Online Black Friday Sales, Now With More Taxes!

As online stores grow, states demand they collect sales taxes

Many may turn to online shopping at home in an effort to dodge long lines and crowded stores on Black Friday, but there's one thing residents of California, Pennsylvania, and Texas can't dodge: taxes.

On top of that, another five states will begin taxing online retailers by 2014, Politico reports.

Congress may not be too far from passing a national online sales tax. The Hill reports that brick-and-mortar retailers are pushing Congress to make this Cyber Monday the last one without a sales tax.

Critics of online retailers like Amazon claim e-stores got to the top by flaunting their tax-free wares, giving them an unfair advantage.

Additionally, revenue-hungry states see online sales as another source of money. California, which implemented an online sales tax in December, is anticipating $173 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, Politico reports.

Some retailers are fighting back. Overstock.com, according to Politico, is dropping its physical presence in states with online sales taxes to dodge tax collection.

Via Politico and the Hill

Should sales taxes be applied to online retailers?

[Dan_Tien]

I oppose a federal online sales tax or protectionism for big box stores. So Target and Wal-Mart don't want to lose market share to online businesses with lower overhead? Tough! It's just the chickens coming home to roost.

[steveandesinTN]

that is why I buy most my stuff from Chinese wholesalers direct.
I can get the identical stuff at half the US based online store price and a quater of local mom pop shop price.
most offer free shipping, the only drawback is a 1 to 3 week delivery time unless you want to pay for express then it is less than a week and still cheaper than us based online.

some good places are dealextreme, tmart, banggood, alibabi and there several more.
all these have honest reviews of their wares that are not screened like us based stores.
Always look at the reviews because some stuff is not as good as normal but the reviews let you know. They all also offer no question returns and have a US address to return items to.
Tmart has a US warehouse they ship stuff from and is the fastest and sometimes deliver in less than a week. Even though they have the US warehouse you still pay no taxes because payment goes to china.

[IraqWarVeteran]

I'm boycotting the Chinese products, website and the communist as a whole. Made in China is a crap product made in a labor slavery forced by the Chinese regime and the ruthless employers in the Mao Zedong's dreamland. Apple is another company assembling their products in the Foxconn factories in China where child labor works for hours and hours. Buy only our products.

[PNWest]

As a public service could you please post links to these sites? Most of us like to save money. Thanks.

[FFX_VA]

Mr Benedict Arnold, the AMERICAN economy, businesses, and employees want to offer you a free intervention, it's free because your writings suggest you're too cheap to support the country you live in. I seriously doubt the savings you get for these "things" covers the loss of your patriotism.

[steveandesinTN]

@PNWest
dealextreme.com
tmart.com
banggood.com
www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-alibab... This one is the best but is way more difficult to navigate through but with searching you will find the best deals.
It links several different wholesale sites to one large site.

[PNWest]

@steveandesinTN Thank you.

[jessejaymes]

Of course they do. There is no amount of money at the city, county, state or federal level that will satisfy the greed of the corrupt American political system. GOP and Dems are different hogs at the taxpayer trough but a hog by any color is still a hog.

[marine1]

If only we could ring their nose, maybe we could stop them from rooting????

[Romney2012]

Where do the taxes go? Should be the question! Until this messed up government is sorted out, there is no reason to increase the amount of things we tax! Especially online sales! That would bring in to much money!!

[Penn1699]

No amount of money will be enough. It's Monopoly money to the politicians.

[FFX_VA]

Absolutely. Close that unfair advantage loophole! Local businesses need the customers & local governments are owed the revenue.

[SpookyThreeTwo]

local businesses need to stop thinking that they're entitled to my business by calling me unamerican for not buying their overpriced merchandise. local businesses these days give no incentive. why do i buy a loaf of bread at price chopper or aldi rather than locally baked bread? i'm sure the locally baked bread is good, but not at five dollars a loaf. the only exception i ever make is the Amish. Any improvements i ever make on my houseare done by the Amish, because i know they won't screw me on price, they take pride in their work and if something goes wrong with anything they did, they fix it no charge. ask any other 'local business' around where i live to do the same, you get laughed out of the store.

[Penn1699]

@SpookyThreeTwo yes, we stand by our products.

[FFX_VA]

@SpookyThreeTwo I can't speak to ur local NY businsses, but with that attutude I wouldnt use them either, but some must be decent and worthy of ur support. I agree completely the Amish are very good, they build excellent furniture too!

[SpookyThreeTwo]

@FFX_VA Nah. We tried doing the buy local thing, like with hardware stores and whatnot. The locals around here are kinda ignorant, and we keep our distance. However, when we lived in Buffalo, we pretty much bought EVERYTHING local ... that town was a little more welcoming, but no good places to raise kids, get a decent paying job or have property with more than a quarter acre attached to it. Such is life.

[SpookyThreeTwo]

@Penn1699 Hahaha! It's so strange seeing an Amish person on the internet! They're so strict up here ... our guy who does our work 'confessed' to watching tv once in a while!

[Russell797]

They tax you when you earn it, then they tax you when you spend what's left after they first taxed you. If it's a car or a home you purchased they tax you again each year on the same value they have already tax before....and they do it again and again and again!

[Fitz]

www.fairtax.org

[DARSB]

My local brick & mortar store pays taxes and gets services in return: police, fire, water, streets, and so on. What return does an online retailer get from taxes paid to a state where it has no physical presence? Seems a bit of an over-reach by the states.

[Denizen_Kate]

That's an excellent point.

[Penn1699]

I know Amazon was fighting it in CA, they finally relented.

[jessejaymes]

Hey Dar, I'm going to start a political website shortly. Well I have the website but I have to do some work on it to get it laid out properly. Would you like to write your own column without restriction on it?

[DARSB]

@jessejaymes Could be fun, sure, let's discuss it when you're closer to launch.

[FollowTheMoney]

Flat tax on individuals as well as business, is the only fair way to handle taxes.

[marine1]

When and where has a goverment EVER wanted to be fair??

[Denizen_Kate]

"Should sales tax be applied to online retailers?" On the one hand, it's a good source of revenue for the state. On the other hand, if they enact a federal sales tax online, we shouldn't have to pay both. I've oftened heard prostitution referred to as "the oldest profession" but I beg to differ. IMO the oldest profession is tax collector.

[Penn1699]

Do the big box retailers have a federal tax? Not that I see on my sales slip. The CA tax I do though. Not happy with either one.

[Zoe2012]

No, No, No!

[HankHemp]

Yes

[DemonsAngel13]

No NONONONO