Buying on Web to avoid sales taxes could end soon

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In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, an Amazon.com employee grabs boxes to be loaded onto a truck at the company's Fernley, Nev. warehouse. States are increasingly looking to collect taxes from online retail sales as a way to fill gaps in budgets, with New York going as far as to pass a bill that requires companies like Amazon.com Inc. to collect taxes on shipments to New York residents, even if the companies' operations are located elsewhere. (AP Photo/Scott Sady)

(AP) -- Shopping online can be a way to find bargains while steering clear of crowds - and sales taxes.

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• grahf - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
  Now THAT'S how you stimulate spending in a recession! Make things cost more! Add more bureaucracy! Raise compliance costs!
  
  We'll be out of this thing before you can say 'printing presses'!
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• Modernmystic - Jan 12, 2009
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  Brilliant way to put another million people out of jobs.
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• VOR - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
  It seems to me they are making the problem bigger than it is. They dont need to change any existing rules. Create 50 plugins for the various states' laws. They would use the destination state to determine which filter to apply. Install them in appropriate servers. You could even have them send the tax directly to the gov'ts so the company has less to send. Refunded orders pass through similarly. what is the big deal? I know this sounds arrogant, but that doesnt mean it wouldnt work. Honestly I have a hard time believing its about technical issues. Its political-economic ones. Just look at the other posters 'wisdom'. taxes are depressingly misrepresently by the greedy and or ignorant. singularly saying 'lowering taxes is always good' is completely moronic. Yet its so commonly the battlecry of the baboons. it is HOW tax money is spent, not how much is collected that is important. It is the balance of taxes, not its elimination! Some idiots appear to say that anarchy, no gov't no taxes, is the way. they need to go back to school.
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• Modernmystic - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
  "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill
  
  Apparently another "baboon" who "needs to go back to school"
  
  Get the f*&* over yourself...really. No one here suggested eliminating taxes, and yes the amount of taxes collected IS important...just as important as HOW it's spent.
  
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• VOR - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 1.8 / 5 (5)
  Yeah I knew u'd miss the point. 'baboons' ALWAYS say cut taxes, cut taxes-no matter how low they are. Duh that implies they are always too high which of course implies elimination so yes, they are saying that. they are so fkin stupid- if u ask one, lets say u, how low should taxes be then? what is your answer? 5% lower? 50%? the REASON how is spent is MOSTLY the ONLY important part is that its ALREADY OUR MONEY dumba$$. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SPENDING IT ON OURSELVES. So HOW, IS this question.(There is a similar dumb fkin a$$ argument about smaller gov't. Again its BETTER gov't we need. The implication from smaller gov't is that people can magically govern themselves-total foolishness but suprisingly common. Want to know how well people govern themselves? Look at corporations that DONT get enough regulation) If we spend it wisely, and thats the kicker, wisely, it comes back to us (or rather never left) in a stronger economy, a healthier populace. 'Brilliant way to put another million people out of jobs." -seems like a pretty strong statement against taxes. Taxes are actually LOW now historically, get it? the OBVIOUS point I was making is saying 'lower taxes' gets us nowhere. That statement is utterly counterproductive. And it figures u would feel the urge to say the amount is important, well it is, in that we need to collect MORE so we can educate people so they understand how society works, take care of all people's health, properly regulate and oversee the INEVITABLE greed and disfunction in, oh lets see, uh banks for one example. We need to invest in infrastructure, carbon credits(very important tax expenditure), alt fuel development. All of that creates jobs. As long as taxes are going towards programs that better our domestic situation it is money well spent! Its not all about u buying an extra shotgun for your pickup. Its about US(A)! U get the fk over yourself! Long term improvements instead of shortsided oilmen! We need to all chip in but SO many buttholes dont get that. They 'think' somehow if we leave it to short term greed and the short term bottom line it will work out for the best. That is NEVER the case. But NO, we dont hear enough about how to better spend, its usually 'tax us less'. Your reaction just further shows my point. thank you. And I say go back to school not as a joke. If we raised out standard of education, with better public school and PUBLIC universities (with a sociology and economics emphasis), we would have not only a more intelligent and technologically competitive county, but we'd have WISER voters. Not so many dumb fks that chant 'lower my taxes'. It's not by accident that the Dems a while back made a similar statement. So education is actually the NO. 1 issue . Maybe if we led the world it might not be. But we AREN'T EVEN CLOSE. Churchill is due respect but that statement is evil in that it just reinforces the notion of the way money is spent being irrellevant. ITS EVERYTHING. If you spend all your week's money on one expensive meal instead of groceries you'll starve for the week. If you overspend on military and underspend on education and infrastructure you'll end up with a war-mongering decaying country. If you spend the money wisely, then its not important if you spent a little more or less than 'optimum'(which would be much more difficult to determine than the optimal WAYS). Want a quote from me? : Our ignorance is ultimately a greater threat than war, plague, or famine. It creeps up unseen and we decay into a society that allows greed and corruption to displace integrity. Instead of standing together as a nation, we fall as petty, nearsighted individuals.
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• VOR - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
  The third most evil thing in the world is ignorance, the second is ignorance with a voice, and the most evil is ignorance with power.
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• VOR - Jan 12, 2009
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
  "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill
  After reflection I must emphatically say this quote alone is downright irresponsible. It's almost literally saying that taxation and the way those taxes are used are the same thing, or its cynically saying that taxes could never be spent for the betterment of the economy. Neither is correct. As
  wise as Churchill was, this quote is ill. I think that were it asked of Churchill in this context, he would agree. My guess is he was quoted in response to a tax issue or program he disagreed with, perhaps wisely so. Leave it to others less wise that him to reuse it recklessly. Or perhaps he had a less noble, political reason to weild such a quote. Nobody's perfect. But that doesnt mean we're all equally imperfect. Learn the difference. Become the difference.
  
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• russcelt - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  Kill the Golden Goose.
  Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
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• Ethelred - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (4)
  Vor:
  
  Monoblock posts are counterproductive.
  
  I don't care what brilliance might be in or most likely isn't in that hideous mess. Its unreadable.
  
  Find your Enter key. It's right above the right shift key on most keyboards. You had to use it some time in the past. Please begin using it again. Either that or quit posting as its a complete waste of bandwidth to post things that are too bloody hard to read.
  
  See how much easier this post is to read. White space is your friend. Illegibility is the enemy of communication.
  
  Ethelred
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• SMMAssociates - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: 3.3 / 5 (3)
  IMHO, although paying more for goods is a bad idea to start with at this juncture, the real problem is that sales tax rate vary in unpredictable ways, and often change on a semi-random basis....
  
  Put a flat tax rate into effect - maybe 7% - and distribute it to the involved State. Let them send the municipalities (another zinger - sometimes it's Counties, sometimes it's Cities, sometimes it's both) involved their cut.
  
  End of problem....
  
  Amazon is big enough to go full boat and handle the tax system as it now applies, I'm sure, but the implementation costs might be extremely counterproductive. Mom & Pop web-based enterprises would have to either shut down or stay "in state"....
  
  Just IMHO, but a really bad idea. 'Course, we'll see a LOT of those in the next four Tax & Spend years....
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• Ethelred - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)

  'Course, we'll see a LOT of those in the next four Tax & Spend years...

  
  
  Its amazing to me that anyone can still use that silly phrase "tax and spend" after Bush's just plain spend spend spend and don't bother to pay for it mis-administration.
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• Modernmystic - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)

  'Course, we'll see a LOT of those in the next four Tax & Spend years...

  
  
  Its amazing to me that anyone can still use that silly phrase "tax and spend" after Bush's just plain spend spend spend and don't bother to pay for it mis-administration.

  
  
  While I agree 100% with your statement about Bush...I don't know what the hell he's been the past six years OR the Republican congress has been...but it sure as HELL hasn't been either "Republican" or fiscally responsible in ANY SENSE OF THE WORDS whatsoever.
  
  However let's not forget that tax and spend for the sake of such isn't much better...or two idiotic policies don't somehow make a correct one.
  
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• Modernmystic - Jan 13, 2009
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  Wow VOR...three moonbat posts in a row. I must have really touched a nerve there bud.
  
  Usually when you get that upset it's because there's an underlying truth to the opposite argument that you KNOW is true and are so utterly flustered about the only thing you can do other than admit defeat is to spout endlessly about how you're right in a vain attempt to convince YOURSELF....because you sure as hell aren't convincing anyone else.
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• VOR - Feb 07, 2009
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (2)
  I can surely be verbose. Im sorry if the attention span of some is too short to get it. Maybe soundbites arent the deepest way of discussing things! Most points I make are clear enough. Some will always find some stupid spin to put on them. I find no underlying truth in conservative arguments.
  Yeah Im secretly trying to convince myself because Im so conflicted and really a closet conservative lol.
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• Modernmystic - Feb 07, 2009
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (1)

  I can surely be verbose. Im sorry if the attention span of some is too short to get it.

  
  
  I read "The Elegant Universe" at almost one sitting. Out of curosity I also have read the communist manifesto, I think it took me the better part of a month.
  
  It's not about attention span, it's about patience with idiocy or a lack thereof.
  
  

  Maybe soundbites arent the deepest way of discussing things!

  
  
  Not the deepest way to be sure, but in your case I'd highly recommend it.
  
  

  Most points I make are clear enough.

  
  
  If you say so?
  
  

  Some will always find some stupid spin to put on them. I find no underlying truth in conservative arguments.

  
  
  Nor do I when it comes to social issues, but when it comes to economics the basic premise of "conservative" arguments is that you can't spend more than you make...I'm not at all surprised that doesn't make any sense to YOU.
  
  

  Yeah Im secretly trying to convince myself because Im so conflicted and really a closet conservative lol.

  
  
  Back when I was a younger man and considered myself a conservative, I had to admit to myself that many times the other side had good points and valid arguments, especially on social issues.
  
  If you're either to stubborn or stupid to admit as much then there really isn't much point in talking to you is there?
  
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