Jackson Jambalaya

It is too bad that Mr. Daniels, like many small business owners, avoids mentioning one of the key P's in marketing -- that being Price.

He is mistaken to conclude that the local showroom-online sale phenomenon is only about the avoidance of sales taxes.

Seriously? I sympathize with Mr. Daniels' plight. But he's got exactly a zero percent chance of getting me to ask our senators to impose a 7% price increase on my Internet purchases.

Brick and mortar stores have several advantages over Internet businesses, particularly in a state like ours. Discover those advantages and exploit them.

I'm sure I'll have to pay sales tax on all my Internet purchases (not just those with a brick and mortar presence in the state) one day, but I'm definitely not going to help that day get here faster.

Mr. Daniels,

Did you really just say that consumers should pay more for what they purchase? Even IF I had to pay taxes on the goods I purchase online, I would still not go into a brick and mortar store. Why, you ask. Because it costs me time and money to go to your store. This article talks about how the tax law is ancient, when it is truly your logic that is. This is 2013 not 1980. Go buy a computer and market your stuff online, doofus. Instead of coming on here and paying Kingfish money to let you get flamed for living in the past. Grow up and man up or you aren't going to survive in the 21st century.

1) Mississippi taxpayers are already obligated to pay a "Customer Use Tax" (that title might be wrong) for any items for which they did not pay sales tax at the time of purchase.

2) Most intelligent people realize they are not saving money when the shipping/delivery charge exceeds the sales tax on an item. Last week I saw a CD I was interested in in a store that was charging $29.99. The same item on amazon.com was $16.99. With that huge difference the sales tax played no part in my decision where to buy it. Local stores have to order and stock items with no guarantee they will sell. Warehouse operations like amazon minimize those costs by having one (or a few) giant warehouses; the cost differences allow them to undercut the prices of local stores substantially (not to mention the convenience of 24 hour ordering, and home delivery). The sales tax is a distraction from the real problems brick-and-mortar operations face in competing with internet warehouse operations.

You hit the nail on the head.

I'm assuming that the bill proposes that the internet merchant collect the sales taxes at the point of purchase. How will the merchant know how much to collect? Sales taxes are often different from municipality to municipality, and from state to state. Further, how will the different states and municipalities be paid their tax revenue from the seemingly infinite number of internet merchants? I can't imagine a system whereby every city in America gets its taxes paid every time one of its residents makes an internet purchase. How did it work with catalog purchases in the old days? I don't think the purpose of this bill is to raise tax revenue as much as it is to force consumers to pay more to internet merchants, who then may or may not pay the tax to the state and city where the customer lives. I don't buy anything on the internet unless I can't find it locally, but I can't support this bill until I understand how it's going to be implemented.

As a small business owner, of course I support this. I always try to add the value of shoping with me versus online. Unfortunately, some people cannot see past the 7% premium I am handcuffed to. It kills me seeing the policemen, firemen, and government officials coming into my place with things they bought online to avoid sales tax! They just don't get it!

There will be people that say, "Well just lower your price to compensate." I wish it was that easy. There are certain goods in my store that are pretty much high dollar loss leaders. I pretty much sale at cost and would lose money if I went lower. I wouldn't have anyone walk in my store if I didn't carry them.

Bill, there are software programs out there that handle all the different tax rates of states. That is an easy fix. Any Point of Sale software can calculate your sales and tax figures per state. I have to pay an accountant to handle my taxes here, that's just a cost of doing business. They can pay an accountant too. If they want to do business in a certain state, that is just the cost of doing business in that state.

Everyone knows this is targeting the big boys like Amazon. They already see the writing on the walls. They are collecting sales tax for several states like TX and CA.

I am not too optimistic about the bill, because Republicans want nothing to do about new taxes and we need their support in Congress.

Too bad MS just doesn't eliminate sales tax and make up for it in another way. Several states are seeing a great benefit to this. Just think of the areas of Southhaven, Vicksburg, and the coast, that could benefit from the surrounding area states coming to shop there!

But thanks for shopping local!

If they can get the product to your door they can get the tax receipt to the right place.

I am more worried about the cost of the purchase instead of the merchant

Bill has made some excellent observations. This is opening up a huge can of worms. When the increments of taxation are levied, it will be a large emcumbrance on all citizens.

Between federal income tax, state income, social security tax, medicare tax, local sales tax, real property tax, office property tax, gasoline tax, landline phone tax, cell phone tax, yada, yada, yada...I don't want or need another tax.

I have a grand ecomomic stimulus plan, why don't cut some tax. I have paid more than my fair share. Anyone who wants more taxes is welcome to pay extra out of their own pocket, but not my pocket.

Good points, Bill. Just another government idea gone sour before it gets out of the chute. But, in this case, it will result in the tax-collecting-merchant pocketing the tax. Unlike you, I buy tons of things on the net since local merchants are always out of or never stocked the merchandise I want. When I go to Bass Pro clothing department, I always hear, "We don't have it in stock", or "Sorry, we only carry those seasonally". Online never presents those problems. You can find virtually ANYthing online and the shopping is much easier at your computer table in your underwear. And we won't even discuss those with ankle bracelets.....

Bill...from what I understand it is very simple for merchants to know how much to charge bc there are software packages they can add to their check out process to calculate. Pretty simple.

The merchants will be responsible for collecting the sales tax on all sales then they have to turn those taxes into each state tax commission. No different than any other business.

This seems to be a system that is trying to make it equitable between Main Street businesses who are forced to collect sales taxes and Internet companies who are utilizing a loop hole in the law.

The sales tax collected by brick and mortar stores helps pay for all of the government services they use.....such as road and intersection improvements for traffic, plus police and fire protection, etc. Internet purchases do not create a need for government services, therefore it does not seem fair to tax them. Plus you already pay for shipping which offsets the convenience and tax savings.

Nothing like a little competition to drive people to their congressman

Next door in LA Gov. Jindal has proposed eliminating most or all income taxes, and replacing it with a sales tax hike (VAT?). What would that do to upset LA merchants?

On a related note (about the software available to internet merchants to calculate nationwide sales taxes), doesn't the Best Buy on the Jackson side of County Line Road charge 1% higher sales tax than the Best Buy in Madison? If someone orders something from Bestbuy.com, what tax rate should they charge? Is it based on the delivery address? That seems unfair to a Jackson resident who may have been able to save 1% on a big ticket item by buying in Madison.

When I lived in NJ (5% sales tax then) there was a scam where jeweler(s) in NYC (8% tax rate then) would sell jewelry (say, $10,000 worth), ship an empty package to a fake PO Box in NJ, and hand the item to the customer in the store, saving them 3%.

We lived close to Delaware, which has no sales tax. Undercover cars from the NJ State Police would park outside malls and big box stores across the border. When they saw a customer load something like a laptop into a car with NJ tags they would follow the car back into NJ, pull them over, and search the trunk. People were charged for evading the state's sales or customer use tax.

Your tone March 19, 2013 at 2:29 PM was completely uncalled for.

I'd advise John to do some additional research on this legislation because the players lobbying Congress on this are the big box retailers.

Walmart alone spent over $7.5 million lobbying for this specific piece of legislation in 2012. I doubt that their objective was to level the playing for small business owners.

I understand that computing the amount of tax due at the point of sale could be accomplished by keeping current sales tax data for every zip code in the country. There would be some inaccuracy we'd have to accept - they might not update the data when a city passes a local sales tax - but it would be mostly right most of the time. However, that doesn't answer how the 50 states and thousands of municipalities collect from the merchants. Use the honor system and just hope they send you the check? I see this causing a gigantic explosion of work for cities and states, which will, of course, require higher taxes to pay for it.

Bill,
Your question of tax collection is moot. If I buy online at BestBuy, Bass Pro, Target, etc., It already is charged tax and collected. The local store here never saw that money, it went to Corporate. I am sure the states are collecting the money currently.

ClintonRebel,
Do your internet purchases teleport to you??? I imagine they are shipped to you through the highway systems, state, and local roads. So yes, Internet purchases do create a need for goverment services.

"Do your internet purchases teleport to you??? I imagine they are shipped to you through the highway systems, state, and local roads. So yes, Internet purchases do create a need for goverment services."

Those are all paid for already by gasoline taxes and/or tolls.

10:34 - your point is moot. Each local Best Buy deals with one state tax agency, in Jackson. BestBuy.com would have to deal with at 50 state agencies, and pay the correct amount to each one (more than 50 rates, due to local differences such as we see in Jackson vs madison County).

10:34, just because we pay the taxes doesn't mean the state is collecting them. How does the state know whether I bought my book at Barnes & Noble in the Renaissance or through Barnes & Noble online? For that matter, does Barnes & Noble in the Renaissance have to keep track of where people live so they can remit the sales taxes to the proper municipalities? Are you telling me that every state and municipality that is due that tax - in my case, Mississippi and Madison - have a way to make sure Barnes & Noble corporate is paying it for online purchases? You obviously know more about it than I do, but I'd be interested in finding out exactly how that's done. Again, the original paid post asked for us to support a bill, and I continue to lack the necessary information to do that.

Mr 10:34, highways are maintained by gas taxes, not sales taxes. And by the way, that USPO truck is a sunk cost, its coming to my house today whether I buy something online or not, so you can hardly argue that internet sales consume governmental services like a big box store does.

Small retailers can't compete with the large purchaser of goods who get to take advantage of reduced source costs by buying quantity.

So the small retailer has to focus on customer service, the lack of delay, and be innovative in buying merchandise.

It's not JUST the cost difference. People are buying at retail cost on the Internet as well. Designer brands, in particular, maintain a set price and their home sites offer a wider selection with no hassle and no wait at the same price as the retail store.


Also, the baby boomers are still a huge blip in the market and many of them now are aging. Shopping is not so much fun as it is tiring and trying as one ages. So online local purchase with delivery is one option to consider or having the item ready for quick pick up.

Special consideration of long time customers when they are ill is another opportunity for some retail stores.

A grocer that will gather together a shopping list by phone for pick or a pharmacy that delivers creates loyalty and is worth the extra money.

Discounting large orders/purchases is another thing to try. Zappos/Amazon don't charge shipping on purchases over a certain amount.

They make returns easy by having quickly accessible records of the transactions.

Local retail will having to change in a more competitive environment. If you are a shoe store, for example, competing with Zappos where in a very few minutes a person can type in shoe style,color and size and see a wide variety of choices at your price point without visiting a variety of stores is a tough challenge to overcome.

Taxing won't increase retail sales in small stores, just increase revenues for the government.