Tag Archive for Internet Sales Tax

This Year’s Omnibus Bill: What About Internet Sales Tax?

Last week Congress passed the 2018 omnibus spending bill after finalizing the language at the last minute. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, specifically Rep. Kristi Noem, were pushing to include online sales tax legislation, but ultimately the House’s chief deputy whip, Rep. Patrick McHenry, “Signaled…that Noem’s measure won’t be included in the omnibus and hasn’t had enough vetting.”

About The Online Sales Tax Provision

Rep. Noem made an aggressive push to add the online sales tax legislation to the bill last minute. As The Hill explains: Read More

Written by | Posted in Omnibus Bill • Online Sales Tax

Judiciary Committee Releases Internet Sales Tax Principles

TaxConnections Blogger Jerry Donnini posts internet sales tax principlesReportedly relying on trade groups, taxpayers, industry, and state governments the House Judiciary Committee announced seven basic principles on remote sales tax collection. Chairman Goodlatte made the announcement to allegedly begin the discussion on the looming problem of Internet sales tax.

The seven basic principles, announced, are:

1. Tax Relief – Using the Internet should not create new or discriminatory taxes not faced in the offline world. Nor should any fresh precedent be created for other areas of interstate taxation by States.

2. Tech Neutrality – Brick & Mortar, Exclusively Online, and Brick & Click businesses should all be on equal footing. The sales tax compliance burden on online Internet sellers should not be less, but neither should it be greater than that on similarly situated offline businesses.

3. No Regulation Without Representation – Those who would bear state taxation, regulation and compliance burdens should have direct recourse to protest unfair, unwise or discriminatory rates and enforcement. Read More

Written by | Posted in Federal • Sales/Use Tax • State And Local Tax (SALT) • United States

The Tax Burden In America Is Not High Enough?

By a vote of 69-27, the United States Senate has passed yet another tax hike. Instead of curbing spending, they have decided that raising taxes on the Internet is the best way to pay the debt.

The bill aims to enforce a sales and use tax on businesses that rely on the Internet to reach their customers. While the specifics of the bill are about as long as Obamacare, here are the top three problems with the Internet sales tax:

•  Online businesses would be responsible for collecting and filing their sales tax from customers that don’t reside in their state.

•  Businesses would be forced to use software that will generate a database to keep track of their tax paying customers. This also puts their customers at risk should the database be hacked, spilling millions of sensitive personal information records into the wrong hands.

•  States might no longer seek to lower their taxes for business friendly environments. They’d be encouraged to raise their taxes in order to collect tax money from other states, thus hurting potential business development. Read More

Written by | Posted in Federal • Sales/Use Tax