Did You Wait Too Long? Just ruled in the Supreme Court! Sales tax must be collected for all internet purchases.....that includes our favorite on-line camera stores! 😰. On the other...

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Just ruled in the Supreme Court! Sales tax must be collected for all internet purchases.....that includes our favorite on-line camera stores! 😰. On the other hand, local/state budgets that rely on state sales taxes will not have to raise your tax bills as high (that's a joke, of course they will anyway!)

InfiniteISO Loc: The Carolinas, USA

Ouch!

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Live free or die in the Granite State, baby!

I'll pay all of your sales taxes on camera purchases this year if you'll come pay our property taxes, which are the highest in the nation. And as I work in Massachusetts I get the worst of both worlds - MA income plus NH property taxes. At least this is one thing I don't have to worry about.

Andy

BebuLamar

I don't think it's a bad thing. By law most states require you to pay the use tax which is the same as sales tax when the online vendor doesn't collect sales tax. They may have a hard time finding out and make you pay but still it's the law. I always buy locally whenever I can and my local stores don't sell cameras for more than places like B&H or Adorama just that they must collect sales tax. If online retailers have to collect sales tax too more people will buy local and would help these stores. I don't like to make several thousands dollars worth of purchase without seeing the merchandise first.

ricardo7 Loc: Washington, DC - Santiago, Chile

My taxes are so high already what's a couple more dollars.

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

ricardo7 wrote:

My taxes are so high already what's a couple more dollars.

I hope you don't own on-line retailer stock.....😟

ricardo7 Loc: Washington, DC - Santiago, Chile

mrjcall wrote:

I hope you don't own on-line retailer stock.....😟

I probably do, but I don' see that it will matter much.

Bill_de Loc: US

It's another loophole closed, or at least made smaller.

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JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Online retailers, who haven't been required to collect sales tax up until now, have been depending on people buying from them and not paying the required use tax to their states, because of the difficulty in enforcing the law. This decision just levels the playing field and will help local merchants. Of course the local merchants will have to provide good prices and service to take advantage of it.

kenievans Loc: Dallas

JohnSwanda wrote:

Of course the local merchants will have to provide good prices and service to take advantage of it.

I would prefer to purchase from local merchants but alot of the time they don't have the inventory I can find online. Service and price are great if they have something I want to purchase.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

AndyH wrote:

Live free or die in the Granite State, baby!

I'll pay all of your sales taxes on camera purchases this year if you'll come pay our property taxes, which are the highest in the nation. And as I work in Massachusetts I get the worst of both worlds - MA income plus NH property taxes. At least this is one thing I don't have to worry about.

Andy

NH is fourth behind NJ, IL and TX. Though others put NH a close second to NJ.
https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2017/04/06/10-states-with-highest-property-tax-rates

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

JohnSwanda wrote:

Online retailers, who haven't been required to collect sales tax up until now, have been depending on people buying from them and not paying the required use tax to their states, because of the difficulty in enforcing the law. This decision just levels the playing field and will help local merchants. Of course the local merchants will have to provide good prices and service to take advantage of it.

Yes. I think so too. We are lucky that our local B&M shop will match any prices that he is able to. And his prices on used gear are always competitive. This is in a small college town of about 25,000 people, by the way.

We support him whenever we can, and with scanning, printing, and processing services as well. We're lucky to have him.

Andy

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

JohnSwanda wrote:

Online retailers, who haven't been required to collect sales tax up until now, have been depending on people buying from them and not paying the required use tax to their states, because of the difficulty in enforcing the law. This decision just levels the playing field and will help local merchants. Of course the local merchants will have to provide good prices and service to take advantage of it.

Why will local businesses have to do anything any different than they do now??
If their prices were competitive before and they were competing with the internet, those same businesses will be able to raise their prices by as much as 10% and still have the same cost ratio they had previously and make a better profit.
Maybe some of the brick and mortar camera stores will spring back up after being killed off by B&H!!!
SS

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

dsmeltz wrote:

NH is fourth behind NJ, IL and TX. Though others put NH a close second to NJ.
https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2017/04/06/10-states-with-highest-property-tax-rates

I don't trust this data, at least without "looking under the hood" as to how it is derived. Inherently any study based on "medians" is going to be of limited use in states where the property values vary wildly and taxes may be assessed on a city, county, or state basis. For example, New Hampshire assesses by city or town only, but adds a statewide property surtax which goes to the state education fund. But it does not control how, say, the largest city (Manchester) assesses its property compared to the smallest town in the state (Dixville Notch), where all ten voters assemble at midnight to cast the first votes on election day(s). The Notch may assess at a far lower percentage of actual value than the struggling city of Manchester. Anecdotally, I have experience of homes in Texas where the rates seem both incredibly high and incredibly low on similar homes that would probably sell in a similar price range.

And 86.7% of real estate experts in my (undefined) geographic area agree with me.

Andy

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

JohnSwanda wrote:

Online retailers, who haven't been required to collect sales tax up until now, have been depending on people buying from them and not paying the required use tax to their states, because of the difficulty in enforcing the law. This decision just levels the playing field and will help local merchants. Of course the local merchants will have to provide good prices and service to take advantage of it.

This will do a little more than just help level the playing field.
Apart from the amount of the tax itself, I can see this being an accounting nightmare!!
Imagine the bookkeeping involved in collecting 50 different tax rates and returning that to those states? What about other countries??
The tax plus the manpower!!! We’ll see an immediate 10% rise in internet prices.
SS