More than 10% of the March of Dimes annual Signature Chefs Auction proceeds are going to the tax man. This is because they went online to buy 4,000 T-shirts to give to donors for the March for Babies Walk in April. They buy supplies and materials online and also raise money online by selling items - racking up a big tax bill. The director of the Nebraska chapter, Rosemary Opbroek, said "They didn't know and wish the law were different. It's taking money away from helping." It takes away about $26,000. March of Dimes owes for unpaid taxes for April purchases and online transactions over the past 5 years. Opbroek knows they owe money and it will have to come from this weeks proceeds. They hope the final tally will be like last years, about $215,000, but the tax bill will take almost 13%. A lot of people stumble over the same law.
There is confusion on tax policies for online purchases. Sales taxes for online purchases have always been there, but are almost never paid. There is also confusion on who collects and when. Businesses are responsible for collecting sales tax, if they have a store, office, or sales rep in your state, they tack on the sales tax.
If the seller's not responsible then you are. You're supposed to file your own report and pay the tax on your online purchases. The majority of the people don't know of the rules and the forms don't get filed and taxes don't get paid. The National Conference Of State Legislatures estimates $8.6 billion in 2010 alone go unpaid. Sales taxes (handled by a retailer) and use taxes (handled by the customer) pay for schools and public safety.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39159604/ns/business-personal_finance/
I think that having to pay taxes, or use taxes as they are now called, online wouldn't be that bad or make a lot of people upset if we didn't have to go through and fill out a form and send in money to they state. I know that I wouldn't want to pay more money for having just bought something online and then going and paying more of the use tax.
As for people who have no idea about the law, I don't think that they will want to pay they tax on the stuff they bought in the past years, when if they had known about they law they wouldn't have bought they stuff online in the first place.
I know that they law has been in place for some time now, but I think that if they online retailers haven't told they buyers about the tax then they retailers should have to pay for some of the taxes that they didn't tell the people about, because it is their fault in the first place for not telling the buyers about the tax.
I think that on all websites that sell items should put on their site the use tax law and what it is all about. I think that they should tell the buyers ahead of time so they aren't surprised when they find out that they have to pay the use tax. The websites should either put it on their front page of the website in bold writing or on the page where you have to pay for the items you are purchasing.
I truly think that us as consumers shouldn't have to remember to pay the tax, the producers or sellers should be the one to remind us that we have to pay the use tax.
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