State politicians in both parties are seeking to institute something called the SSTP--The Streamlined Sales Tax Project--which would end up costing Americans BILLIONS more in tazes.
The SSTP is a collaborative agreement that would unify state sales tax systems for the purpose of , you guessed it, internet taxation, something Matt has reported many times on in the past. However, this one has some strange bedfellows with the government folks.
Currently, if a consumer makes a purchase from a vendor with no physical presence in his state, he pays no sales tax. SSTP would seek to change that.
What we have here, is another grab at more of our money through the euphemism of "fairness." The argument goes this way: unless we enact SSTP 'critical government services' will be cut. The National Governors Association has long been in favor of the SSTP and has claimed that if it is not adopted, "America would have 200,000 fewer teachers and police officers educating our children and keeping our communities safe." See, these evil internet stores are taking money away from the states.
The argument is bogus. What they don't tell you is that states are flush with money. From 1991-2004, total state receipts rose by 63%. This is before the large revenue spurt that most states have experienced in 2005. So, the idea that the states are in dire straits is bogus. Where is the money going is the better question, not seeking to add more to the pit of bureaucrats' pockets.
There is another bogus argument: without SSTP, businesses selling products on the internet are "esceaping their obligations" to fund government. Uh, hello, anyone want to give to these clowns an economics 101 book?
Businesses on and off hte internet are already taxed plenty through a variety of measures. These include: corporate taxes, personal income taxes, sales taxes, use taxes, property taxes, and hundreds of other governmental fees.
Buying a book from an online store does not come to you tax free. The business paying for it has already paid taxes on it, which were passed along to the consumer in the price. Duh!
The big joke is the "fairness" argument. The pro-tax crowd says that it is unfair that the sales tax "burden" iimposed on brick and mortar stores is not also imposed on internet establishments. But, here is the truth: any vendor can do business on the internet, if it wishes, and there is no requirement for anyone to collect state taxes on out of state vendors.
The whole argument flies in the face of the facts and logic. So, why is it moving forward? There is a strange coalition behind it. Public employee unions are for it because more govt. money means more pay for their members and more public employees needed who will become members of their unions. Some retailers are behind it who havent been successful on the internet. They hope SSTp will slow the growth of competition that has been more succesful online. Instead of improving their own web presence, they just try to legislate competition controls with taxes. Together, unions and big business (wow, what strange bedfellows) along with money hungry lawmakers are pushing this forwward and have spent millions lobbying for this issue. This fall, 13 states will be requesting online sellers to tart abiding by the rules of SSTP ( IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, NB, NJ, NC, ND, OK, SD, WV). There will soon be a push in Congress. Write your representatives and tell them we are all taxed quite enough, and need no more special outlays. Tell them to do what we do, make due with less. AND LEAVE OUR INTERNET ALONE!!!!
