Friday, June 19, 2009

Tax Everything

rappers

Nowhere to Hide

When you buy something over the internet…most states have a compact whereby the merchant will charge the local sales tax if it has a physical presence in the state where the order is from.  So an online purchase will result in revenue for the state.  Fair enough.  But all those online stores that do not have a bricks and mortar store int he state…like Rhode Island…will sell the product, and charge no sales tax.  Rhode Island lawmakers have proposed that the delivery service that brings the package to your home, notify the tax department, so the tax man can get his sales tax out of you.  Local merchants say it’s only fair and equal competition to make out of state vendors charges the 7% in Rhody…6 and a quarter (if the current budget passes) in Massachusetts.  So you all say…

Enough already. Put a casino at Quonset. Cruise ships coming and going. It has to be better than what we’re doing now.
Mr. Ed

ABSOLUTELY NOT ! The State gets enough of our money now and they have proven that they cannot manage that properly.Why should we give more? In these tough economic times?Are they crazy?! Learn how to control Government spending and there would be plenty of money to go around.
Larry S, Cumberland

Taxing internet sales might sound good to some. I am concerned at the way they will track the sales. I am afraid they will be able to get more than tax information. I would definitely curtail my internet buying.
Lee L, Woonsocket

We’ve had enough rigging the game
for the privileged by our policymakers.
If they create loopholes for corporate profit They will have to prey on the consumer and the working poor.
vote those that oversaw
the budget problem out.
Zuke

Just another sneaky tax like the one states put on your cell phone. I think we all need to find that “smokey back room” where these things are thought up, blow it up, then plow it under.
Hound Dog, Bristol

The “Green shoots” of unemployment is soaring. Debt is soaring. The money supply is soaring. Our foreign policy is a wreck – we have more enemies than we can count. Bills to snoop, bills to spy, bills to control.  Policy makers that oversaw a collapsed economy not because the market is “frozen” or because investors are in a state of panic after Lehman, but because derivatives and securitization have been exposed as a fraud built on insufficient capital and propped up by the taxpayer; continue to pass the risk on the working poor. They have not changed the policies of “dodgy financial innovation tools” that games the system and inflates massive speculative debt-leveraging bubbles sold in the secondary market at overly valued, overly rated assets not to mention the use of off-balance sheet operations; but turbo-charged profits by passing risk and skimming hefty salaries and bonuses. There are simply more claims on wealth than there is money in the system they set up. They have set the stage for hyper inflation on necessities and deflation of luxuries. Don’t Tax the consumer, Axe the Policy maker vote them out, better yet hold them liable.
Zuke

Under normal circumstances, this would be a reasonable way to raise revenue. However, no one in state government has shown that they can responsibly use taxpayer monies. It would just be mis-appropriated like all the rest. Throw all the bums out!
Bill G, Cranston

Excuse me while I choke.
Let’s think of more reasons for businesses and people to leave the State.
The “Big Business” Governor, Carcieri, should be working to get more
businesses to come into the State. He seems to be waiting for Twin River
to go under so he can take it over and get 100% instead of the mere 60%

of revenue that caused the place to go out of business. Clever!
Stuckinri

Many companies are charging sales taxes online already.
If you live in the same state as the company resides in, they may be required to collect taxes.
Perhaps the simple answer is to help drive increases in local online businesses so that purchases made online and by Rhode Islanders would be subjected to the same taxes.
I, like many, want spending reform, pension reform and better contracts with our state employees in all areas. Many residents cannot simply afford the increases in local property taxes that are a direct result of loss of state revenue. Having said that,  I don’t want to pay more taxes. I think we need better utilization of the taxes we already collect.
We need legislators who understand the plight we all face. They need to remember they work for us and not the self-serving lobbyists and special interest groups.
We elected them, we can un-elect them!
Tracey P