if I wanna live tax free
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Heavy lobbying for origin-sourced sales tax in 3...2...

Probably good in the long, Amazon and bezos are greedy fucks
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TheOrangeMisfit posted...

Probably good in the long, Amazon and bezos are greedy fucks

Amazon has been collecting local sales tax for several years now. It's the mom & pops who will get utterly screwed, to Amazon's benefit.

So question from someone in another country, what would that effect? I buy PSN gift cards on Amazon or other sites, and then games on PSN, neither have tax on them right now. I don't mind if tax is on the gift card, but I'd be annoyed if on PSN itself (since instead of getting a $20 card for a $20 game, I'd need $30 to cover the tax, rather than paying $20 + tax to get the card if it is on the sites with the gift card).

And I'd be really annoyed if they tax the card and the game.
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I've been paying use tax for the past three or four years on untaxed products (i.e. Steam games, music/movie downloads, etc.) so this change will make doing taxes easier for me as I would no longer need to do the calculation myself.

TheOrangeMisfit posted...

Probably good in the long, Amazon and bezos are greedy fucks

I would say the fault lies with the customers and not the vendors. The vendors probably did what they could that was within legal boundaries and left it to their customers to later pay taxes on untaxed product. If states were losing revenue because of unpaid taxes, the fault lies with the customer in my opinion.

I recall some folks were complaining when Amazon and some online vendors started to charge taxes for customers in California. Seems like a damn if you do, damn if you don't situation for some online vendors.
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DeltaBladeX posted...

So question from someone in another country, what would that effect? I buy PSN gift cards on Amazon or other sites, and then games on PSN, neither have tax on them right now. I don't mind if tax is on the gift card, but I'd be annoyed if on PSN itself (since instead of getting a $20 card for a $20 game, I'd need $30 to cover the tax, rather than paying $20 + tax to get the card if it is on the sites with the gift card).

And I'd be really annoyed if they tax the card and the game.

Gift cards aren't supposed to be taxed anyway, in most jurisdictions at least.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Gift cards aren't supposed to be taxed anyway, in most jurisdictions at least.

So if it happens with me, I won't get double taxed at least, but I would need higher cards since the PSN purchase would be taxed. -_-
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I actually never realized i wasn't paying sales tax before
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On one hand, it's probably for the best that states are getting that sales tax. On the other, fuck taxes. CT already charges out the ass in every other form of tax.

ssj4supervegeta posted...

I actually never realized i wasn't paying sales tax before

>_>

InfestedAdam posted...

I would say the fault lies with the customers and not the vendors. The vendors probably did what they could that was within legal boundaries and left it to their customers to later pay taxes on untaxed product. If states were losing revenue because of unpaid taxes, the fault lies with the customer in my opinion.

Technically the collection of taxes has *always* been the vendor's responsibility although they weren't always legally forced to do so.
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my billing address has been oregon for years
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Meh. Maybe 10% of my online purchases in the past year weren't taxed, and that was mostly clothing, anyway.
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