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Atlanta Forward

2/1: Should Internet merchants charge sales tax?

6:04 pm January 31, 2012, by AJC Opinion

Moderated by Rick Badie

Scott Hellman wants his furniture business in Kennesaw to have a level playing field. He says Internet merchants who don’t charge sales taxes hold an edge. Below, he explains how the arrangement hurts small-business owners.

And retail association executive Rick McAllister lobbies for a state law to close the tax loophole.  But there’s another point of view, too. What do you think?

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13 comments Add your comment

Native Atlantan

January 31st, 2012
6:14 pm

Absolutely they should.

Hillbilly D

January 31st, 2012
7:30 pm

Don’t know what the rules are now but about 20 years or so ago, we never charged sales tax on goods going out of state. It was the norm not to.

laurie

January 31st, 2012
7:57 pm

Amazon might be able to handle tracking all the state and local tax structures, collecting the tax, and paying the various agencies, but this would be a significant burden for the smaller online retailers. I don’t think it’s “fair” to punish online retailers to keep the playing field level for local businesses who are behind the times and not embrassing internet sales themselves.

Liz

January 31st, 2012
8:17 pm

Want to kill a weak economy? Can’t think of a better way to do it, at this time!

Sallie

January 31st, 2012
8:38 pm

Two points.
1. Goods and services sold over the internet are subject to sales tax if the selling organzation has nexus ( a physical presece in the taxing jurisdiction). That’s why we pay sales tax when ordering from walmart.com for exmple.It’s not that hard. Several services will handle the transcation for you, like a payroll service does for payroll.
2. The real goal of the charging internet sales tax is to broaden the definition of doing business in the state so that states can charge income taxes on corporations not located int their state.

brother bill

January 31st, 2012
9:11 pm

All we need is to find a candidate who can deliver government services without taxation.

zeke

January 31st, 2012
9:58 pm

YES! You are not taxing the internet! You are taxing the items that are sold just as you would at Walmart! It is only fair!!

don't raise individual taxes

January 31st, 2012
10:28 pm

How is this “moderated” by Rick Badie? Both individuals are on the same side of the argument and want Amazon to collect sales tax for the State. Where are opposing views?

commoncents

February 1st, 2012
8:39 am

LInk for the Amazon comment?

Shine

February 1st, 2012
9:17 am

Outlaw all sales taxes including splost, lost, and tsplost is the way to go. The sooner the better and that would be the best tax cuts to free up money to help the economy.

BelieveIt

February 1st, 2012
10:02 am

Fire the IRS, consumption based taxes ONLY..

Charquareon

February 1st, 2012
1:09 pm

Depending upon the seller’s location sales tax on internet sales may or may not be permissible. The Supremes have long since settled this issue, so it matters not whether the State of Georgia or some envious local brick and mortar retailers want to charge the tax.

Taxed_Enough

February 1st, 2012
2:27 pm

Short answer: No!
Long answer: If they federal government allows sales tax to be charged on out of state internet purchases (Georgia has no say in this anyway, it’s a federal issue) then the sales tax should correctly go to the state where the store is located, not the customer’s state. If I buy something when I’m in New York, I pay New York sales tax. If I buy something from the same New York store over the internet while sitting at home in Georgia, if anything, I should pay New York sales tax, not Georgia sales tax.
Why should the state of Georgia (or any state) think that they have any claim on my sales tax dollars that I’m not spending in Georgia? That’s just a BS excuse to steal more of my money.