Sales tax

[8iowa]

Ed:

Florida passed a sales tax on services (including advertising) several years ago (around 1988) and it cost Governor Bob Martinez his job. The tax was then rescinded.

There are about 320 sales tax exemptions here in Florida that amount to around 20 billion dollars. Many people scream that the businesses are getting all the breaks. However, business exemptions amount to only around 3 billion. All the rest of the dollar value of the exemptions fall into the personal category, things that we do every day, like buy groceries and get haircuts. If sales tax exemptions were eliminated, it would be the ordinary consumer who would bear the brunt of the increased taxes.

Since sales taxes are regressive, legislators (myself included at the time) are very reluctant to widen the sales tax base by eliminating the exemptions. There was mild interest in having a legislative auditing group, known as OPPAGA, to review the exemptions over a period of several years and make recommendations to the legislature regarding those that should be eliminated. However, this movement never gathered enough steam to get going.

Actually, a portion of the state sales tax is returned to the counties and cities where it was collected. This return of tax dollars is the largest revenue sharing program that the state has with local governments. I wrote an editorial on this subject that appeared in the Tampa Tribune in 1999.

[Ed in Tampa]

Ed:

Florida passed a sales tax on services (including advertising) several years ago (around 1988) and it cost Governor Bob Martinez his job. The tax was then rescinded.

Fact is fact the people pay the tax, whether is through increased costs that the manufacture passes on due to increase taxes or through direct tax, all tax eventually is paid by the people.

Fact is fact the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearing.

The real question is how long is until the milk cow runs dry.

Incidently that service tax cost Florida more than many know. It played a major part in the decision by a major corporation I worked for to withdraw completely from Florida. Since then they let go thousands of acres of land they were planning to build on and shifted over 18,000 jobs out of the state. I'm sure there were many other corporations that did like wise.

Water over the dam and your not in politics anymore so we can believe you again. :-) Let us get back to wood working.

[jeeperjohn]

Why is sales tax collected on shipping?

[dusty]

I don't believe we do pay sales tax on shipping.

[jeeperjohn]

They have been charging me sales tax on shipping.

[a1gutterman]

Driving over the border to buy is one thing, but if you have something shipped into your state, the company that sells it to you would be required to collect taxes. That's how they get you.

With almost all states I know of, if the company you buy from has a physical location in your state, you need to pay taxes. That's one reason I buy so much from Amazon. It is tax free for me. But there seems to be a constant movement in the government to change that and allow Amazon (and everyone else not operating in Colorado) to tax me just the same if the purchase was made via the internet.

Paul

Hi Paul,
What you say (in red above) about out-of-state companies required to collect sales and send it to my state is required by my state, but as it is not required by the state that the company resides in, or does business in, they do not have to comply with that law]to my knowledge[/U], has never had a "physical" location in WA; however, they do have a presence by doing the demonstrations and Traveling Academy.

BTW, my state knows that out-of-state companies do not collect the sales tax and that is one reason that they have a "use tax". It is the same rate as the sales tax, and theoretically we honest citizens of the state of WA report and pay that tax for goods that we purchase and have not paid the sales tax on.

[a1gutterman]

Why is sales tax collected on shipping?

As I understand it, the cost of the shipping is considered as part of the cost of the product itself]http://www.ridgidforum.com/forum/images ... 2/barf.gif[/IMG], and not by the seller.

[a1gutterman]

I don't believe we do pay sales tax on shipping.

If you don't, those charges are not taxable in your state. Quite possible. In my state, it is taxable and SS does collect tax on it.

[a1gutterman]

Frankly I wish they would quite messing around with 'this' tax and 'that' tax, 'this' exemption and 'that' exemption. I think they need an 'X' percent universal sales tax (on every and any sale excluding food for personal comsumption) and the money be dispersed for use by to local/state/federal government by population. No tax form, and no exemptions.

Ed

I believe that Canada has that. I think that they call it a value added tax. The provinces continue to collect their tax too.

We do not need both a national sales tax and a federal income tax. We already have states that charge both]http://www.ridgidforum.com/forum/images ... 2/bash.gif[/IMG]

Edit: Ed, I would consider a national sales tax, but only if it replaced and did not augment, the (almost unconstitutional) Federal Income Tax. I did say "consider": I really think that if there was a national sales tax, I would be paying more then I do now with the Federal Income Tax.

[john]

All other jurisdictions are amateurs compared to the province of Quebec where we have I believe the highest rate of taxation in North America. We have income taxes, sales taxes (two levels) with the provincial sales tax calculated on the total product cost + fed tax, we have gas taxes and I think an "any thing that moves" tax. With more taxes being proposed daily, the biggest growth sector of the economy is taxes. Interestingly the second biggest growth segment of the economy is working under the table to avoid taxes. I wonder why.

One of the things I like about mail order is that most places are wisely out of province and therefore don't charge the provincial sales tax on items shipped here. This helps offset the cost of shipping. Of course, we as honest citizens are supposed to remit the missing tax to the government voluntarily.

As to myself, I tend to lose track of the few items I purchase by mail order.

John