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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

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    I disagree with this bill (none / 0) (#1)
    by JGillman on Sat Feb 09, 2013 at 09:40:08 PM EST
    but for different reasons.

    It seems that if a business has a presence here it should already be collecting sales taxes here.  So the premise that it is only on businesses with a Michigan entity is strange.

    I collect sales taxes on Michigan Residents already.  If I did not, I would be breaking existing law.

    "(b) Uses its employees in this state or facilities in this state to advertise and promote or facilitate sales by the seller to customers in this state."
    Is a troubling line however.

    I drop ship quite a bit into California for example.  California has a roughly 8% sales tax.  It has a similar provision.  If I ship from warehouses within that state to an address within that state, they charge me 10.5% sales tax. It is presumed I am paying wholesale and then will be selling to customer at a marked up amount the sales tax increase would represent.

    Here is the rub..  I don't have a sales tax license there, and have no interest in getting one, as it would be a problem doing it for 50 states if all of them.  Legally, I cannot collect sales tax there. So that means I am Screwed by 10.5%. I am STUCK paying the sales tax or losing the sale.

    So what do I do?  Often I have the product shipped from other warehouses outside the state to forgo the sales tax, and my options are reduced.  This adds up to higher costs and reduced shipping options and time for the customers of that state.  MAIN STREET FAIRNESS wants that.  They want to have government skew the competitive edge.

    Here in Michigan, I have a warehouse as well as a sales tax license.

    If a dealer outside of the state says "can you drop ship to my customer in Detroit?", it means that I must either charge their customer (Whom I have no relationship) or them (which will encourage them to ship from elsewhere - losing my Michigan business its income) and make for crappier service for the citizens in the state.

    Great.

    The BEST way to deal with this however, would be (You may not like this) a federal solution, or private one agreed to by all states that collect sales tax.  A SIMPLE clearing house tax license which peels off a small part of the internet sales tax, and sends along the appropriate percentage to the states that have sales made to them.  It would solve the problem of collecting those taxes not reported by the buyers.

    Otherwise this is another not-so-well thought out government solution encouraged for an advantage of one business model over another.

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