Indie builders....will new SCOTUS ruling hurt or help?

[buldog5151bass]

Neither of those should affect most small businesses, particularly those selling physical goods.

Your online presence or store won't be impacted by changes to Net Neutrality, unless you're trying to offer a service that involves streaming.

As noted above, companies like TaxJar have already automated the sales tax process. All your competitors, large and small, will face the same sales tax burden as you. One of those large competitors (Amazon) already collects sales tax for its own (i.e. non-Marketplace/3rd party) sales, and it didn't kill off their business.

Yes, but they are not a one-person business. If the tax is collected by a lot of states, that will be a LOT of extra work for me, never mind I will have to compute and collect tax on all orders, although I might not reach the threshold to pay the tax. More work for me, higher cost for my customers. Of course I can pay someone like the site you mentioned, which is another expense for me.

 

[Snaxster]

Anytime you allow the government to put its hands in your pocket you loose.

I know that whenever anyone's hands are in my pockets, I loose the Kraken.

 

[boomertech]

Yes, but they are not a one-person business. If the tax is collected by a lot of states, that will be a LOT of extra work for me, never mind I will have to compute and collect tax on all orders, although I might not reach the threshold to pay the tax. More work for me, higher cost for my customers. Of course I can pay someone like the site you mentioned, which is another expense for me.

Look at the fee for up to 1000 transactions per month of $17 that was posted above. That adds $0.017 to the price of your sale if you have 1000 transactions per month. If you have 100 transactions, you would be at $0.17 added to each sale. If you only have 10 transactions you have added $1.70 to each sale. The record keeping burden for 10 sales per month should only take a few mins every month on top of the records you should be keeping now, so you wouldn't really need a sales tax service.

-Frank

 

[boomertech]

Companies have already automated the whole sales tax thing, and connect with existing credit card processors / point of sale systems.

E.g. TaxJar handles all the reporting and filing, and works with eBay, Square, Amazon, PayPal etc. $17/month for 1000 transactions, $45 for up to 5000 transactions etc.
TaxJar: Automated Sales Tax Reporting & Filing

"Better yet, if you AutoFile your sales tax in one of these states through TaxJar, we actually collect the discount and pass it all right back to you. It’s a win/win – we do the work and you save money."

For many sellers the discounts they receive will cover the fees for the service... win-win!

-Frank

 

[ClusterFlux]

Yes, but they are not a one-person business.

Your competitors also have to collect and report sales tax. Collecting sales tax doesn't give them an advantage.

Of course I can pay someone like the site you mentioned, which is another expense for me.

So... $17/month for 1000 transactions is going to destroy your profit margin? If so, then I'd say that collecting sales tax may be the least of your worries.

I might add that collecting sales tax 15 or even 10 years ago would be a much bigger burden than it is today.

 

[Rumbledore]

the business pays tax to stay legal. you need to pay tax to keep the business open.

 

[Diamond_Dave]

If everyone is paying sales tax, there’s no uneven playing field.

My local mom and pop will no longer have to eat the 5 percent sales tax he doesn’t charge me so his prices look the same as Musicians Friend.

Small businesses won’t have to cut dozens of checks to state departments of tax each year, because it’s all electronic. If your business takes credit cards, it has all the tech it needs to electronically submit sales tax. If you have teh Intergoogles and can sign up for a Paypal-type cash register service, you’re golden.

If you buy something, you already owe the tax. That’s the law today. This is just making sure you pay it.