Jackson Jambalaya

Hard to believe a lawyer would suggest that DOR can simply "keep" tax collections. But, it does make for better journalism. Fan the flames of ignorance against "big bad government."

Actually several Mayors have complained to me about this with the collection of the Amazon sales tax. Remember, DOR calls it a "fee".

As a user fee, currently in state statute, it is not shared with the cities as sales taxes are. But it should be noted that the sales taxes are shard with cities because the legislature established it thst way. Sales taxes are not shared with counties for the same reason.

If the legislature should decide to share the taxes collected via the internet, they can do so. But since this is nothing more than a method to collect the existing user tax, cities have nothing to bitch about.

As @11:35 points out, this will likely turn on how the tax is classified. Is it a user tax or is it a sales tax? And that question will have to be answered by the DOR. Even if no official proclamation, their action with regard to keeping it for the state or sharing it with the local governments will tell the tale. Then the fun can begin when the cities/counties begin squeezing their legislators for action.

The legislature can easily fix this by amending the appropriate statutes to reflect that, regardless of what DOR calls it, it is in the nature of a sales tax and must be shared with the municipalities. We will see whether the legislature has the balls to act in the interest of the munis or not.

Borrring! Let's get back to bashing Ole Miss!!

Hail State!!! We Ring Trew!!!!

I am a conservative and have no problem with this tax being collected (per the Feds OK). The pertinent municipality (of the purchaser) should get their standard cut of the sales tax also.
This is Herbie imitating Haley - pulling a rabbit out of his hat until the Feds say that he can’t. Then, he’ll have bought enough time for the problem to be fixed or to find another rabbit. Good for Herb.

Don't municipalities get a percentage of the sales tax collected from sales within their jurisdisctions? Why would the internet based tax be treated differently? I should be a simple matter of a few lines of code in a computer to allocate the money.

That information can be maintained by the companies based on consumer addresses. Those tax dollars should go to the local municipalities where the consumer resides.

How would DOR know which community should get what? I live in Madison but work in Jackson. How do you know where i was when i bought something on Amazon? How do you know which community was shorted by online purchase? You don't know.....

If the towns don't get the sales tax they are just going to increase your property taxes to make up for it. They have to have the money from somewhere. While we are at it increase the gas tax please and put 100% into the roads.

Don't know that sharing this with the cities will be as easy as everybody on here claims. An address received by the vendor does not necessarily discriminate the city - or county when not within the city limits - of the sale. Current sales taxes are collected based on the location of the vendor - if inside the city limits the city gets a share. If in county, state gets it all.

P

So where does my reported tax on internet purchases which is on the state filing go now? guess I just assumed general fund.

@ November 2, 2017 at 1:58 PM

Once again if you order off Amazon, 9 times out of 10, you are going to have your home address/residence for the billable address, that's where your sales taxes should go to. So say you work in Jackson and have your package shipped to your job, your debit card is going to be linked to wherever your physical address or p.o. box is located.

Well, being on the Coast we are used to Jackson looting us for all types of taxes and fees, like casino taxes, tidelands fees, etc. Come next January when the state legislature rolls back into business they will take-up looting the rest of the BP money from us.

@ November 2, 2017 at 3:38 PM

That's the state - not the city of Jackson.

3:38,

I CALL BULLSHIT ON YOUR STATEMENT---who paid for your roads and bridges and many other presents Philbilly and Lott gave you !!!

DOR needs to have their swamp drained! I have been antagonized and threatened worse by them than you can imagine. Hell, the IRS is Not as bad as they are . It’s time to rein them in.

Can't go solely on mailing address as many mailing addresses denote a municipality while the actual address itself is physically outside of said city limits in the respective county.

Hard to believe a lawyer would suggest that DOR can simply "keep" tax collections. But, it does make for better journalism. Fan the flames of ignorance against "big bad government."

All you do is complain.

"The pertinent municipality (of the purchaser) should get their standard cut of the sales tax also. "

Define "pertinent". I have purchased (mail-order) from Nordstrom's in Minnesota. There is not a single Nordstrom's store in Mississippi. Which town is entitled to any tax on the purchase? Right now it goes to where the vendor is located (which is why Ridgeland is glad Northpark is on their side of County Line Road and not Jackson's).

The legislature needs to sort this out otherwise the bureaucrats will decide for them. Shipping address seems most reasonable.

I guess we need to give “Caesar” his due. Question is, what will Caesar do with what we give him?

"The legislature needs to sort this out otherwise the bureaucrats will decide for them."

What the hell kind of sense does that comment make? Are you implying the legislature is not composed of bureaucrats?

Fewer and fewer of Amazon's items are coming from the item's vendor. The items are coming from the Amazon warehouse.
It would behoove our legislators and buyers to know how Amazon and other internet vendors do business before deciding what taxes should be.
Since we tax an item each time it's sold, what happens when the item is sold multiple times before it gets to the consumer?
We are creating an economy that has inserted artificial middle men into everything . The consumer no longer can buy from manufacturer to retailer and the retailer can't always buy directly from the manufacturer anymore. Internet sales complicate the process even more.
The losers are the consumers, of course. But, it also changes supply and demand as a cornerstone of a capitalistic economy.
But, sadly, legislators at every level seem uninterested in knowing anything about what they are voting on beyond the information they get from lobbyists or an uniformed knee jerk reaction they get from constituents. God forbid they should pause to imagine the long term consequences of their actions. That would mean they would actually have to work, not just glad hand for a personal popularity contest.

@ November 2, 2017 at 4:54 PM

When state revenues are low for the state, you damn right they are going to be harassing the hell out of you, LOL!!!

Those sorry jokers in the #MSLeg wrote a bunch of hot checks and now they are sweating bullets.

7:55...our entire economic model in this country revolves around the reality of taxing every transaction that occurs, even those that involve an item moving no further down the street than three blocks....tax it at least three times. Maybe four if it sits in inventory for a month or so.

Any more, the only one who profits is the man who has two sets of books and two cash registers.

@755, no - items are not taxed each time they are sold. Products that are purchased for resale are not taxed - the purchaser/reseller has a sales tax exemprion number that covers that transaction.

As to the 9 out of 10 stupid comment above, that may be your situation but it is not necessarily the norm. I have products shipped to my house, my office in Jackson and my property in Madison County (not incorporated). Also shipped to kids in two other states. I use one of three different credit cards with three different addresses, again one not within a city limits. So shipping address or billing address is not as simple as made out to be. The issue that the cities,are getting screwed is not as simple an issue and as it is now nobody - city or state - was receiving the tax. Seems like once the state made this move, some cities want to jump in and try to claim a piece.

@ November 3, 2017 at 10:39 AM

"I have products shipped to my house, my office in Jackson and my property in Madison County (not incorporated). Also shipped to kids in two other states. I use one of three different credit cards with three different addresses, again one not within a city limits."

Two things

First of all - whichever you use - the billable address should get the tax dollars. Its really not as difficult as you are making it out to be.

Second of all - what in the hell are you doing, that it takes you to have three different addresses with three different credit cards? The only people I know of that does that, has some very seedy intentions?

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