Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
The bottom line is that there is no practical way for states to collect the unpaid sales taxes except through the retail seller, and that's a lot of money not being collected.
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That has to be the dumbest comment I've read in quite some time. I was in a software architecture conference several years ago where this point was being debated. From a 'brick and mortar' perspective, it makes sense. The bookstore on Main Street in Anywhere, Kansas, only has one set of tax rules to follow. They remit collected taxes to a couple of locations.
From the internet sales, it makes no sense. If I remember the figures from the conference correctly, thre are approximately 15 thousand taxing authorities in the US. That's federal, state, city, county and special tax authority taxes. In those, there are those taxes that aren't full time (some places, for example, give tax holidays on school supply purchases in late summer). The accounting nightmare of collecting, tracking and remitting taxes to those 15 thousand taxing authorities will run anyone out of business.
The consensus of opinion of those present? It was not possible to develop software to properly support collection of sales taxes on internet sales.
When you're taxed on an internet sale, check the figures. The odds are, the taxes being collected aren't correct.