Internet Sales Tax News & Discussions 2019

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't pay for the service. If they want me to pay, then I'd be sending a letter to each of the states currently collecting on internet sales to let them know they owe me a reimbursement for any additional charges related to sales tax that I did not previously have to pay as a small business owner.

Heck, I might send them a letter anyway telling them they owe me for my time since I'm dong their job for them. It's not my fault their residents weren't paying their use taxes, if they were even aware they had to, and that the state couldn't do its job and inform their residents of the law and enforce it.

I know I was completely unaware that a use tax even existed until I had to start collecting sales tax for my business in Kansas. I then looked up Texas's laws and saw they have a use tax, as well. Who knew? Seriously? How is anyone to know they owe a tax if their state isn't telling them they're required to pay it?

When I considered everything that Kansas already taxes you for -- property taxes on your car, computer(s), TV(s), other household appliances (fridge, W/D, etc.), among a multitude of other things, and sales tax on groceries and prescriptions (we pay none of that in Texas) -- I can see why people are reluctant to pay any other tax. Heck, even I didn't claim to own anything other than my car.

Some states are ridiculous when it comes to any kind of tax. In Kansas, if you buy a new car and have it financed, you have to pay property taxes annually on the full purchase price of the car until it's paid off -- afterward, they go by the book value -- and you can't get your auto registration renewed without paying them. Luckily, my car was already paid for and old, but I still paid more in property taxes on it alone than I did for both auto registration and inspection in Texas (KS doesn't do inspections -- at least not while I lived there).

That would explain why so many Kansans drive old, beat-up, smelly cars. In Texas, it's extremely rare to find yourself behind a car that stinks to high Heaven. I can't remember the last time, but I do know there were only a few times since moving here in '78. Texas is super strict about keeping its air clean.

In Kansas, I was constantly getting stuck on two-lane, curvy roads behind a car polluting my air -- usually so bad that it was hard to breathe. That's probably also why the state doesn't do inspections -- because they make more on the property taxes than they would charging for annual inspections to keep the state's air clean.

Everywhere you turn, you're being taxed for something. Our cellphone bill should only be about $90, but it's nearly $200 because of all the extra BS they add to the bill -- mostly taxes and other government charges imposed on the company that they pass on to their customers.

Whenever I sign up for a new service and they're giving me the pricing, I always ask for the final price after all the taxes and stuff before making a decision. A simple telephone service shouldn't cost more than $25/mo, but typically amounts to at least $50 after taxes and stuff.

I remember when they changed our area code. We had to start paying an additional $25/mo just so our "new" number wouldn't be considered long distance to Houston. I mean, it would take me MAYBE 5 minutes to drive to the nearest area where their area code wasn't change, but it would be considered long distance if we didn't pony up.

Considering that we all worked in Houston at the time, we had no choice. Needless to say, we no longer get our phone service through AT&T and we pay less than $25/mo for it through our cable company -- no extra charge for being in our area code. And companies like AT&T wonder why they're losing so much business.

You can only nickel and dime your customers to death for so long while offering sub-par services before they start looking for greener pastures elsewhere. We're just lucky that modern technology now allows us to step away from AT&T's aging phone cables. Before, we didn't have a choice when it came to phone service.

While that may be a bit off topic, it all ties into what government and big business expect to get away with because The People don't fight back. I'm so sick of hearing things like, "It's just the way it is," or "Things will never change." As far as I'm concerned, anyone who wants to think like that is more than welcome to move to a remote island somewhere where they don't have to fight for more than their own survival.

This is a big country with hundreds of millions of people and we need laws in place to protect us. Those laws won't even be considered unless The People speak up and make some noise. So, if you want to silently accept things the way they are, then you need to move to an area where there isn't a populace of such degree that requires policing because the rest of us shouldn't be forced to accept anything that isn't right because so many just want to play dumb.

Look at American history...how many times have we had to fight in the past to get democratic laws changed/enacted? Heck, the abolition of slavery required a Civil War. The right to vote for blacks and women required their own movements that often got ugly, particularly for the black folks. We're still fighting for equality because some people refuse to evolve.

How often do you see people fighting for what's right now? About the only "movement" I've noticed is the Black Lives Matter campaign that should really say "ALL" lives matter. Black people are far from the only ones facing the same type of police brutality that they've experienced. Of course, they have an excuse -- they have black skin. I'm a petite white female who's also considered a minority, but apparently they think I'm getting some sort of special privileges because I'm white. PFFT!

Did you know?...This petite white female cannot get ANY sort of assistance as a disabled person because I'm white? When in Kansas, they offered me $25 for gas, which is what it would have cost to go pick up the check two hours away (gas cost around $4/gal back then), and told me that I wasn't eligible for anything else unless I had a kid.