California Sales Tax Hike May Push People To Buy Online
from the that's-one-way-to-stimulate-e-commerce dept
As California is looking to push its state sales tax even higher, some consumers are saying that doing so will make them look to buy large ticket items online to avoid the sales tax. In fact, some are predicting that the state will lose more by raising the sales tax, since so many large item purchases will move online. While I’m sure that plenty of people say they’ll purchase stuff online, I wonder how many people actually follow through on that threat.
Comments on “California Sales Tax Hike May Push People To Buy Online”
So, just tax online sales.
Techies have had it both ways — their lobbyists have pressed the government to not tax online sales, because it is a “nascent industry” that needs a subsidy. And this is why technology is some sort of liberating force that will free us from the constraints of government?
When California’s government decides to end its tax subsidy of online merchants, you can bet techies will be just as indignant as the farm lobby.
won't matter
Davis is already looking into taxing more internet sales as a way to reduce the state budget shortfall.
Guess I’ll be driving up to Oregon to shop.
Re: won't matter
Online purchases are already “taxed” in California. According to California law, it is the responsibility of each Californian to automatically apply California sales tax to every online purchase and forward the sum of these taxes to the California Excise Tax Board. However, in practice nobody does this.
What Davis, and most of the other governors would love to see, is a way to force businesses to add tax to every online purchase, and forward the taxes to the respected authorities…except that in doing so, who is the respected authorities, because both the state in which the business is located and the state in which the consumer is located want their share, and likely so does every state in which the transaction travels through between consumer and business.
I wish I could go to Oregon to shop, but being 5 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border, I guess I’ll have to start spending money south of the border (ok, that is an idle threat…)