You all know what's coming next, right?
The argument here is that sellers are doing business in a given state by selling merchandise there. They therefore feel that THEIR STATE RECIPIENT owes them taxes (not we sellers). Essentially they're trying to collect more taxes on their own people.
But NEXT we'll be hearing that every city, county, or state that we do business in will be requiring us to HAVE A BUSINESS LICENSE for that given locality. Local businesses will be screaming that we have an unfair advantage because we're not subject to the high costs of local business licenses and fees.
UNFAIR!!!
And so the online marketplace will continue to deteriorate.
The media declares that states will retrieve billions in sales taxes. Never mind the impact on their own consumer's wallets and budgets. Never mind the way it'll stifle businesses nationwide, including online sellers in their own states.
I myself have done the whole 'bottom line cost' thing when looking for a retail item for myself. By the time I calculate price plus shipping I'm often near local retail costs, WITHOUT THE WAIT. But when you factor in another 8% or more, depending on locale, the only thing you're saving is the drive to the local big box store. Folks living in remote areas won't have that option, but city dwellers certainly will. This will impact those rural buyers the most.
I'm sure that eBay will instill a nationwide calculator that will automatically compute sales taxes to any given buyer. But will they hold and PAY that tax? Seems like that puts them on another legal plain that they'll avoid if they can manage it. That leads to the millions of random sellers who suddenly have thousands more in their accounts due to collecting sales taxes. Will they pay them?
I hardly think so. Many small sellers will simply pocket the fees. Are they going to get some threatening letter from some other locality across the nation? I doubt it. Unless eBay reports sales to individual states those states won't have a clue that a sale was made. How could they?
Sellers will quickly figure this out and reap the benefits. In fact they'll justify it because it'll offset any decline in sales that they see as it results in the UNFAIR PLAYING FIELD of them having to SHIP items to their buyers nationwide. Yes, we have an unfair playing field now, weighed against us. Many of us have employees, warehouses, utility fees, shipping expenses, etc., so the argument that BM stores have an unfair playing field is nonsense.
I don't know about you all but we've literally driven across the nation to retrieve items for our inventory. The associated costs are REAL. Fuel, lodging, vehicle expenses, food, time lost from selling, and more. We can do that because of the EXISTING marketplace. When a buyer has to pay another $600 in tax on a big ticket item, in additon to $1200 in shipping, those sales will disappear. Sellers will have to discount their prices to stay in business and there go the profits.
If we start finding ourselves in some kind of legal jeopardy because of implementation, we'll simply rule out USA sales to all but the states the don't charge sales tax. If eBay doesn't allow for that then we'll eliminate USA sales altogether and simply focus on our overseas sales, dumping inventory that's prone to the USA marketplace. The lack of intrusive regulations and the added associated freedoms is one reason we sell online. When every other state in the union can get its fingers into our business then it's time to end it altogether. We moved out of California long ago for the exact same reasons.
We'll do it again as it relates to online sales. Craigslist has its issues but we've had a ton of sales via CL. And CL is full of former eBay sellers, it's obvious from viewing the ads (does eBay still own 25% of CL?). We've done a lot of buying off of CL over the years and continue to do so today. No fees, no taxes.
Any wonder why eBay has been fighting this taxation issue so vehemently? They KNOW it's going to hit them hard on the bottom line. eBay raise the fees to cover losses? We're gone. Fees right now take 15-20% of our final price. That's already far too much.
And how long before sellers not only offer free shipping, but add 'we'll pay your sales tax' to their ads in a desparate effort to stay afloat and competitive?
Time to liquidate some online inventory and focus on other venues.
