The Marketplace Fairness Act is the latest attempt to get online retailers to pay sales tax. The discussion has been around since 1992—at that time the Internet was just staring to come into common use. Of course, it was not the widespread and successful seat of commerce that it is today. An attempt to pass a similar bill was made in 2011.
It may come as a surprise to many consumers to discover they actually are responsible to pay the sales tax on purchases they make over the Internet or from mail-order companies, that is if the company doesn’t collect and remit it themselves.
Who actually does that? There must be someone out there, because there are people who make voluntary contributions to pay down the national debt! But let us agree that the voluntary sales tax payers are few and far between.
The sales-tax argument has been framed as targeting online retailers and causing havoc in the commerce system. Honestly, that is misleading. What it’s really about is the long-term defunding of local and state infrastructure. Forty-five states currently have sales tax; however, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana and Alaska do not.
In North Carolina those monies are remitted to the area they are collected: county, city, and part is retained by the state. This is why our library and other county agencies were lobbying so hard a few years ago for the quarter of a cent sales-tax increase. Yet ,the librarians’ and public school teachers’ love of Amazon continues to baffle me. With their jobs dependent upon local tax dollars, it’s perplexing to see them show love for a company that actively attempts to undermine the very thing necessary to pay them. OK, it’s beyond confusing.
It’s also another blind spot for the middle-class about the realities of poverty. Online shopping is an exclusive experience. In order to partake in this opportunity to avoid sales tax, one must have a credit or debit card of some sort. They also must have access to the Internet. It would probably shock many members of the middle-class to know how difficult both can be to attain. For a brief insight into the marketing demographics of the lower-income strata of America, I recommend spending an afternoon watching non-cable, non-satellite broadcast television. The commercials shock. The sheer number aimed at pre-loaded plastic payment methods that can be charged at corner-type stores is surprising. It also an interesting indication of what the struggles to get a credit card can look like to many people.
Opponents of the measure claim it would be prohibitive to collect and remit sales tax to the various states, each acquiring a different amount. The measure is not aimed at small eBay sellers that operate out of their rec rooms. Companies and sellers not making $1 million dollars a year in out-of-state online sales are exempt from the legislation. There are already large online retailers collecting and remitting sales tax; Target comes to custom keychain.
This legislation actually offers a business opportunity to market this software to the newly compliant companies. In addition the bill calls for states to make free software available to companies in order to comply with the proposed sales-tax provisions.
There is a fascinating project (OK, fascinating to geeky people like me), called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. It was put together by the National Governors Association. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance reported in January that D.C. and 44 states had signed on to the project, including North Carolina. We do currently have a rubric that requires online retailers with a physical presence in North Carolina to collect sales tax.
Supporters of the measure claim it would be a big step toward a level playing field for brick-and-mortar retailers, which are at a disadvantage because they collect sales tax; therefore, consumers already pay more money up front. This seems strange to me since shipping is usually more than the sales tax. Going beyond a level playing field, what it would do is make business.
According to the complaint filed on Tuesday, Kira Trevino complained about her marriage to friends and family in the weeks prior to her death and explained that she was contemplating divorce. In fact, on Jan. 31, she, her husband and the roommate, who occupied the basement of the home, gave notice that they intended to move by April 1.
Investigators say Kira Trevino was looking at an apartment for herself, was staying with friends houses and did not include her husband in social and family events. Her friends told police she was trying to get away from her husband, but said Jeffery Trevino "didn't get it" and kept trying to find ways to stay together.
Jeffery Trevino met his wife at the Mall of America on Thursday Feb. 21 after she got off work, and the two had dinner and went bowling at the mall. Surveillance video shows the two left the mall together, with Jeffery Trevino wearing an Arkansas Razorbacks sweatshirt. That was the last time Kira Trevino was seen alive.
Friends of Jeffery Trevino told investigators he often complained about his relationship with his wife and had no plans to move aver April 1 because he hoped the two would reconcile; however, one friend told investigators Jeffery Trevino grew increasingly suspicious and began checking up on her before she was killed, describing him as stressed and consumed with what she was doing.
That friend told police Jeffery Trevino would drive by the gym his wife used to see if her car was there and poured over Kira Trevino's credit card statements. In doing so, he learned she had gone to a bar instead of where she told her husband she would be, according to the friend.
According to police, Jeffery Trevino said his wife left the morning of Feb. 22 between 8:30 and 9 a.m. to go to the gym in New Brighton, go tanning in Roseville and make a deposit at the bank before interviewing potential employees at work. When asked where he was during that time, Jeffery Trevino explained he was home all day until he left to pick up his daughter in the afternoon.
The amended charges also show that Jeffery Trevino called his wife's mother, Marcie Steger, on the same day, beginning the conversation by asking her, "Are you sitting down?"
Steger also called police, and uniformed officers who responded to her call arrived at the home while police investigators were there speaking with Jeffery Trevino. Those officers observed he was upset more police had arrived.
As officers were leaving, Trevino asked what he was supposed to do with his wife's belongings. Investigators found the question odd since Kira Trevino had been missing just over 48 hours and the couple was not expected to vacate until April 1. Prosecutors believe the question suggests Jeffery Trevino did not expect his wife to return.
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