(Margaret) Michele Waldman wrote:
That's crazy. If the store is in NJ, it should pay NJ taxes. That's where
the product is being sold and shipped from.
You would definitely need a cron job to keep track of the changing sales
taxes.
There are varying approaches and they idffer from state to state. In some
cases the state demands that any online purchase is taxed with the applicable
tax rate of the state/county/city/borough/street corner. In other cases the
tax only has to be paid when the seller or one of its subsidiaries or one of
its partners involved in the deal have a physical presence in the state. And
the of course if you do innerstate sales the tax typically applies, which for
example makes ordering from J&R when living in upstate NY sometimes still a
deal as they charge the 6%, not the 8% from up here.
I was always in favor of a nationwide sales tax of 10% (and drop several of
the other dubious taxes, such as the sugar tax). It is the same all over the
place and easy to calculate. And I'd wish that they add the tax into the sale
price as it is done with gas. In other countries it is illegal not to quote
the final price.
Yea, it is crazy. Keep in mind that the USA is not a federation of states, but
a union of states. That means you need to treat New Jersey as if it was
Australia, just that the 50 US states have a bit more in common. There are
drastic differences among the states in regards to laws. For example, in NY it
is legal to go topless in public for both men and women, while it is illegal
in all other states. Some states require a medial exam prior to issuing a
marriage license, others don't. In some states all vehicles have to stop
before railroad crossings, in other states only trucks and buses, in other
states no vehicle at all. The list is endless and shows that sales tax isn't
the odd one out. Does that all rapidly inhale? Yea!
David
_______________________________________________
New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List
http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
http://www.nyphpcon.com
Show Your Participation in New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
