If I have to pay taxes on online purchases it will not change the way I shop. Online still has a wider choice and saves me gas and time, so I will continue as I have been.
It indeed will be a burden to businesses selling across state lines, but software solutions will automate that task to a high degree and every business will not require a full time tax account or clerk on payroll.
No one wants to have the aggravation, but it will not be a business killer for on-liners or a boon for brick and mortars,
The government is about to have another lesson of the difference between technology bridging the complexity and at the same time driving the masses in the other direction.
Alice owns a small online business selling widgets. To avoid theft they discontinued all USD payment methods, which leads to no charge backs, frozen accounts and of course tax [theft].
Bob just continues their same online Amazon shop that "enforces" USD only options. They continue to scale volume of orders, customers but also fraud, chargebacks....plus with new tax laws they now have a mandatory 12 month freeze on revenue but can borrow from.
So at 3 years later of these two hypotheticals what one will be the most likely to still be in business.
I have no doubt that a crypto solution has advantages.
I also know that using it to avoid the collection of taxes is the one thing that a government will use to either outlaw the use of cryptos or even control the Internet to closely track and control its use. The last thing I want is to get a direct bill from the govt for their computed taxes and penaltied for my online crypto transactions.
They can and will do that, so it is best to remain legal, and not paying taxes is NOT legal.
I doubt that government parasites know their limits. They will continue to push for ever greater extortion until they've taxed you so much that you literally fall dead from lack of sustenance. So we better get ready for that eventuality of always submitting to authority because that is where this leads. Sooner or later, they will ask you to walk into the boxcars. Then they will tell you you're taking a group shower. Then you realize that chlorine gas is coming out of the shower heads. At what point do you learn that continued submission will lead to your death? I don't know, but we're about to find out if we have a digital panopticon.
That seems an over reach. The states asked out-of-state sellers to collect and remit taxes everyone else is having to pay already. Why should I have to pay more locally than a neighbor pays by ordering from another state?
This is nothing new.
Why should you have to pay for services you didn't ask for? Shall we all vote now on how much I'm entitled to take out of your wallet? Is this what passes for righteousness now? As long as there was a vote, it's legit?
That's the argument government is essentially making.
Do you advocate eliminating all taxes? Possibly use crowd funding for highways? For law enforcement?
How will that work?
Taxation, when it is coerced is no different than theft. Some people get confused because of the costumes some actors wear. It's the action that matters, not the costume. If someone threatens to kidnap you and put you in a cage if you do not pay them extortion fees when you didn't consent to the arrangement in the first place, or just go to someone else who happens to be holding your assets to seize your assets, that is still theft. That is fundamentally the same action that a mugger or burglar uses. Yet we think that the former if said actor of the state wears a costume is legitimate and even necessary, while the latter is criminal. It is not. They are both criminal, but those so costumed and acting under a badge represent organized crime of the highest order.
People have a short memory. Fortunately I remember a long ways back. Often statists ask the question "who will build the roads?". Where I'm from, my ancestors built the road because we farmed hundreds of acres in the area. This is what Manwaring Rd looked like in 1941...
This is how all roads started, but people wanted to drive faster, so pavement was invented and the same people who created the dirt roads under their own volition then started using paving techniques but it was "sanctioned" by government. The farm equipment that my family was using was sometimes used to level out the potholes.
Absent some authority dictating and organizing people, people will still come together to cooperate and will be doing the same things as before, but will at the end not be left poor because someone has a talent for shuffling papers around.
The same thing goes for crime. The so called victimless crimes where no one has been harmed are nothing more than a government extortion racket used to enrich parasites. These same parasites then when called upon to do something about crime that actually has victims, rarely make the victim whole. Do they compensate victims or order criminals to do so? Rarely. It has become theater. Someone who has lost family to murder is never made whole again, but the state organizes a trial in these cases and sometimes puts offenders in cages so that they can't repeat the offense. But the victim is usually left recked. The state doesn't take it upon themselves to compensate the victims of crime, except in a few cases where they are guilty themselves.
@adamkokesh has proposed crime insurance to make victims whole again, but it is an opt in system. First, one must own themselves completely and take full responsibility. There are no guarantees in life.
and since about half of online sales are Amazon I think Amazon can figure it out.
They already have since they're collecting taxes on sales in some states now.
I like Az! May the best business model win!
exactly, in the long run this won't matter much. Maybe Sears stays open another month.
The poor thing! It has been on life support too long and it looks more hopeless every time I see their parking lot where they anchor one corner of the giant mall. They should just pull the plug and let the great memory die.
I remember a new Sears opening in a mall in Bradenton, Fla and two months later, the new Montgomery Ward anchor store closed when they deep sixed. At least they looked prosperous; Sears looks deserted.
I wish I could talk to Sears, what they need to do right now is get rid of their clothing department, or whichever makes the least money, and put in a 5 star celebrity chef restaurant right in the middle of their stores. They should have shows and events and kids activities there. People are not going to leave the house to go shopping but they need to eat and like doing things.
Cabela's has free fishing for kids inside the store, then their parents buy shit because they are there.
That and Sears needs a fucking website that actually works instead of the train wreck they have now.
The tragedy of it all is that Sears is owned by K-Mart who got their money through bankruptcy. There really is no "Sears" any more. I'm sure they know their clothing lines stink because Sears suppliers were demanding cash and were replaced by K-Mart suppliers.
You could tell it was coming six years ago when they removed the "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" from above their doors.
They do not want to survive and are in process of selling assets to improve their upcoming bankruptcy position.
Sears has been shitting the bed forever. I would trace it back to at least the 90s when they cancelled the sears catalog instead of putting that fucker online, they could be Amazon right now, they could be what they once were, but instead soon they will be gone. Macy's too, the property they own is worth more than the money they make from their stores.
Yup, Craftsman tools and Whirlpool appliances will simply be sold elsewhere and be shadows of their former selves. The best thing about sears was the lifetime guarantee hand tools that you could break as much as you wanted and get new ones.