• Tag Archives internet

  • Internet Sales Tax Could Crush Small Businesses

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Internet commerce is the most dynamic and rapidly growing sector of the American economy. Not surprisingly, the Internet is also relatively free of taxes and regulations, although many in Washington are working to change that. For example, earlier this year the Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act, more accurately referred to as the national Internet sales tax act. This bill, which passed the Senate earlier this year, would require Internet businesses to collect sales tax for all 10,000 American jurisdictions that assess sales taxes. Internet business would thus be subject to audits from 46 states, six territories, and over 500 Native American tribal nations.

    Proponents of the bill deny it will hurt small business because the bill only applies to Internet business that make over a million dollars in out-of-state revenue. However, many small Internet businesses with over a million dollars in out-of-state revenues operate on extremely thin profit margins, so even the slightest increase in expenses could put them out of businesses.

    via Internet Sales Tax Could Crush Small Businesses


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  • SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The long-standing, heavily documented militarization of even small-town American police forces was always going to create problems when it met anonymous Internet threats. And so it has, again—this time in Evansville, Indiana, where officers acted on some Topix postings threatening violence against local police. They then sent an entire SWAT unit to execute a search warrant on a local house, one in which the front door was open and an 18-year old woman sat inside watching TV.

    The cops brought along TV cameras, inviting a local reporter to film the glorious operation. In the resulting video, you can watch the SWAT team, decked out in black bulletproof vests and helmets and carrying window and door smashers, creep slowly up to the house. At some point, they apparently “knock” and announce their presence—though not with the goal of getting anyone to come to the door. As the local police chief admitted later to the Evansville Courier & Press, the process is really just “designed to distract.” (SWAT does not need to wait for a response.)

    Officers break the screen door and a window, tossing a flashbang into the house—which you can see explode in the video. A second flashbang gets tossed in for good measure a moment later. SWAT enters the house.

    On the news that night, the reporter ends his piece by talking about how this is “an investigation that hits home for many of these brave officers.”

    But the family in the home was released without any charges as police realized their mistake. Turns out the home had an open WiFi router, and the threats had been made by someone outside the house. Whoops.

    Full article: http://arstechnica.c … o-open-wifi-network/


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  • Internet tax proposal up for a vote in Senate this week

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Internet tax supporters are hoping that a vote in the U.S. Senate as early as today will finally give them enough political leverage to require Americans to pay sales taxes when shopping online.

    Sens. Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are expected to offer an amendment to a Democratic budget resolution this week that, by allowing states to “collect taxes on remote sales,” is intended to usher in the first national Internet sales tax.

    “We’re working overtime in pushing this, talking to our members, activating our grassroots,” says Stephen Schatz, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation. The group’s board members include OfficeMax, Macy’s, the Container Store, and Saks, which argue it’s only fair to force Americans to pay sales taxes when buying from online retailers.

    The justification for the proposal reprises arguments that state tax collectors have made for at least a decade: online retailers that don’t always collect taxes are unreasonably depriving state governments of revenue and enjoy an unfair competitive advantage over big box retailers that do collect taxes. On the other hand, there are close to 10,000 jurisdictions that can levy taxes, each with its own rules and ability to conduct audits, and complying with all of those as a small retailer is not a trivial task.

    Taxpayer advocates say an endorsement of a multi-billion dollar tax hike on Americans shouldn’t be snuck into an unrelated budget bill (PDF) that’s expected to be voted on before senators leave for an Easter recess. The National Taxpayers Union set up a petition to Congress this week calling the amendment “really just a way to unleash state tax collectors on the Internet,” and 15 conservative groups sent a letter last week to members of Congress saying an Internet tax law is “is bad news for conservative principles and the cause of limited government.”

    They’re joined by by eBay, an association of small Internet sellers called W R HERE, and NetChoice, which includes Facebook, Yahoo, LivingSocial, and AOL as members.

    Full article: http://news.cnet.com … in-senate-this-week/


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