[Witzer]

NC offers deal if e-retailers collect sales taxes
By EMERY P. DALESIO

North Carolina tax collectors say Internet retailers have until August to agree to collect sales taxes the state says it is owed through the work of independent businesses.

The state Revenue Department said Friday that North Carolina expects to lose about $162 million in uncollected sales taxes from e-commerce transactions this year, and more than $400 million over the next two years.

The question is whether North Carolina and other states have the legal stick to hit Internet retailers if the carrot of Friday's amnesty offer doesn't work.

Read More...This is in the Raleigh N&O today
I dislike this newspaper so much that I can't bring myself to put a link to the article here.

[MichaelColey]

You can click "Go Advanced" and uncheck "Automatically parse links in text" and you can put the URL in your post without having it linked.

FWIW, NY offered amnesty as well. It's a "smart" way for them to get retailers to get started.

[Witzer]

Thanks Michael

I really, really really dislike this newspaper..........But for those who may want to read the article, you can find it here.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/04/23/451019/nc-offers-deal-if-e-retailers.html

[Matt McWilliams]

Wow, the good ole N&O. Hated them when I lived in NC for many reasons, not the least of which was their utterly biased "news' coverage of a campaign I worked on, but that is neither here nor there.

This is starting to get ridiculous in NC...well it already is, but now it's just getting stupid.

[Kellie aka Ms. B]

Possibly also a PR move to counter the suit filed by Amazon?

[Witzer]

If they can get a lot of the little guys to fall in line, that will put more pressure on Amazon.

[atomgiant]

I just noticed this line item in the Governor's latest newsletter regarding the 2010 budget:

• $4 million for the Department of Revenue to target corporations that have outstanding tax liabilities. The initiative is expected to collect an estimated $110 million in additional tax revenue.

[Bradley.Senkovich]

I have an accountant hitting his head on the desk over taxes at the moment. Mostly because of the state we reside in (Florida) is still having a hard time getting each county's sales tax figured out properly (all 67 of them).

Figuring CO is easy for the team (just sending letters out in triplicate). But collecting for NY, NC and RI maybe a bit taxing...

I am still on the fence about taxation.

I am completely on the side that Affiliates should not be used as pawns in this perspective. In hind sight, states should not be asking for "the past 7 years of internet sales" from amazon.

As for a solution... It's a wash on my side.

If the taxes were not so complicated in each state i think retailers would have a much easier time swallowing this pill and collecting sales tax. Consumers are going to end up paying in the end... It is something you are "supposed" to declare on your taxes april 15th with, in FL, a DR-15 form.

Florida does have a general sales tax rate of 6%. I wonder if perhaps they would concede to limiting the 'use tax' to the state's "general sales tax" instead of the 67 different county sales tax in florida or 100 different county sales tax in North Carolina.

by the way. I have yet to hear anything about Florida being in any danger of the next "nexus" tax hotbed. I only use it because that is where we are located and I am a bit more accustomed to the sales taxes here ::disclaimer over::