Wed, 21 May 2008 10:36:46 -0400
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Patrick W. Gilmore"
> Date: May 21, 2008 10:31:42 AM EDT
> To: David Farber
> Cc: "Patrick W. Gilmore"
> Subject: Re: [IP] Internet Sales Taxes
>
> I hear this a lot and I always wonder: Will they tax 800-number orders
> as well? They are the same thing, just two ways to get a company to
> mail you a product. The "web" is just a way to remove the human
> operator from a mail order service.
>
> If not, I think I'll start using 800 numbers again, which will cost
> the businesses a lot of $$.
>
> --
> TTFN,
> patrick
>
>
>
> On May 21, 2008, at 10:11 AM, David Farber wrote:
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: Robert Atkinson
>>> Date: May 21, 2008 10:07:38 AM EDT
>>> To: David Farber
>>> Subject: For IP: Internet Sales Taxes
>>>
>>> Dave,
>>>
>>> A call in Wall St. Journal for imposing sales taxes on internet
>>> commerce:
>>>
>>> http://online.wsj.com/article/portals.html >>>
>>> Excerpts:
>>>
>>> Real World Needs 'Net' Taxes
>>> May 21, 2008; Page B9
>>>
>>> Do you think that billionaire Internet moguls should continue to
>>> benefit from a tax loophole that hurts parks and schools, and makes
>>> it harder for your neighborhood bookstore to keep open for business?
>>>
>>> I didn't think you did.
>>>
>>> ***
>>>
>>> For starters, by giving online businesses a permanent advantage
>>> over their bricks-and-mortar competitors, it helps those who need
>>> it least -- huge, profitable e-commerce companies -- at the expense
>>> of often-struggling local retailers.
>>>
>>> In addition, the tax policy is regressive. It disproportionately
>>> benefits the upscale citizens most likely to shop online. Worst of
>>> all, as commerce increasingly moves online, state and local
>>> governments are being deprived of the sales-tax revenues they rely
>>> on to run schools, build roads, pay police and firefighters, and do
>>> all the other things they're supposed to do.
>>>
>>> A dozen years ago, one might have been able to make the case that a
>>> holiday on collecting sales tax would help the fledgling Internet
>>> get off the ground. I don't think that was particularly true even
>>> in 1996; it certainly isn't now.
>>>
>>> ***
>>>
>>> Opponents of the tax collection are fond of the effective but
>>> dishonest slogan that collecting a sales tax would amount to a new
>>> "tax on the Internet." But making Amazon collect sales tax on books
>>> is no more "taxing the Internet" than requiring stores to collect
>>> taxes on Valentine's Day chocolates amounts to "taxing falling in
>>> love."
>>>
>> Archives
>>
>
>
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