Official Luthiers Forum!

I know it/s political, but the senate is getting ready to apply a internet sales tax, that will affect some of the folks on the forum who have an online biz thanks.

They have been talking about this for a long time. I called my Rep , I may was well talked to soupy sales.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It only applies to companies that sell over $1mil/year.

Barry your probably right. Haven/t checked the wording. Nonetheless we will all be paying more taxes from online sellers.

Are you sure?
As I understand they are trying to get eBay sellers to charge state taxes, to repay to the state of the buyer.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

eBay as a company I'm sure is in excess of $1 mil a year. I'm sure that is how it fits in. They won't charge individual eBay sellers but eBay as a whole. And eBay will just raise their fees to compensate.

No, eBay won't be paying the taxes, but their sellers will if they sell over 1 mil. eBay is trying to get this changed to a 10 mil threshold.

Are there really people selling > 1 mil on ebay a year??

Supposedly there are a bunch of them.

Either way I'll keep buying from the folks who I have come to trust quality and service wise. Sorry for the extra work the "small" businesses will have to do, accounting wise, but I have no problem ponying up th tax.

MJ

I want to know how to get I on that! Sit and home and do a million in sales on the Internet. What a life!

Selling over mill a year sounds impressive, but most ebayers make 20% on the piece above dealer cost which is only $200,000 a year, then they have to pay employees and their warehouse costs, and TAX on the 20% profit. Now they have to collect sales tax.

A friend of mine is an ebay seller who does more than a mil a year in business but takes home maybe 15% of that.

It's ALREADY hard enough to do biz as it is.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

1 state is hard enough to keep up with, I would hate to think I had to keep up with 50 different ones. As far as big ebay sellers I just looked on ebay at the seller "buy" and they have over 300000 feedbacks for the last 12 months.

Interesting. I agree with this post 100%

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Old growth, shmold growth!

It may be starting at only a million and over but we know how this works. They will see how much money they are raking in and then get the idea about how much more they could make if they lowered the minimum. Todd's got it right. Fight this and send in any petition you can against this. Ebay has a link for this and so do a few others. Sign them all ..Mike
http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/campaigns ... egislation

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Guitars, guitars and more guitars.

It isn't on the companies like EBAY it is on the seller, If you do over $1mil you are to collect the tax. I for one will make sure I don't do 1 mil . This is a way to squish the little guy again.
I have come to the realization the it doesns't matter ,, Rep or Dem they lie cheat steal to get reelected. Politicians are not one I would believe. I was listening to PBR this morning. According to the journalist it would require the seller to collect and separate the sales tax per state , this is just an added cost to business. They were interviewing a tile maker and he seemed to be up on the requirements. I don't trust journalists either.
Let Ebay and Amazon charge the buyer the tax and let the seller sell. The big boys have the accountants and the resources to do this.
Bold print giveth fine print taketh away.

Gets off soap box and walks away

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It's already bad enough that in Wisconsin, we have to declare our online purchases for the year on our state taxes... And pay tax on them.

Like Todd said, fight tooth and nail. We are getting taxed/hosed north of the boarder as well. Everything pretty much carries a user fee or additional layer of tax, which goes into the black hole of government waste. Our gasoline has three layers of taxation that is also taxed by each subsequent tax.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Todd,
How do you figure it is a Federal tax? The bill is designed for States to collect the taxes that already should be paid to them by the Use Tax. Of course, nobody pays the Use Tax.
I am skeptical of the claims that it will be a nightmare to figure different taxes for different jurisdictions. Within the bill is a provision that States must supply software that calculates the tax owed based on shipping address. Until PayPal came along did anyone think it would be so easy to send electronic payments, and who would have thought a person could collect credit card payments through his smart phone via Square?
The bricks-and-mortar stores are becoming showrooms for online retailers. People look at the products locally and buy online to save the sales tax. Personally, I value the business relationships I have established with local businesses. The payback I have received from dealing locally has been more valuable than the 8% sales tax I'd save by buying online. I believe the bricks-and-mortar stores should have a level playing field.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Agreed. And I'm a little surprised to hear so many luthiers think this is a bad idea. Do most of you sell your guitars out of state? I would guess most of you sell locally. In that case this will make your prices more competitive with guitars that could be bought online. Regardless, I only see this as fair and logical. And in theory it will help local small businesses, as long as the software piece is not a total trainwreck. I think you could make an argument that it shouldn't apply until $10M rather than $1M, but overall I don't really see the downside. Closing a gaping hole which allows millions of people to avoid paying a tax they owe is not at all the same as a tax hike.

Good idea huh.

http://www.netchoice.org/library/sales-tax-collection-myth-vs-reality/

From the stand point that it gives brick and mortar stores a fairer footing when competing with internet sellers, I guess it might not be all bad. Me? it will cost me a fair amount when I build new custom homes and have to pay 7 or 8% tax on the $15,000+ I pay on appliances. Now I order them from an internet shop. I imagine it will hurt them dearly.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Call my Senator? She wants, above ALL OTHER THINGS, more revenue to flow to Wash. D.C. Calling her is a waste of breath. You want to squash an internet tax? The most effective thing you can do is do vote for smaller government. Sorry to be too political...but fighting this or that proposed new tax is like using a bb gun to fight a plague of locusts.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

well said Stuart. Well said

Actually, if you are opposed to the tax, you should call your representative in the House. The measure has already passed handily in the Senate.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large