About collecting state sale taxs - Essay Example

21 May Collecting Sales Tax Collecting sales taxes for sales by merchants varies per However, bricks-and-mortar stores are required to pay state taxes while the merchants online are not required to. Since a spike in business conducted online has been conducted, an Internet tax should be implemented. Serving as an economic advisor, I think the Chief Executive Officer of the company I represent should lobby in favor of requiring tax on Internet sales. There is a lot of revenue that is lost by the government due to the fact that online sales are taking place without taxation.

Sometimes, some sales websites such as eBay, offers the option of the seller requiring a sales tax. There is one difference though in eBay versus other Internet sources such as Amazon.com and Lands’ End that should be taken into consideration. The eBay company website does offer some sales that is merchandise purchased from the actual eBay company while others are individual sellers. The same is true with Amazon.com because some online orders are fulfilled by the website while others are offered in a marketplace style.

It is my suggestion that the CEO should lobby in favor of keeping a tax on Internet sales on merchandise that is offered and fulfilled by the actual companies of Amazon and eBay. I think the taxation of individual sellers should be exempt unless they are an LLC or a corporation of some type. Individuals often pay enough in fees to be able to sell on these types of websites so it should be up to the overhead operating company to pay the sales taxes on these since they are already receiving a type of commission off of the sales made by individuals.

Additionally, many of these sales take place using credit cards or payment accepted through PayPal. If an individual receives a certain amount of funding from the sale of items within the taxable year, they will have to pay taxes on them based on income made so inevitably, as long as a seller who is an individual is making a large bankroll off of these sales, there is no reason to tax their sales. However, it is the overhead companies such Amazon.com, eBay, Lands’ End and other small retailers, if they meet a certain amount of profit, I recommend that they should fall within a certain status where they are required to have sales taxes paid on online purchases.

Obviously, there is some concern when there is a Supreme Court law that was between Quill Corp v. North Dakota in 1992. Quill Corp. offered products which had a licensed software computer product and the Supreme Court said that North Dakota had no right to collect sales taxes on orders shipped into the state. Quill was a corporation in Delaware so any taxation that should have ever occurred should have been argued by the state of Delaware. The Commerce Clause does not allow for applying of duties which interfere with trading within the United States.

However, since business conducted online has greatly increased in the past 23 years, it is a decision which should be reevaluated since it is a form of income for the state government. While the economy has fallen on hard times in recent years and the state governments are cutting back on a lot of programs due to lack of funding, it would be an important asset. No one enjoys paying taxes but regardless of what someone walks in to buy in a store, the state obtains money off of the sale. However, the state that receives the tax money should be the one where the company is based out of rather than the state which is seeing purchased items come in.