| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Roedy Green" |
| Date: |
09 Jun 2007 12:00:08 AM |
| Object: |
Crazy Sales Taxes |
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller. In
theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every state,
every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable at what
rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is impossible without
hiring some firm who has full time people maintaining proprietary
databases.
The tax rate should depend on the location of the seller. Why?
a) The seller's state provided the water, transport, police etc. to
create the goods.
b) the merchant does need remit to only one state and use only one set
of tax rules and rates.
2. Sales taxes are elitist and feudal. There were invented in England,
when they were called "excise taxes". There was a beer consumption tax
that only the poor paid. The wealthy made their own beer and thus
escaped the tax. The same sort of thing happens today. Conrad Black
writes off his private Jet as a non-taxable business expense while the
ordinary folk pay sales tax on their Greyhound bus ticket. The rich
don't pay them, and they hit the poor the hardest. A fairer tax is
progressive and taxes wealth or income. It makes sense to have some
consumption taxes on things we need to specially conserve for the
national good, like oil and energy.
3. When foreigners buy US goods, they get a free ride, even if
government services made the creation of those goods possible.
They should pay the same tax as anyone else.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
1. simpler calculation. A vendor has only one rate to deal with.
2. Buyer has no idea if vendor is cheating him. He knows only his own
tax rate, not that of the vendor.
3. Web based companies would set up their virtual headquarters in
no-tax states.
Ideally it would work like this:
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
2. merchants remit to the state level government.
3. The states hash it out how much money transfer to each other and to
give to their counties and cities. It is silly to track this
individually on every transaction.
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
The Java Glossary
http://mindprod.com
.
|
|
| User: "Bill C." |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 12:47:55 AM |
|
|
"Roedy Green" <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com...
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller. In
theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every state,
every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable at what
rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is impossible without
hiring some firm who has full time people maintaining proprietary
databases.
The tax rate should depend on the location of the seller. Why?
a) The seller's state provided the water, transport, police etc. to
create the goods.
b) the merchant does need remit to only one state and use only one set
of tax rules and rates.
2. Sales taxes are elitist and feudal. There were invented in England,
when they were called "excise taxes". There was a beer consumption tax
that only the poor paid. The wealthy made their own beer and thus
escaped the tax. The same sort of thing happens today. Conrad Black
writes off his private Jet as a non-taxable business expense while the
ordinary folk pay sales tax on their Greyhound bus ticket. The rich
don't pay them, and they hit the poor the hardest. A fairer tax is
progressive and taxes wealth or income. It makes sense to have some
consumption taxes on things we need to specially conserve for the
national good, like oil and energy.
3. When foreigners buy US goods, they get a free ride, even if
government services made the creation of those goods possible.
They should pay the same tax as anyone else.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
1. simpler calculation. A vendor has only one rate to deal with.
2. Buyer has no idea if vendor is cheating him. He knows only his own
tax rate, not that of the vendor.
3. Web based companies would set up their virtual headquarters in
no-tax states.
Ideally it would work like this:
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
2. merchants remit to the state level government.
3. The states hash it out how much money transfer to each other and to
give to their counties and cities. It is silly to track this
individually on every transaction.
The City of Toronto Act is an interesting idea (by socialist Mayor Miller).
It's not so different from other cities in the USA like Giuliani's wildly
successful NYC taxation act which changed that place and a few others for the
better in the USA and Europe as well.
But, in NYC, the State of NY and the Federal Government subsidizes their public
transit. Toronto's TTC is the third largest in North America (second only to
NYC and Mexico City) and it's not subsidized.
The Toronto city budget is bigger than most provinces, Toronto is more populated
than most provinces in Canada. Since the Harris government, Toronto has spent
about 35% of it's budget on transit.
Chicago, LA, NYC, Mexico City, Montreal and other cities have been subsidized by
the State/Provincial government since day-one. Toronto residents pay for it
from their property taxes.
It's really sick when you realize that Liberals have been in charge of Ontario
for a long time, and they haven't fixed what Mike Harris did. They haven't
changed things back to where they should be.
Blame the Provincial Ontario Liberals for the Toronto debt. Most of it's
because of North America's third biggest public transit system which we have to
pay for. Why not be like the rest?
A single LRT train in Vancouver or Calgary carries 600 people maximum, a Toronto
or Montreal Subway train carries over 1,400 people in one shot. We're not
talking small cookies.
.
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|
|
| User: "z" |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 01:10:03 AM |
|
|
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller. In
theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every state,
every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable at what
rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is impossible without
hiring some firm who has full time people maintaining proprietary
databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and our phone
order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and when we
were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless you have
whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the buyer is
located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those states we
have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that looks up
the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in the
other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an item in
AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy a product
produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA (and not for Oregon
either because we are civilized and don't have the tax). But we have
employees in CA too, but we only have to collect on products they produce
in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't want
one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let California or
other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bill C." |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 01:25:09 AM |
|
|
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller. In
theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every state,
every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable at what
rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is impossible without
hiring some firm who has full time people maintaining proprietary
databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and our phone
order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and when we
were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless you have
whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the buyer is
located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those states we
have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that looks up
the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in the
other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an item in
AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy a product
produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA (and not for Oregon
either because we are civilized and don't have the tax). But we have
employees in CA too, but we only have to collect on products they produce
in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't want
one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let California or
other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We don't collect
tax for the US.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bill C." |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 01:29:15 AM |
|
|
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
news:5cuvedF318vdpU1@mid.individual.net...
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller. In
theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every state,
every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable at what
rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is impossible without
hiring some firm who has full time people maintaining proprietary
databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and our phone
order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and when we
were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless you have
whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the buyer is
located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those states we
have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that looks up
the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in the
other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an item in
AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy a product
produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA (and not for Oregon
either because we are civilized and don't have the tax). But we have
employees in CA too, but we only have to collect on products they produce
in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't want
one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let California or
other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We don't
collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales tax at year
end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
.
|
|
|
| User: "z" |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 03:06:33 AM |
|
|
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cuvm4F31b72eU1@mid.individual.net:
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
news:5cuvedF318vdpU1@mid.individual.net...
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller.
In theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every
state, every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable
at what rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is
impossible without hiring some firm who has full time people
maintaining proprietary databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and our
phone order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and when
we were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless you
have whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the buyer
is located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those states
we have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that
looks up the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in the
other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an
item in AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy a
product produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA (and
not for Oregon either because we are civilized and don't have the
tax). But we have employees in CA too, but we only have to collect
on products they produce in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of
complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't
want one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let
California or other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We
don't collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales tax
at year end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
Right. Its not your responsiblity unless you have a business presence in
the state. Like if you had employees there the state would probably want
a cut. But otherwise they can't touch you.
Like I said we never had to worry about it being from Oregon until we had
employees in other states. Thats when the fun began :(
But another thing that is odd. Like if I buy a car (or anything else) in
Washington I can use my Oregon ID and avoid paying the sales tax.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bill C." |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 03:24:07 AM |
|
|
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns994AB4EEC060zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cuvm4F31b72eU1@mid.individual.net:
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
news:5cuvedF318vdpU1@mid.individual.net...
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller.
In theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every
state, every country, every city and the rules for what is taxable
at what rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It is
impossible without hiring some firm who has full time people
maintaining proprietary databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and our
phone order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and when
we were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless you
have whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the buyer
is located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those states
we have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that
looks up the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in the
other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an
item in AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy a
product produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA (and
not for Oregon either because we are civilized and don't have the
tax). But we have employees in CA too, but we only have to collect
on products they produce in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of
complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't
want one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let
California or other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We
don't collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales tax
at year end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
Right. Its not your responsiblity unless you have a business presence in
the state. Like if you had employees there the state would probably want
a cut. But otherwise they can't touch you.
Like I said we never had to worry about it being from Oregon until we had
employees in other states. Thats when the fun began :(
But another thing that is odd. Like if I buy a car (or anything else) in
Washington I can use my Oregon ID and avoid paying the sales tax.
That's great! I go to Indianapolis, a 15 hour drive from Toronto, and the
stupid place doesn't even sell beer on a Sunday!
I feel like I'm back in Toronto, but in 1975!
God Bless America!
.
|
|
|
| User: "z" |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 03:54:14 AM |
|
|
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cv6deF324jdfU1@mid.individual.net:
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns994AB4EEC060zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cuvm4F31b72eU1@mid.individual.net:
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
news:5cuvedF318vdpU1@mid.individual.net...
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller.
In theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every
state, every country, every city and the rules for what is
taxable at what rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It
is impossible without hiring some firm who has full time people
maintaining proprietary databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and
our phone order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and
when we were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless
you have whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the
buyer is located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those
states we have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that
looks up the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in
the other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an
item in AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy
a product produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA
(and not for Oregon either because we are civilized and don't have
the tax). But we have employees in CA too, but we only have to
collect on products they produce in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of
complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't
want one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let
California or other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We
don't collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales tax
at year end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
Right. Its not your responsiblity unless you have a business
presence in the state. Like if you had employees there the state
would probably want a cut. But otherwise they can't touch you.
Like I said we never had to worry about it being from Oregon until we
had employees in other states. Thats when the fun began :(
But another thing that is odd. Like if I buy a car (or anything
else) in Washington I can use my Oregon ID and avoid paying the sales
tax.
That's great! I go to Indianapolis, a 15 hour drive from Toronto,
and the stupid place doesn't even sell beer on a Sunday!
I feel like I'm back in Toronto, but in 1975!
God Bless America!
thats funny!
When I lived in scotland you couldn't get beer in the off licence on
sunday .. you had to go to the pub.
They changed that finally
.
|
|
|
| User: "Bill C." |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 04:05:32 AM |
|
|
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns994A136463B29zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cv6deF324jdfU1@mid.individual.net:
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns994AB4EEC060zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
news:5cuvm4F31b72eU1@mid.individual.net:
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
news:5cuvedF318vdpU1@mid.individual.net...
"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9949EBB22CCB9zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the seller.
In theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates in every
state, every country, every city and the rules for what is
taxable at what rate. There are no central up-to-date lists. It
is impossible without hiring some firm who has full time people
maintaining proprietary databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and
our phone order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and
when we were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless
you have whats called a 'business presence' in the state where the
buyer is located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those
states we have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that
looks up the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on the
seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in
the other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an
item in AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and buy
a product produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or CA
(and not for Oregon either because we are civilized and don't have
the tax). But we have employees in CA too, but we only have to
collect on products they produce in CA for sale to Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of
complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter the
location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we don't
want one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up. Let
California or other states worry about collecting the damn tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We
don't collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales tax
at year end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
Right. Its not your responsiblity unless you have a business
presence in the state. Like if you had employees there the state
would probably want a cut. But otherwise they can't touch you.
Like I said we never had to worry about it being from Oregon until we
had employees in other states. Thats when the fun began :(
But another thing that is odd. Like if I buy a car (or anything
else) in Washington I can use my Oregon ID and avoid paying the sales
tax.
That's great! I go to Indianapolis, a 15 hour drive from Toronto,
and the stupid place doesn't even sell beer on a Sunday!
I feel like I'm back in Toronto, but in 1975!
God Bless America!
thats funny!
When I lived in scotland you couldn't get beer in the off licence on
sunday .. you had to go to the pub.
They changed that finally
Scotland, eh? My heritage is from Glasgow (Mother's family from Liverpool).
You wouldn't be from Edinburgh would ya? :)
.
|
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| User: "z" |
|
| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 04:14:28 AM |
|
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"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
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"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
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"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
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"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
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"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in message
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Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> wrote in
news:52ck63h3pkieuasod42on4mknupv6nrvnl@4ax.com:
Sales taxes in the USA are utterly unmanageable.
1. The rate depends on the location of the buyer, not the
seller. In theory the seller must keep track of the tax rates
in every state, every country, every city and the rules for
what is taxable at what rate. There are no central up-to-date
lists. It is impossible without hiring some firm who has full
time people maintaining proprietary databases.
I wrote the sales tax code for our on-line shopping system and
our phone order system, so I'm familiar with how horrible it is.
We are based in Oregon so we don't have any sales tax here, and
when we were a smaller company we never had to worry about it.
The key is that you don't have to have collect sales tax unless
you have whats called a 'business presence' in the state where
the buyer is located.
We now have some employees within other states, so for those
states we have to collect.
Its not really that hard. You just have a state code table that
looks up the rate and applies it.
What are the consequences of flipping sales tax to depend on
the seller's location?
this is mostly true now. You must have a 'business presence' in
the other state to have to collect for that state.
For example, we have employees in Arizona, so if someone buys an
item in AZ, from AZ we collect. If they are in California and
buy a product produced in AZ we don't have to collect for AZ or
CA (and not for Oregon either because we are civilized and don't
have the tax). But we have employees in CA too, but we only
have to collect on products they produce in CA for sale to
Californians.
Well all our products are shipped from Oregon so its kind of
complicated.
1. there is a uniform 5% sales tax. It is the same no matter
the location of buyer and sender.
Screw you. In Oregon we don't have a sales tax now. And we
don't want one .. it gets voted down every time it comes up.
Let California or other states worry about collecting the damn
tax.
I sell to the USA every day, about $200,000 a month from Canada.
It's up to the consumer to tell the IRS about their purchase. We
don't collect tax for the US.
The same applies to state government's as well.
I seriously doubt if my customers in New Jersey add the 6% sales
tax at year end.
But if they don't, that's their problem. Not mine.
Right. Its not your responsiblity unless you have a business
presence in the state. Like if you had employees there the state
would probably want a cut. But otherwise they can't touch you.
Like I said we never had to worry about it being from Oregon until
we had employees in other states. Thats when the fun began :(
But another thing that is odd. Like if I buy a car (or anything
else) in Washington I can use my Oregon ID and avoid paying the
sales tax.
That's great! I go to Indianapolis, a 15 hour drive from Toronto,
and the stupid place doesn't even sell beer on a Sunday!
I feel like I'm back in Toronto, but in 1975!
God Bless America!
thats funny!
When I lived in scotland you couldn't get beer in the off licence on
sunday .. you had to go to the pub.
They changed that finally
Scotland, eh? My heritage is from Glasgow (Mother's family from
Liverpool). You wouldn't be from Edinburgh would ya? :)
cool.
no just lived there for a long time. I know a lot of scots bailed over
to Canada a while back. Its a great city is Edinburgh .. probably the
most beutiful i've ever seen. Great night life too.
Don't mis freaking VAT though .. do miss the NHS.
One of these years i'm going to tour Canada. I've been to Vancouver a
bunch but no where else. Might have to take a road trip -- but crap my
passport has expired. What a pain in the the ***** that whole thing is.
Last time I went to Van I didn't need it.
.
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| User: "Bill C." |
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| Title: Re: Crazy Sales Taxes |
09 Jun 2007 04:56:22 AM |
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"z" <z@yada.yada.com> wrote in message
news:Xns994A16D2F75C3zyadayadayada@216.196.97.131...
"Bill C." <billc99ab@canada.com> wrote in
Scotland, eh? My heritage is from Glasgow (Mother's family from
Liverpool). You wouldn't be from Edinburgh would ya? :)
cool.
no just lived there for a long time. I know a lot of scots bailed over
to Canada a while back. Its a great city is Edinburgh .. probably the
most beutiful i've ever seen. Great night life too.
Don't mis freaking VAT though .. do miss the NHS.
One of these years i'm going to tour Canada. I've been to Vancouver a
bunch but no where else. Might have to take a road trip -- but crap my
passport has expired. What a pain in the the ***** that whole thing is.
Last time I went to Van I didn't need it.
I've been here for almost all of my life. My business has taken me from
coast-to-coast in two weeks.
I've visited North America, lived in the US too.
But, I've never been to Newfoundland, Yukon or up there. I've been to PEI, a
beautiful place. But never Newfie. Northern Quebec is God's country, so is
Northern BC. It takes 3 days to get from Toronto to Manitoba by train, and
I've done it on a Honda Gold Wing as well.
Thunder Bay? That's where North Ontario begins. Look at a map.
Visiting the Maritimes and driving around there is probably my best when it
comes to Canada, but driving up the Sea-to-Sky highway in BC, alone was not bad.
My trip from Whistler, to Vancouver then through the rockies to Calgary by car
was a personal vacation.
Everyone needs to pay the toll and take the Coquihalla Toll Highway. It rocks!
I drive up to Sudbury occasionally, friends have a cottage on Manitoulan Island.
(it's God's country up there)
Then, there's Peggy's Cove, a short trip from Halifax and a friend who lives on
Cape Breton down east.
This country is too big, but I'm going to see as much as I can before I die.
Did I mention how great it is to drive from Ottawa to Quebec City? Probably
not.
Another story.
The great American artist Stan Ridgway made record of his songs called "Songs
That Make
This Country Great". It was about the USA.
All I can say is that Canada has it's own for sure.
People need to shuck the politics and visit places. Rouyn-Noranda in North
Ontario, North Bay, the brilliant towns in BC like Kamloops, Golden. Parry
Sound in Ontario. Ever been to Fredericton?
You haven't lived until you've taken off at Vancouver Airport in a Dash 8, and
flown through the Rockies, not over them, to arrive in Kelowna. You look out
the window and the mountains are in your face! Flying right beside them.
I've spent a lot of time in Calgary as well, but most of my impressions were in
Banff. :)
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