Tag: Small Business

Internet retailers that have a physical presence or affiliated companies in Michigan, such as Amazon.com, would have to collect sales taxes on purchases under legislative proposals debated Wednesday in a House committee.

The House Tax Policy Committee held its first day of public testimony on Republican-sponsored legislation that would change the definition of legal presence for out-of-state companies that sell merchandise toMichiganians on the Web. Amazon owns Brilliance Audio in Grand Haven.

The Republican response:

"These are not bills that constitute new taxes, rather they're measures that aid in (the collection of) taxes that are already owed," said state Rep. Rob VerHeulen, R-Walker.

Blow it out your ass, Rob.  If you don't have the funds currently, it's a new tax.  And, it's a nightmare of paperwork for business.

Rep. Jon Switalski, D-Warren, said the bill sponsors can't sugar coat the end result of taxing Internet purchases after years of Michigan consumers enjoying tax-free Web shopping.

"We talk about this as fairness ... but the reality is people are going to pay more after these bills pass than they're currently paying," he said.

HB 4202

Eileen Kowall - (primary) Andy Schor, Kurt Heise, Jim Ananich, Phil Cavanagh, Peter Pettalia, Bill Rogers, Wayne A. Schmidt, Matt Lori, Hugh D. Crawford, Ellen Cogen Lipton, Bruce R. Rendon, Kevin Daley, Jon Switalski, Marcia Hovey-Wright, Frank Foster, Rob VerHeulen, Stacy Erwin Oakes

Introduced by Rep. E. Kowall, on February 6, read a first time, and referred to House Committee on Tax Policy.  Printed bill filed on February 7.

HB 4203

Rob VerHeulen - (primary) Andy Schor, Kurt Heise, Jim Ananich, Phil Cavanagh, Peter Pettalia, Bill Rogers, Wayne A. Schmidt, Matt Lori, Hugh D. Crawford, Ellen Cogen Lipton, Bruce R. Rendon, Kevin Daley, Jon Switalski, Frank Foster, Eileen Kowall, Stacy Erwin Oakes

Introduced by Rep. R. VerHeulen, on February 6, read a first time, and referred to House Committee on Tax Policy.  Printed bill filed on February 7.

I mention before about the Governerd's scheme that Two Penny Jenny tried with raising taxes. Well, a mere 6 days after writing about it, there you have it.  Lansing Nerdpublicans have resurrected the 2012 dead.

Certainly this is the premise which the main street fairness act is being pursued. It is a means under which sales nexus will be identified, and taxes would be collected for sales made online for anything coming into the state that was purchased online.  It has the support of our governor, and looks to be heavily pushed with the claim that even elected conservatives are interested in it.

Not this one.

This is another one of those deals where instead of removing the regulatory misery under which retailers and business owners operate, it is presumed the better way toward fairness is to inflict it upon as many others as possible.   They are suffering, so can you. Share the pain.  And our governor Rick Snyder is now embracing it.

What will this mean to online wholesalers like myself?

I will ultimately have to deal with a number of sales tax licenses and a nightmarish bureaucracy entanglement.  I will have to report to not only my own state, but others within this compact agreement to be able to ship within those states legally.  I will not be able to ship to my customer's customers in Michigan directly, without revealing the transparent drop ship patterns.  Other states that are not a part of the compact would have their own plans which would cause harm to my model (California is already doing this) by imposing their own nexus rules even possibly based on volume shipped to their states.

It will hurt folks using my business model from the crushing paperwork aspect alone.

Not that my opinion is any more valid than those of you who have posted on this already.  In fact I have carefully considered the arguments, and added in the known variables along with best guesses and personal experience.  I rely on your observations as much as my own, however this is one of those times I must respectfully disagree with some of you on the negative impact of the state's new tax policy.

Last night I was lucky enough to attend the Leelanau County Republican party Lincoln dinner with my wife and a great number of friends. Some of those friends are either retired and/or retiring soon, and have a reason to be concerned about higher taxes, the loss of exemptions, and changing tax policy that may directly affect them.  There was no shortage of Republicans present, and many of those were folks one would find in 912 groups, Tea Parties, and other constitution interested organizations.

I believe the Leelanau county chair suggested the numbers involved in the county party were even more than last year.  And last year we had great success in moving the bar back toward conservative government structure with landslide elections both statewide and nationally.

The reason I mention this, is to establish that this group, even while containing a number of "old guard" party types, it was hardly a pushover crowd.  While being a social affair, there is/was still an undeniable no-going-back attitude, and frankly there were enough who had a concern as do many in this forum, that this was not the way to start off.

For the most part, I too could be counted as one who was also troubled about extending tax levels, and elimination of particular exemptions.  My understanding of the MBT going away and the Corporate tax replacement was not yet complete.