[nylug-talk] [OT] internet sales tax for NY in Dec. and the US?

[Brian Gupta]

The key phrase I refer to is the ban on "Multiple or discriminatory
taxes on electronic commerce". This prevents states from implementing
new tax rules that specifically target internet sales. Under the
existing supreme court ruling that was referred to in the original
article, a state does not have the power to order an out of state
corporation to collect tax on transactions, unless that corporation
has a "Nexus' of business in the state that wishes to collect the
tax.. (Generally a Nexus has referred to bricks and mortar, or a
staffing presence, not as Spitzer is claiming, that pixels on a screen
are now a Nexus.)

Here is the full text of the act:
http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong108/inda/20040429_s150es.asp

I did some digging, and I understand your confusion. There is a common
believe among technorati that this act offers no ecommerce provisions,
and is simply a internet access tax act. This is further confused by
the fact that the general populace believes that there is a
"moratorium on internet sales tax", which is also not true.

BTW - The tax you are referring to that most people aren't paying
isn't sales tax. It is "use tax".

In the end it is a moot point. Current law is preventing most states
from collecting sales related taxes on cross border transactions. This
act was designed, to keep the status quo in place regarding internet
ecommerce taxes, and make sure that the states didn't use this as an
opportunity to create a new method to bypass the "Nexus" ruling.

I suspect states are going to have to tread very carefully, as they
risk alienating their voters. (Basically, if they could some how
magically enforce the "use tax", citizens would not view it as
enforcement of an old tax, but rather a new tax. With Spitzer's claim
of no new taxes, it will be interesting to see, if a) he pulls it off,
and b) voters don't throw him out of office.

-Brian

On Nov 14, 2007 5:40 PM, Alex Pilosov <alex at pilosoft.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Brian Gupta wrote:
>
> > Sigh...
> > http://www.hklaw.com/Publications/Newsletters.asp?ID=533&Article=2860
> >
> > The moratorium wasn't just on "Internet access". The significance of the
> > moratorium are mostly dealing with it's larger clauses relating to
> > "e-commerce". Basically, the moratorium prevents new sales taxes, on
> > internet sales. If Amazon doesn't have a factor/warehouse in New York
> > state, currently New York state can't charge sales tax for items bought
> > from Amazon, as Amazon is not a New York retailer.
> Yes, someone on the list is going to school me about internet tax
> moratorium, sighing, no less. After being in business for 10 years, and
> having my attorneys argue with ILECs and CLECs about exact meaning of what
> constitutes telecommunication and what constitutes "internet access", I'm
> going to have someone on nylug explain ITNA/ITFA to me. Not. Freaking
> amateurs. *groan*
>
> I repeat, again, the internet tax moratorium has absolutely *nothing* to
> do about sales taxes on anything that is not *internet access*. Go to the
> URL that you posted. Read it. Talk to me after you do.
>
> -alex
>
>
>
>
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-- 
- Brian Gupta

http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nycosug/