The rush to be the first to destroy the US economy must be a heady thing for Washington. If the latest bit of idiocy is true, a bill being introduced next week could ruin the few strong points of growth left - online retailers.
Complain if you will, but a major reason online sales have grown has been the ability of retailers not to have to gather taxes from consumers who don't live in their state. Small mom-and-pop operations as well as larger retailers like Amazon and Overstock.com have done well, but so have the consumers, who shop around for the best prices for products.
The difficulty in tracking down what a citizen is supposed to pay (the state Departments of Revenue don't have the resources to track every credit card payment you make) lets a lot of people slip through the cracks, but at the same time, it's provided a means of income for tens of thousands of small businesses. You know - mom bloggers selling products, small craftsman selling products, trainers, consultants, coaches, and manufacturers, all who would go under if they were forced to identify and collect state, county and local sales taxes on their customers. It would honestly make it impossible to sell online without sophisticated software that would also make it less likely for consumers to buy from small retailers.
It's a good example of hard work and ingenuity outpacing the ability of the government to tax an industry. Having already passed a disastrous CPSIA that makes it very dangerous to your economic health to sell anything related to children's products, some members of Congress think it's a good idea to go after other online retailers. I don't know what lobbyist is earning their paycheck, but you can bet that I'm going to dig deeply into the campaign contributions for Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-WY), and Rep. Bill Delahunt, (D-MA).
What did Reagan say? If it moves, tax it. If it still moves, regulate it. If it fails, subsidize it. I really think my idea of flying all of Congress to a tropical island and leaving there without phones or computers for a year might be the best option we have for the economy to recover. The point of this bill is simple - kill off innovation and small business so only large corporations subsidized by the government can survive.
Here's an idea. If taxing everyone online is such a big deal, how about we add a 15% tax on Google Pay-Per-Click Ads and $.10 per view tax on YouTube? Let's see if we can't bankrupt that company. How about we add a $.30 tax to iPod downloads (oops, a smaller version of that is happening in New York)? How about we charge $2.00/month in oversight cost for using Facebook or MySpace, or maybe $.02 a Tweet?
Hey, Wyoming and Massachusetts Tea Party folks - you have your first assignment. Shut down the state offices of Enzi and Delahunt with hundreds of face-to-face meetings. Enzi sadly was just re-elected. I imagine a couple hundred meetings with his staff might lead to a change in heart.
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