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Comment by Svip | Hacker News Reader

I am slightly bemused by the fact that the US - which in Europe is often seen as very lax on taxes - is doing this and it is not even being considered in Europe. That might change, sure, but Europeans tend to like taxing things. And if this haven't even made a consideration among European lawmakers, just how far from the pack have the US lawmakers gone?

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The author and you are confused. There is no internet specific tax being discussed in the US. The "Internet tax" bill just allows states to require companies to collect state sales tax when they sell an item to someone in the state. This is the same tax which is collected by brick and mortar stores within the state. Currently if I buy items online each year when filing my state taxes by law I must declare the value of my online purchases and pay the sales tax on them. As you can guess many people don't declare the purchases as required. The "Internet tax" bill is really a bill to change allowed tax collection methods to ensure that all currently applicable taxes are collected.

So as a hypothetical business owner in Washington who sells things online, I have to keep track of the tax laws of the other 49 states, and remit 50 checks quarterly (or maybe annually)?

> So as a hypothetical business owner in Washington who sells things online, I have to keep track of the tax laws of the other 49 states, and remit 50 checks quarterly (or maybe annually)?

Well, you have to either keep track of those laws for the states you choose to sell into, or use the free software provided by each state that has opted into the arrangement (the MFA provides an opt-in regime for states, with conditions including the provision of free software, with retailers not liable for any failure to collect and/or remit tax that is due to errors in the software.) But, yeah, you have to pay each taxing "state" (which will probably be less than 50 initially, but more than 50 in the limit case, since "states" under the MFA include the the 50 states, DC, plus other US territories and possessions.)

Or, instead of using the State-provided software and doing it yourself, you can pay a "certified software provider" to do it, and be immunized against liability for any errors that are the fault of that provider.

No, you don't. There are certain conditions which the states have to meet before they can start requiring collection. One of which is to certify one or more service providers which can be used to determine the appropriate sales tax to be collected. Currently 24 states have already certified 6 service providers including one free one. It is expected that most states will certify one or more of the existing 6 providers. If you use a certified service provider to determine the tax to be collected and the service provider makes an error you are indemnified from liability. Many e-commerce platforms already have integration with these providers. Besides determining the tax rate the providers can provide reporting regarding taxes collected and automatically file your tax returns to the states. For more info regarding the law go to http://www.marketplacefairness.org/

Yes, that's what's happening if this bill passes in the House.

Europe is already taxing all internet purchases made within it's borders. I was buying some shoes in UK and only after I assured the seller that Ukraine was outside of EU was the tax taken off the price.

But that's because of the internal market, that isn't some specific internet tax, is it?

The U.S. one isn't a specific internet tax either. The U.S. legislation is just trying to implement what the EU already has: purchases will have tax collected based on the destination jurisdiction.

The current situation in the EU is that if you order a book from the UK to Belgium, you pay Belgian VAT for the transaction. There is also an exception that sellers below a certain volume are exempt from dealing with the cross-border VAT. That is precisely what the new situation in the US will be, if this passes: cross-state purchases will be taxed based on the destination state's sales tax, with sellers below a certain volume exempt.

The 2003 VAT on e-Services laws are: they are a modification of the general VAT laws to better level the playing field between companies inside and outside of the EU for digital goods downloaded over the Internet. Before, companies in the EU had to collect VAT on all purchases (including from people in other countries), and companies in other countries did not have a realistic way to collect VAT from countries in the EU. Since the inception of that law, companies in the EU do not have to collect taxes on sales to other countries, and companies from all countries must collect VAT for sales to customers in the EU. They established a simplified registration process by which companies can register in a single jurisdiction and then remit collected VAT in a single currency, accompanied with a breakdown of which countries are owed which amounts. (None of this applies to physical goods, nor would such things be necessary, because those are taxed at the point of collection based on the declarations goods stated on the import/export documentation.)

> But that's because of the internal market, that isn't some specific internet tax, is it?

Despite the dishonest label "internet sales tax" frequently used by the media and opponents, the US measure being discussed "isn't some specific internet tax", either. Its a feederal law that gives permission, with conditions, for states to require remote retailers to collect and remit sales and use tax that are already due on purchases (and which, for remote sales, would otherwise generally have been the responsibility of the purchaser to report and remit). It is neither a new tax, nor is it "internet specific" in any way.

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