uh-oh, taxes!

@Thumperchick 0 now

@Thumperchick i may not have to deal with it but it still makes me sad

@Thumperchick EXCEPT this takes away one reason for not having remote employees

@katylava I’m a fan of that.

@Targaryen here you go:

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2018/06/20/snap-your-neck-liberals-billboard-goes-viral/

@katylava
/giphy eye roll

@katylava @Targaryen

There are other issues I have with that billboard.

@Targaryen
/giphy collecting taxes

/giphy collecting Texas

@katylava Haven’t seen that yet, but I’ve seen some other stuff like that driving around down here.

@katylava @Targaryen

I shared it with some Texans yesterday, got a wide range of opinions about it…

---

The sign has been removed per the wishes of the client who paid for it.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2018/06/21/liberals-keep-driving-billboard-removed/

@katylava @Targaryen @PlacidPenguin

Yes, I live here. Yes, Texas can have that sort of flavor (that billboard as an example) at times.

Yes, people do stuff liked that here sometimes (the billboard).
(I mean, people sometimes publicly propound political opinions when little reflection had been given to either the logical consequences of the opinion [if implemented], or to public reaction commenting on the intelligence and savvy of the opinion publicizer who seems not to have reflected before acting.)

Oh, dear!!! Part 1.
The person who put up that billboard would almost certainly not be at all pleased with the demographic, business, financial, and social results if all the “liberals” (by whatever reasonable definition) actually left the state.
Not that said “liberals” intend to do so.

Oh, dear!!! Part 2.
The person who put up that billboard (and other nearby persons who agree with the billboard sentiment) cannot (self or collectively) even dream of affording to buy out the local property, assets, and business or personal holdings of all the local, visiting, and investing “liberals”.
And they (the “anti-liberals”) know they can’t.
The “liberals” also know this.

There are a lot of other potential "Oh, dear!"s to this story. I would imagine the billboard originator is more aware of these now, and is getting some good ribbings.

Oh well.
The tale of that billboard will prob turn into a archetypical story and a running source of humor over the years.
I rather hope it was intended as a “conservative joke”. I have not read the news stories, so don’t know.

In the meantime, diversity of opinion continues. Even locally.

@PlacidPenguin gonna affect everybody. Other than the big retailers- Walmart/Amazon/Target etc. small retailers/third-party sellers will now have to collect and send those taxes to each state separately. So much paperwork and bureaucracy that prices will go up, up, UP.

Amazon already offers to do it for them for additional 3% of their sales…

@mwgm @PlacidPenguin If the other states follow what’s set up for South Dakota (who brought the suit), and they really are small, if they sell less than $200,000 or 200 products in that state, they won’t have to file.

We’re a small seller and don’t even gross that much a year, so we’re safe.

@lisaviolet @PlacidPenguin I hope other states will follow the $200,000 (200 products per year seems low, and doesn’t add up - $1000 per product??), otherwise it only hurts small businesses for which the internet help survive.
Also, I hope states will improve their systems and make it easy and simple to pay- just not optimistic there.

@mwgm @PlacidPenguin i think it’s an either/or situation. Either you sell 200 widgets or do $200k worth of sales in that state before you have to file. I can’t see the point of the manpower of going after a company for just twenty bucks of sales tax times thousands of little sellers.

@lisaviolet @PlacidPenguin Understood. Just doesn’t seem logical to me if a store sells 200x$10 that they’ll have to file.

@mwgm @PlacidPenguin I get your point now.

Yeah, if I sell 200 orders of homegrown catnip for five dollars each, that’s really not worth it for me to do the filing.

@lisaviolet @mwgm @PlacidPenguin There is likely going to be growth of fee based services to file for you.

@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet @PlacidPenguin Sure, but not for free and those costs will hit the consumers or hurt small retailers if they want to compete with the big guys. Also, I have no doubt that Amazon has set it at 3% so it will be much lower than any service out there, making them bigger and stronger than any, again.

What really needs to be done is states making it easy and simple to file, which probably won’t happen for a very long while if at all.

@Kidsandliz @mwgm @PlacidPenguin

Well, the only upside of having to raise prices to cover the cost of doing that, as well as collecting the taxes, is pointing to the fuhrer and saying “hey, it’s on him”.

@narfcake

I should just give you a list of things I want.

Chances are that you would see some of those items in one (or more) stores.

@PlacidPenguin How many more cat penguin shirts do you want need?

@narfcake

Believe it or not, there are other things I buy besides for cat and penguin t-shirts.

@narfcake @PlacidPenguin like cat and penguin socks?

@Kidsandliz @PlacidPenguin
/giphy cat socks

/giphy penguin socks

@mike808 it’s that as a small retailer it’s hard (costly) to implement

@katylava so much this. Amazon and Walmart have this down already. But as much as this is an issue at a company the size of Mediocre, it will be absolute murder for Mom and Pop online sellers.

@djslack @katylava While I agree in principle, I’m wondering how many Mom and Pop online sellers are going to be sued by states: this change doesn’t force anyone to pay taxes, it only allows states to try to collect them.

Yes, I’m aware that there are many insane (inane?) rules for sales taxes, like the place where deodorant is taxed and antiperspirant is not, or the place where Snickers candy bars are taxed and Twix candy bars are not.

But just as those Mom and Pop stores are already outsourcing some things that aren’t worth it for them to do, perhaps they should start outsourcing their sales tax collection as well. I’m sure that there will soon be many new companies offering this service and the cost of this service will come down fairly quickly. (I’m aware of several companies that exist solely to provide this service but I’ll grant that I have no idea how much it costs as I’ve never had need for such.)

@baqui63 I can see your point, it was the first thing I said to my wife when she was telling me of their dread today. She runs a small e-commerce operation for a nonprofit, which has zero budget, basically 1.5 employees, and no clear path yet on how to cope with a potentially significant burden on their operation. Any likely help in the form of a service will either force them to raise prices to cover or take a hit on funding their actual mission. They probably will not be able to take the stance of waiting until a state sues them.

I did see that the SD regulation exempts small sellers, but don’t know the details on how small yet. This could be a potential saving grace for them.

An alternative solution that will likely never happen would be to establish a flat Internet tax rate that can be easily remitted to each state. This would get sellers right through the quagmire of conflicting rates and regulations but is probably a political impossibility.

@baqui63 @djslack flat internet tax will never happen. States rights will “trump” any fed attempt. Sales tax is too tied up with local (city, government) revenue streams and special tax districts (all those TIF giveaways of taxpayer money to big corporations and “blighted” luxury retail developments) will kill any flat tax effort.

@mike808 yep. Which is a shame because at least in my mind, the biggest problem is not that governments want to collect taxes, it’s that the business owners have to keep up with so many hundreds of different sets of rates and rules. Make it easy and you’ll get more. But this idea might not ever make it out of one committee.

@baqui63 @djslack I read the limitations for small sellers are $200,000 or 200 orders. We don’t even gross that much for the entire year.

If we had to file for the states we sell in, it would be brutal.

@mfladd

We reached that once cats discovered how to navigate the internet.

@mfladd @PlacidPenguin More than just navigate:
/wootstalker https://shirt.woot.com/offers/cats-greatest-invention

Cat’s Greatest Invention
Price: $19.00
Condition: Probably New

@UncleVinny

What kind of cherries?

Are there plump and juicy cherries?

@PlacidPenguin yarnt gonna catch me eatin wrinkled up old nasty cherries, friend.

@UncleVinny

Cherry party, or are they just for you?

@UncleVinny

Also, some people are into old and wrinkled cherries.

I don’t judge.

@PlacidPenguin

/giphy mine

/giphy cherry popper

@mike808 I don’t believe they do that here. Yet another condition that varies by location.

@cranky1950 :guffaw:

@cranky1950 You’re cranky.

@narfcake Wow, I’m glad for that at least.

@katylava Yeah. If indeed the ‘Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement’ is part of all this, then that’s a huge relief to the majority of the not-that-small-but-not-huge-either companies out there.

In a 20 mile radius from home, depending on the city and county, the sales tax rates are between 7.75% to 10.25%.