That sucks. I suppose california is next. We have 10.25% sales tax here so I buy a few things online. The politicians just can't keep their hands off the internet.
And yet, he's smarter than you! '"But Quinn, a Democrat, described the law as necessary to put the stateâs âmain street businessesâ on âa level playing fieldâ with online retailers and to protect main street jobs. In a statement issued by Quinnâs office, David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association praised the law as a matter of âfairness for retailers, fairness for the economy but most importantly, fairness for taxpayers.â'
Business owners SHOULD flee the state. This is exactly what the Founders envisioned with State Sovereign rights. If one state abuses you, you're free to move to another.
Well, Illinois is just a utopian nirvana for progressive Democrats. The entire government apparatus in Illinois has been completely dominated by the Democratic party. Illinois chose to address the 'revenue shortfall' by sharply raising taxes on individuals and corporations. Why? Because Illinois wants to protect Middle Class Americans and provide services and opportunities for those that need it the most. As you can see, when the Democratic party has complete autonomy and authority at every level of government for decades on end, the public schools are superior and everyone is very happy. No crime, no drugs, no murder rate, all kinds of economic opportunity. Just a beautiful place. We got the Olympics here. Everyone is thrilled and happy. Businesses are waiting in line to relocated here - the Illinois Secretary of State actually ran out of number combinations for new LLC registrations. People are building retirement homes here. Everybody is looking for office space and residential space in Chicago. The procession of moving vans from the Sunbelt 'right-to-work' states winding into Illinois is amazing. Sears has sold out of snowblowers for the new Southern immigrants.
I've run online businesses and see the problem from the online retailer, the states and the brick and mortar retailer. Most states need sales tax revenue to survive. When Internet sales were small it didn't affect them much. But, as Internet retail sales have grown and continue to grow the states living off sales taxes are losing tons of revenue. Each state requiring any online retailer to get a sales tax license and meet reporting/payment requirements if they have a presence in the state isn't going to work in the long run because the smaller retailer with nationwide affiliates can not afford to get licenses and meet reporting requirements for every state. But, in the short term the states see this as the only way to get the ball rolling. Eventually, when the licensing/reporting becomes so great that only big companies can start and maintain a retail Internet presence, the Federal government will have to step in and create a universal Internet sales tax that will be centrally implemented and shared with the states. Online retailers will only have to register at one place and collect the same sales tax from everyone they sell to in the U.S. I don't see any way this is not going to eventually happen unless states abolish sales taxes and use some other means of collecting the equivalent amount of taxes.
Like any good well-oiled progressive wealth redistribution machine, Illinois only approaches the budget from the revenue aspect and not the spending aspect. Illinois legislatures never met a tax they didn't like, and spending far more money than they take in doesn't seem to be a pressing issue when your political machine is the functional equivalent of the Soviet politburo in the 1970's.