See [1]. Sales tax as a service is available from seven different providers. Shopping cart integration is available. You pay one bill, they handle the rest.
The Commerce Clause gives Congress the power: "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." This has been widely construed as meaning that states cannot make taxes that affect other states' citizens unless they are doing business in that state.
The Supreme Court has just ruled that their earlier ruling (that Store A had to have some physical presence in State S in order for S to require A to charge sales tax) is wrong, and no such physical presence is required.
Did you pay income tax in the state, which will be what supports the university? Congrats, you get in-state tuition.
>>Drive a car into my state? You have to pay a roads tax.
Two points: 1) you are using the roads in the state, why can't you fund them? 2) that tax already exists, you pay it when you buy gas.
Most things are pretty similar state-by-state, but it can be really nice being able to pick your laws if you have to. Maybe you love weed and you want to pick a state with legal weed. Or maybe you like drones and want to pick a state with fewer drone laws. So many things differ state-to-state, from REAL ID to trans rights to surveillance to taxes to guns to driving age to social aid to public transit. Gay marriage, slavery, and interracial marriage were all issues of the past but they were very important in their day too.
I do think it's an important part of what makes America America, and being able to "pick your laws" is an amazing freedom that most people don't have.
Now, the actual ability to move wherever you want can sometimes be limited. If you're in Vermont and you want New Hampshire laws, well, that's easy. (Differences: weed, guns, advertising, taxes, many more.) But if you're in Maine and you want Hawaii laws, a move like that probably isn't doable. Still, I think it's a valuable freedom.
We might actually see some movement in this direction now.
While the average EU interchange fee for taking credit cards is cheaper than in the US, it’s not “less than a penny”
This situation is called an oligopoly. I don't think it has something to do with government sanctioned rent seeking.
At one small company I worked for, we paid SAAS companies for:
- expense reporting and reimbursement (Concur)
- managing payroll
- Managing retirement benefits
- source control hosting (Github)
- Infrastructure (Microsoft Azure)
- Salesforce (I don’t know what they do)
- Training and Compliance
- Chat (Slack)
- Email, Office software (Microsoft Office 365)
- vending services
Etc.
How are these companies any different than the company that helps businesses manage tax collection? They all saw a business opportunity and my company was glad to pay them so it could focus on its niche.
The time to lower interchange fees was before reward programs became standard, interest is where card issuers make their money.
I think its more tenable for governments to provide an optional sales tax as a service and remit the money to the states. One singular report to file one party to pay.
- mapping an address to one or more jurisdictions
- digital deliveries might not have a shipping address
- tax rates often depend on the type of product
- product types have different definitions in different jurisdictions
- some taxes are time dependent (back to school tax holidays)
- some buyers are exempt in some jurisdictions for some products> Think you got a great deal not paying sales tax on your online purchases last year? In most states, there’s a pesky tax called “use tax” that you are supposed to pay in lieu of sales tax if you buy stuff out of state or online--and bring it in state. Theoretically, you’re supposed to root through all your receipts and credit card statements, calculate what you owe and report it on your state income tax return.
Or http://www.pmbusinessadvisors.com/use-tax-reporting-requirem...
> Use tax is a tax imposed on the use of taxable items and services in a state when the sales tax has not been paid. For example, use tax would be due if taxable property is purchased from a seller located outside of New York, the property is used in New York, and sales tax was not paid on the purchase. With online platforms and sales being increasingly popular currently, this concept is significant. Remote retailers that make sales into a state but do not have any presence there (i.e. an office, store, storage, employees) may not be registered to collect sales tax in that state because of the lack of presence there. However, the use tax reporting requirement that has been recently implemented by a number of states requires remote retailers to notify their customers that they may owe use tax on their purchases.