Friday, September 17, 2010
Why not interstate sales tax?
Nearly all states are suffering from inadequate tax input, and nearly all states have significant numbers of vendors doing business over the web. I don't understand why it's so damn hard to enact a universal agreement. Could be done through the National Governors Assn to insure that every state gets on board. Vendors already have accounting mechanisms to collect tax from in-state sales, so they could just start collecting the same percentage (without the various city surcharges) on out-of-state sales. A little reprogramming. Yeah, a few states don't have state sales tax, so they'd continue collecting 0% tax on everyone, just as they currently collect 0% tax on everyone. So what?
The old Constitution, if it were still valid, would have prohibited tariffs (taxes on imports) between states, but it wouldn't have prohibited taxes on exports, which is what a sales tax is. Since the old Constitution is no longer used except when a black-robed saboteur needs to ban Christianity or give royal privileges to terrorists and criminals, this doesn't matter anyway. ¶ 9:01 PM
The old Constitution, if it were still valid, would have prohibited tariffs (taxes on imports) between states, but it wouldn't have prohibited taxes on exports, which is what a sales tax is. Since the old Constitution is no longer used except when a black-robed saboteur needs to ban Christianity or give royal privileges to terrorists and criminals, this doesn't matter anyway. ¶ 9:01 PM
