For What It's Worth...

bigone5500

Well-Known Member
Government seems to be trying to tax small businesses outside of certain states. I don't understand it fully but the less taxes we have to pay on stuff the better. Maybe it won't hurt or affect those purchasing on ebay but for those who use ebay as a means of income it will affect them greatly.

Support Fair Tax Policy For US Sellers & Buyers
 

murankar

Staff member
Normally interstate sales tax is handled at the state level. Sales tax in general is controlled at the state level. So I am not following how the fed can control sales tax.

As for small business taxation that is fed ran. Last I knew Trump was in the process of reducing business tax so small business can grow.

Anyhow this is political and may not live long due to rules. FYI
 

Tony

Staff member
I will chime in and it may be a little different from what you all are expecting. Yes, since March 2011 when Rc-Help was born we have had a very strict No Politics or Religion rule. The reason for this is because those two topics ALWAYS cause arguments. However, on another site that I am a moderator on, we have changed the rules to allow these topics for the conversation, but note we still do not allow any kind of bashing or "your side is wrong" messages. If it is kept civil, I don't have an issue with arguments on the subjects. I think it is time we try to grow beyond where we have been for 6+ years and see where it takes us. And when I say "argument", I mean talking back and forth. Not all out trashing the other person.

Now back on topic.

I heard about the US Government pretty much making it mandatory to put sales tax on everything purchased online. I'm not sure where I stand on this one. If they collect sales tax for the state you live in, then it would definitely help your state and quite honestly, would possibly get me out of the house to purchase things locally and support more local businesses. I know many other people are the same way. If you are going to charge me 8+% tax on what I purchase, and I don't have to pay those taxes online, then why in the world would I shop locally. Not only is the price online cheaper because of reduced overhead of some 40 year old living in their mothers basement and selling stuff on ebay, but if it is out of state for them they do not have to collect taxes on the items.

If they start charging taxes, then we may be talking a few dollars on a $100 item and quite honestly, I would rather support local businesses. Right now we are talking about saving $20-30 on a $100 local item.

I guess we will see how things go.
 
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RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Since the States and Cities only have two main sources of income... either personal income tax and/or sales tax... with the increase of business' only having an online presence, it only makes sense that the States/Cities could collect on sales from those business'. As mentioned, if it wasn't done then online business' would have a distinct advantage than a local brick and mortar. The two primary points are... The cost of doing business, either local or online should be the same otherwise one type has an unfair advantage over the others. States and Cities must have an income in order to provide the services they provide.

If you are going to start a business, you must expect that there are overhead expenses no matter what type of business it is. In the case of taxes, those are being passed on to the customers/clients anyway and the only additional costs involved is with the accounting of those costs, something local businesses have had to do all along.
 

bigone5500

Well-Known Member
I personally prefer to purchase online. I sometimes pay taxes on what I purchase but I have no problem with that. It's my duty to pay taxes. However, if I am to pay taxes on items that I can buy locally, then I will buy locally. I am 100% for supporting local business and is the reason I don't buy my tires online and have them mounted at the local tire shop. I can get the same tires much cheaper online but if I were to do that I feel I'm hurting the local small business owner. For this same reason I don't have any issues purchasing items from our local hobby town. Each hobby town is individually owned and operated so if I can help him out then I will.

As for the subject of bashing on subjects, that will never be done by myself. I'll mentally review a subject I may want to post about and if there is any way I think someone could get a hot head over it, then I'll not post. I realize there is a bit of politics in the original post but my main reason is to try to get others aware that this is happening. If it helps or hurts, that's for the individual to decide.

@Tony if you feel you need to lock this post as a preventative measure then please do so. The last thing we need on this forum is for members to become angry toward each other. I offer my apologies for breaking any rules.
 

Tony

Staff member
No worries Jared. This is actually a great topic and in a round about way has to do with out hobby. Just think about the number of items we purchase online because there are no taxes! This does have me wondering about what is going to happen to overseas orders. I'm thinking we are going to have to pay some kind of customs tax or duty tax after this passes. And I have no doubt it will pass and they will push it through faster than anything else.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
I am 100% for supporting local business and is the reason I don't buy my tires online and have them mounted at the local tire shop.

I build custom computers using only quality parts and of course do repairs on whatever computer ( Windows/DOS based ) computer that is brought to me. If a client also brings a part for me to install, I have absolutely no problem with that either. In fact, since there is very little margins ( profit ) in parts, it's actually better for me as a business when they do bring their own parts since I also don't have liability for any warranty issues that may arise, the client must then pay me to also remove/replace the part if something fails in those cases.

I can't speak for tire dealerships, but I'd suspect it's much the same for them. They'd still get labor costs paid and also not have to incur any tire warranty issues. In fact, this is one reason I also purchase my tires from the dealership so I don't have to worry about road hazard or other warranty issues.

Of course there is the issue of having to load those 4 tires into the back of my Escape that I may have purchased online and were shipped to me.... I'm way to lazy for something like that LMAO... :D
 

bigone5500

Well-Known Member
Another thing about shopping at the local hobby town is you get to chat with the employees and the ones that do the work on the products. You get to look around and put your hands on the items and if you see something you have a question about you get an immediate answer instead of posting to a Q&A page just to wait days for a response. There is absolutely no substitute for human interactivity. You have/will see me posting a lot about items on amazon and the reason I shop at amazon so much is I have inadvertently paid them $100 for a year of prime. I plan to get the most from my prime account and when it is time to renew, I will cancel. The second reason is they supposedly donate a portion of my purchases to the charity I chose (St. Jude). If it's close to the weekend, I'm very likely to wait and go to hobby town though.
 
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