E-Commerce and Sales Tax - 1263 Words

E-Commerce and Sales Tax 5/2/2012 Throughout the country, states are not collecting some or any taxes on online transactions. This debate has been brought to Congress, state, and local governments as to whether taxes should be imposed on online transactions as well as who should standardize online taxing. Research shows that the estimated revenue losses in excess of $60 billion alone from online transactions. This number is only to grow with increased use of ecommerce. (McClure 2000) Both state and local sales taxes are collected by vendors at the time of transaction and are levied at a percentage of a product’s retail price. Alternatively, use taxes are often not collected by the vendor if the vendor does not have nexus (loosely†¦show more content†¦The second option is unlikely without action by the states and local governments to simplify and harmonize their tax regimes under SSTP. Both approaches have their supporters and naysayers. (Maguire 2005) Opponents of such taxation emphasize that electronic commerce does, generate substantial revenue for state and local governments from a variety of tax sources, including business and personal income taxes, and that additional tax revenue is hardly needed at a time when the economy is booming and most state government budgets are met. They feel competition between the nation’s state and local tax jurisdictions helps hold tax rates down to their cost-effective minimum. If one state or city imposes a sales tax rate that is too high in relation to public services those taxes help finance, its tax base will shrink as businesses and consumers move to other jurisdictions with lower taxes and better roads and schools. However moving is costly. The ability to avoid high local taxes by making purchases over the Internet or through mail-order catalogs supplies an alternative margin of competition that forces governments to be more fiscally responsible. (Kemp 2000) While local retailers are then at a competitive disadvantage, internet retailers have a disadvantage of their own in the form of the shipping and handling charges their customers must pay. Local retailers then canShow MoreRelatedThe Explosive Growth Of E Commerce1732 Words   |  7 PagesCensus Bureaus reports a sharp increase in the retail E-commerce sales as a percent of total quarterly retail sales since the first quarter of 2006 to the last quarter of 2015. E-commerce sales in 2015 accounted for 7.3 percent of total sales, which is 0.9 percent higher than what it accounted in 2014. The explosive growth of E-commerce transactions greatly affects the revenue of sales taxes and has made whether to levy taxes on Internet sales a hot debate. From the consumers’, online retailers’,Read MoreE Commerce And The Internet Essay1226 Words   |  5 Pagesmarket of online applications and software sales. 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