Time To Say Good-Bye To Tax Free Internet Sales

Even though I would like to think of myself as an Independent, anyone who reads this blog can probably tell I lean to the right. I am not a fan of raising taxes and according to Obama, he's going to repeal the Bush tax cuts to help reduce the deficit which is ridiculously high right now. Even though he'll want to blame that on George W. Bush (whom some of the blame certainly belongs), he can't forget he just signed a bill that nearly spent just under $1 trillion in new spending. Much of that money is being dolled out to the states and rightfully so. Unemployment and loss of sales revenue have really hurt the state budgets and many states like California and Florida would be in a heck of a lot of trouble if they didn't get aid.

Instead of getting the aid from the US government, I think it is finally time that Supreme Court and the US government allow states to collect sales tax on internet purchases. Everything is going to the web and last year it was estimated that online sales hit $204 billion. That was an 8% increase from last year and I have a tough time believing we'll ever see a drop in that statistic.

Just like many of you, I love not having to pay for sales tax for online purchases, but that is a tax that I'm willing to pay. Much more so than a raise in income tax which would go toward more national government spending that will probably be wasted. Nationalized health care sounds nice, but I don't think it's practical. The state of Hawaii tried to have Universal Childrens Coverage, but the program was such a flop it was discontinued after 7 months. I think people have way too much faith in our government running such programs. Social Security is a government run program that is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. They continue to put it off year after year, and sooner or later the money is going to run out and millions of people are going to suffer because of it.

Back to the internet sales tax topic. What I would propose is a moderate 4.5% tax on purchases. I think that would be less than most state/county sales tax so consumers should still feel they are getting a deal. Based on last years sales, that would generate over $9 billion in revenue. It certainly wouldn't be easy to accomplish because tax codes vary from county to county, but it's worth exploring. I know it would only put a small dent into much of the budget issues across the country, but we have to start somewhere and I think this is a good place to find a new revenue stream.