Sales tax rates...

When NY State implements this mess (they will at least TRY to). The people of NY State will have lots of time to think up other ways to capture the goose that lays the golden eggs.

In California, I've seen the tax rate (Sales tax) go from 4% in the early 60's up to its present 8.25%. This is money that goes DIRECTLY to our wonderful government run by the Governator. The big problem is that while the rate has DOUBLED (remember this is the RATE), we don't get twice the government out of it. In fact we probably don't get much more than what the 4% bought us.

So, any way of getting out of paying sales taxes is welcome to many of us. Thankfully I've got relatives in (sales tax free) Oregon who can help out with those "big ticket" items.

For those of you wanting to know: Sales tax was originally supposed to be a replacement for property taxes on the same item. They thought of a rate and figures on how long you would keep it. It was supposed to be an easy replacement. Now our governments (there are lots here in the USA) wants a "piece of the action". Always your "partner" even if you don't want it. (*SIGH*)

Why California? I was down in Carmel (Clint's (make my day) hangout) this weekend and it was a nice 80 degrees, and the beach was wonderful. The weekend before, I was skiing at Lake Tahoe. Enough said!

The question is :

How much tax was paid on the 1000 $ an hour...

Try...

paying 17.5% on everything by default as well as £1.07 for a litre of bog standard unleaded.....

Taxes and government salaries

Eliot Spitzer and many other US government officials had incomes way beyond their official salaries. A NY Govenor is paid $179,000 (http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=207914)

Hillary made about $10 mill & Barak made a couple millions on their books as an example. (and fwiw, the Clintons have donated 9.5% of their combined income to charity and the Obama's only 1%.)

The US president is only paid $400,000 in salary (plus benefits/perks).

A US senator is only paid $169,000-$183,000 (plus benefits/perks)

A US congressional representative $165,200-$183,000 (plus benefits/perks)

For the poorer senators and congressional representatives, it is nearly impossible to live in both their home states support their families and live in Washington dc at the same time. Many share homes and apartments with other senators and representatives, on the other hand more than 40 senators are millionaires.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a1jCrDLXBfOM&refer=us

everyone wants services...

like roads (and bridges that don't collapse from neglect) and schools (and teachers and textbooks) and parklands and police and fire protection, etc. ad infinitum but nobody wants to pay the taxes which pay for these things; they seem to think that the state can just produce them out of thin air, I guess.

People Willing to Pay for Value

I think the problem people have with it is that private industry salaries have stagnated while public service employees are pretty much guaranteed 4 % a year. For example, here on Long Island a married teacher and policeman here can clear $250k a year ... the median income BTW is about $45k. Many retire with pensions that have a higher take home pay than when they were working full time. That an all the "patronage" jobs, funny expense account charges and all have people fed up....which is unfortunate for the many hardworking public service employees that don't have strong unions and spaghetti spined politicians.

I think the biggest beneficiary of this will be "Mailboxes 'R Us" of New Jersey as peeps ship to a NJ PO Box and have their stuff forwarded.

Location, location, location

I am curious if the law will apply to an affiliate who lives in NY or if it will only apply if the affiliate's website is housed on a server in NY. If the affiliate is a Nevada or Delaware registered business using a Texas based server then is the business located in NY just because the owner of the business resides in NY? I can't see how this is going to be policed. The obvious thing for Amazon to do is declare that as of a given date they will no longer do business with affiliates with mailing addresses in NY. Then it is up to the affiliates to use a mail drop and bank deposit in Nevada or another commerce friendly state and access their fund through the automated banking system.

Hmm

Not to miss the point of the article, but has anyone read the call-girl article linked?

If i knew you could get money from the New York Times for copying out what's on someone's MySpace profile i'd have become a journalist years ago...

True, but...

thomas k., while money for government services does not come out of thin air, I can see where it might get just a little annoying when you live in a state like New York, which is pretty well-known for finding ever more ways of milking its citizens in possibly every aspect of their lives, and the services they provide with it are mediocre at best. And that is if they ever manage to get that bloated budget passed on time.

Hmm mess

Taxes are suppose to be paid in the state were the transaction took places. This has been interpreted as were the product is coming from and were ever the company has a physical presence at.

Two things can happen. Other sates could sue NY or they could refuse to abide by court rulings that has to due with money judgments. Oops you want us to collect child support for you ?? Toss off.

Won't Work

It seems more likely that Amazon will ban affiliates who are located in New York state than that they will start to charge sales tax to New York customers, so the state won't actually make any money but will destroy the businesses of a number of its residents.

This is a dodge really

If I buy something mail-order from another state other then there is not sales tax. If I buy from someone in the same state then sales tax is applicable. Why should internet sales be treated any differently? Further, since inter-state trade is under the jurisdiction of the federal courts(and the Supreme Court), why is a state authority even allowed to assert this?

Should try Europe.........

In the UK, we pay 17.5% sales tax (VAT). Have to pay similar sales tax on anything we buy from elsewhere in Europe, and pay same sales tax + import duty + handling charge on anything we purchase from the US.

Even software downloads from the US have European VAT (of at least 17.5% )added to them.

So whilst I can understand the frustration of NY residents at having to pay a tax they didn't have to up until now, I do think they ought to know how things are the other side of 'The Pond'.

@Taxes and government salaries

It isn't the elected politicians, or even the civil servants salaries that you should complain about, it's the high priced people who are brought in to run bits of government, who have to be better because they come from industry, consultancy or acedimia and need to be offered competitive salaries and bonuses to attract the brightest and the best.

Then there's outsourcing services to the private sector that means they make a profit on something government didn't.

And finally there's those good old consultants from Kindsey, PWC and others who cost lots and deliver nothing because they are graduates charged at $2000 a day and know nothing about real life but tell your government how it should work.

That's where the tax $ £ F Y or anything else in the western world really goes.

@Worse in EU

"If you buy stuff from Amazon in the EU, they charge you the VAT rate of the country it is shipped too, not where you bought it."

Depends.

If a company has a trading presence in the destination country then it charges at the rate of VAT for that country, else it charges at the rate in the supplying country.

This means that someone in France ordering a book from Amazon UK will pay 5.5% VAT (French rate for books) instead of 0% (UK rate), because Amazon.fr exists. If that person were to order from, say, Maplin Electronics, which does not operate in France, they would be charged at UK VAT rate (17.5% for electronics) instead of the French 19.6%.

There are similarities with the NY situation. A few years ago such retailers were not required to charge VAT if they shipped abroad, and it was the duty of the recipient to declare the purchase and pay local taxes. No-one did, of course, hence the change to require the supplier to collect at either source or destination rates, so the VAT is always paid.

Jersey

The UK doesn't pay VAT on items shipped from Jersey, hence the reason why Play.com and some Amazon goods are shipped from there.

It sounds like the tax calculations for quite a few websites will need to be rewritten as a result of the NYC law change.

Looking at the wrong target

If New York feels that it's not getting properly due payments from individuals who do not pay proper taxes on items they import from out-of-state, then the state of New York needs to be more diligent in auditing those taxpayers, looking at their financial records, etc.

Going after Amazon by claiming independent "affiliate partners" located in the state is the same as a physical location (even though the affiliate partner handles no merchandise or other physical property, and isn't even recognized as a representative of Amazon), is completely wrong. If Amazon doesn't sue over this, then I can see them making the proclaimation that they cannot have affiliate relationships with individuals in New York state, and those affiliates will quickly setup a PMB in New Jersey to get around that.

This will be a clear case of "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

@Steve

Actually, it's a complicated little setup based on turnover (sales) and whether or not you can produce a VAT registration number. Companies don't pay VAT on intracommunity purchases, although there's the administrative headache of having to declare the bloody thing in detail anyway. This latter is designed to create extra for for already overworked, overstressed, and underpaid accountants. They're the nice ladies who make sure the boss signs your paycheck on time.

Yer ordinary Joe will pay a rate of VAT depending on how much Amazon, Maplin, or Ye Olde Frilly Knicker Shoppe actually sell to his or her country.

@Paul Donnelly

I'm not your guy, buddy!

Mitsuibishi Galant

Of course are cheaper over there, we all know that.... however i struggle to see how the cheapest equivalent car over was a £30k BMW, surely a Mitsubishi Galant would be the closest car available to a Mitsubishi Galant? Granted it won't be $20,000 though....

Jersey again

Chewy said that UK does not pay VAT on stuff from Jersey. This only applies on goods worth less than £18, so not very useful really...

@Scott Mckenzie

The Mitsubishi Galant is a US-made car, not on sale in Europe.

As always it is important to compare more than just name versus price. I've rented mid-range cars, i.e. Fords in the US, and they do not compare to their similarly-named EU models, being much more cheaply finished with hard plastics and far less in the way of equipment. Often the same name is used for a totally different car, OEMed from a totally different manufacturer!

sales tax

For the people living in the USA, if you buy something in your home state you pay a sales tax. If you buy something from another state (or country) you pay a use tax. It is actually a little bit more complicated than this. But, this is the quick and easy explanation.

Corrupt politician in corrupt NY goverment introduces scam taxes, new?

NY has not been so corrupt since Tweed and does anyone believe our new shill governor is any less guilty?

All of those hotel rooms he was using on NY tax dollars must have been pretty lonely and it is common knowledge that he likes the ladies.

You know it's not his looks so what is it the ladies find so attractive about the spare governor.

Try...

...moving to Norway where VAT is 25% for most things and over 100% for new cars.

I used to complain about how bad prices were when I lived in the UK, but believe me, you don't have the worst of it.

End of e-Commerce??

About the only advantage to buying online is that there is no sales tax... By the time you pay shipping and then add sales tax you can just go to the store and purchase the item yourself. Even Congress recognizes this and is the primary reason why they keep extending the Internet Tax moratorium.

I like shopping at the local stores so I for one am all for the death of e-commerce.

well

you left, let the English(and Canadians) fight a war to keep you from being French, made alot of money selling the English guns, then when the English came and said yeah we'd like some cash for this pretty expensive war. You all went "nah..." so the English claimed tax on the wealthy folk who made a fortune selling guns.

These rich folk as rich folk tend to didn't want to pay taxes and so got the masses to rebel.

To add insult to injury you enlisted the aid of the damn french.

Land of the free and the brave indeed.

Zut alors

Surely the reason you pay so much tax in Europe is because you joined an organization with a bureaucracy designed by the French. VAT is the XML of the financial world, a scheme of staggering waste and inefficiency that keeps billions of Euros uselessly circulating through the banking system without actually benefiting anyone at all, because apart from the unfortunate end user, everyone in the line gets their money back. If you switched back to a simple sales tax on the US model, there would be more contributors - a business can't claim back its sales tax on office supplies, as they do with VAT - and the rate could drop back to a more modest 10% or so.