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2011-04-29 Home Front: Politix

Obama, let my people build Planes, call off your NLRB "union puppets". S.C. Gov Nikki Haley:

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-04-29 06:25|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Let my Boeing go!!!

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-04-29 06:48|| 2011-04-29 06:48|| Front Page Top

#2 ...Well, seeing as how Governor Haley shot herself (not to mention 1200 jobs and the rest of the state)in the foot this week by running an Amazon.com sales center out of here, she'd BETTER not screw this up.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2011-04-29 08:17|| 2011-04-29 08:17|| Front Page Top

#3 Lots of states are going after Amazon. I guess they really need the sales tax revenues. It's a shame, 1200 jobs aren't easy to find these days.

Posted by Steve White 2011-04-29 09:20|| 2011-04-29 09:20|| Front Page Top

#4 In Louisiana I have to pay a sales tax substitute to the state on purchases made from Amazon, but it's an 'honor' system.
As Amazon and other merchants displace more and more brick & mortar merchants the governments are going to have to replace those sales tax revenues with something (and it won't be with decreased spending). So far it looks like whichever state holds out the longest against taxing Amazon sales will win all the Amazon jobs - and then the feds will step in. So the question is, can Amazon operate from Grand Cayman? (No, tariffs & shipping would eat them up.)

Posted by Glenmore 2011-04-29 09:34|| 2011-04-29 09:34|| Front Page Top

#5 States do need the sales tax revenue and should get it. However, they are burdening Amazon with the work and that company can still tell them to piss off and go somewhere else.

This would be a perfect area for the commerce clause and the feds to work. The feds can write the rules and the guidelines for a national/state sales tax counting house. 3-4 companies can be contracted to run it with federal and independent oversight. They pay for it by taking a small percentage of the taxes they collect. The internet/interstate companies use this group to calculate and collect the state, county and city taxes for the person that is making the purchase. Business happens and at the end of the month, the counting house deposits each state, county, city's taxes directly into their coffers. It is painless for the state, company and buyer while being transparent, easy and instant. No more keeping 50 accountants on your payroll to do business across the nation.

There are ways to do this without burdening businesses and buyers with loads more paperwork and regulation.

Posted by DarthVader 2011-04-29 09:45|| 2011-04-29 09:45|| Front Page Top

#6 In Louisiana I have to pay a sales tax substitute to the state

Most states, I believe, have a use tax imposed on anything you import from out of state. The states would love to have the retailers collect local taxes, but calculating the amount due is a little more complicated than just a lookup table with 50 entries. Even trying to do it by 5 digit ZIP code fails in places like Houston where sales tax is levied by county and city and can change from one side of the street to the other.

Posted by SteveS 2011-04-29 09:51|| 2011-04-29 09:51|| Front Page Top

#7 #1Let my Boeing go!!!

But the NLRB hardened their hearts and wouldn't let them go build planes in ~~the wilderness~~ a Right To Work state.

Posted by Grenter, Protector of the Geats 2011-04-29 09:54|| 2011-04-29 09:54|| Front Page Top

#8 It's starting to look like Amazon's strategy is to be the only major retailer where you don't have to pay sales tax. Interesting, for guys who are allegedly fans of big government.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-04-29 10:48|| 2011-04-29 10:48|| Front Page Top

#9 Darth, this is one area where the 'FairTax' (national sales tax or VAT) would work -- everyone would pay a level sales tax, so be it Amazon or mom-and-pop store, every business would have a level playing ground tax-wise.

Posted by Steve White 2011-04-29 11:44|| 2011-04-29 11:44|| Front Page Top

#10 @2

State representatives, on a 71-47 vote a night earlier, defeated a bill that would have provided a sales tax break sought by Amazon.

The legislature refused to give them a sales tax break by a very large majority. Put the blame for the Amazon departure on Walmart and state retailers who pressured the legislators directly. Do not blame that one on Nikkie Haley. The shooting was done by the legislature quite clearly.

Posted by The Other Beldar 2011-04-29 11:49|| 2011-04-29 11:49|| Front Page Top

#11 So much for Obama's "Green Jobs"

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2011-04-29 13:34|| 2011-04-29 13:34|| Front Page Top

#12 Darth, this is one area where the 'FairTax' (national sales tax or VAT) would work -- everyone would pay a level sales tax, so be it Amazon or mom-and-pop store, every business would have a level playing ground tax-wise.

A VAT would end up taxing every sale, even B2B. It is like a compound tax, and the end consumer can really get hammered.

But I'm sure they'd only ask for a 1% VAT, and never raise it above, say, 2%. Or thereabouts. Just like the federal income tax.

State representatives, on a 71-47 vote a night earlier, defeated a bill that would have provided a sales tax break sought by Amazon

I wonder what calculus they use to justify this in their tiny minds. Probably the idea of "well, if we let them get away with this, then the next thing you know every company in the US will move here and not pay the sales tax."

Of course, they completely ignore the idea that they just threw away all those potential jobs. And the income taxes that come along with them. And the other businesses that get supported by a healthy middle class. And the idea that these businesses really doesn't cost the state anywhere near the 5% sales tax they are asking for. And the idea that they won't need to pay for food stamps for employed workers. Or housing subsidies. Or free school lunches. Or their health costs. Or the costs of the housing market getting crushed by all the mortgage defaults.

Yep. They are completely ignoring this. Unless, of course, they want to create the kind of folks that want to live in a nanny state. Which can't really support them as well as if they were used to in a free market constitutional republic. In which case they are doing a "great" job.

So who/what did we vote for over the last 50 years or so?

Posted by gorb 2011-04-29 13:41|| 2011-04-29 13:41|| Front Page Top

#13 I suspect the reason we don't already have a VAT is that it's so flatly unconstitutional, Congress knows there really isn't a way the courts could find any wiggle room in their "living" document:

Art. I, Sec. 9: "No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state."

Nope, no penumbras there.

Amazon reminds me of a 17th century house in Amsterdam: 1 meter wide, five stories high. Half a block deep, but barely wide enough for a staircase inside. Why? Property taxes were calculated according to how much street profile the building occupied. An elegant visual of how taxes distort the markets. So: go Amazon.

Posted by RandomJD 2011-04-29 14:24|| 2011-04-29 14:24|| Front Page Top

#14 Half a block deep, but barely wide enough for a staircase inside.

Heh heh. 18th century political humor at its finest!

Posted by gorb 2011-04-29 14:35|| 2011-04-29 14:35|| Front Page Top

#15 I've been in a few of those Dutch houses. The average is about eight feet wide, and extends from the sidewalk to an alley in back. Either the front or the back of the house is taken up with stairs and a landing. There are usually one or two narrow, long rooms opening from the stairwell to the opposite end of the house. There's usually one room on each floor. The kitchen is on the ground floor, the living room/parlor is on the second floor, and the rest of the floors contain bedrooms. You're really in hurting condition if you have bad knees. They're the kind of houses people like Obumble love, though - crowd us all together where we're easy to control, make us take public transport because it's too expensive to buy gas or a car, and seal up all the open space in "wilderness" or "national [whatever]". I think I'd reach for my shotgun before I'd be forced into something like that.

Posted by Old Patriot 2011-04-29 18:49|| 2011-04-29 18:49|| Front Page Top

#16 "States do need the sales tax revenue and should get it."

Why, Darth?

Sales taxes are used to build/maintain roads, provide police and other services, etc., to businesses in the state.

Amazon ain't in most states.

I have to collect 5% sales tax when I sell something on my Etsy shop to someone in Virginia; 1% of that goes to the county I live in. When I sell at the Farmers Market, I collect sales taxes, but the 1% goes to the city where the market is located. And when I sell at the big Christmas show, the 1% goes to the county where the show is located (not the one I live in). (And I can tell you that filling out the sales tax form for the quarter where I make sales in all three locations is a pain in the ass.)

I have no problem with that. I live here, so I use the roads, the police protection, and the other services. (Well, not many of them, but some.) So do my local customers.

Amazon doesn't have a physical presence here. Why should they collect taxes here? What benefit are they getting from the state?

I'd suggest that the states don't "need" increased sales tax revenues; they NEED TO STOP SPENDING. Particularly on things that aren't absolute necessities.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2011-04-29 21:09|| 2011-04-29 21:09|| Front Page Top

#17 A useful and informative rant, Barbara. I hadn't thought of it that way. Thank you.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-04-29 21:48|| 2011-04-29 21:48|| Front Page Top

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