greed

IS IT GOVERNMENT GREED?

This week I learned something that really surprised me. As you know I have reported that I would no longer accept mail order orders from Colorado residents because of having to collect taxes for each municipality of the state and there are 650 I am told.

This week I learned if a person from any other state or probably another country buying something and is having it delivered to a location in Colorado, I must collect taxes for that location. So, if you are in Maine and want to give someone a present in Colorado you must pay the taxes for that person’s municipality.

Therefore, Wiggy’s will no longer accept orders that have a delivery address in Colorado. Also keep in mind that Wiggy’s would have to pay a fee to register to give the taxes collected to each municipality and I believe it is each quarter when the monies are given to them.

I am told now there are 34 states that want mail order companies to collect taxes for them. I already know about California since the sent me a letter. However, they have a $500,000.00 ceiling, meaning I would have to sell that much merchandise before I had to remit the taxes collected. Many other states such as N.Y. started out with a $250,000.00 ceiling but have reduced it to $100,000.00 and I am further told many more states are doing the same thing. Would Wiggy’s have to register and pay a fee in order to give these taxes to each state? Now I do not know if that will be the case. If so, as is the case in Colorado each state is charging the business for doing their collecting, shouldn’t they pay us for doing their dirty work?

What this means for me is an increase in files. Now we have alphabetical files by the month. Soon I will have alphabetical files separate by each state so I can add up the dollar volume of sales to see if I hit the ceiling and if each state sends out a civil servant to audit my sales I will not have to separate orders by state at that time. I strongly suspect the companies who handle your orders are tracking the number of sales for each state now and report back to each state government agency what they are. I am pretty sure the state of California gave me the dollar volume that I did in the state last year in one of their correspondence letters to me.

WELCOME TO THE ORWELLIAN WORLD!!!

I do not know if these taxes apply to businesses, if not everyone should incorporate as a small business and get a resale license, so the taxes do not apply when you place an order. I’ll check with my accountant next week and advise.

I am thinking that I will have to have a 10 percent sur charge for all sales soon. Imagine someone in Europe placing an order and sending it to a USA location which happens often, and they now pay a tax to the state it is going to. What they are buying most often is for them to use while in the states and of course take the bag back with them. Bummer!!!

Supposing you are an aggressive person wanting to open a business and the business is a store doing framing of pictures or selling candy. No problem all you have is walk in traffic. But suppose you work at a REI type of business and for a while you hear from customers that a gizmo to do this or that should be invented and you diligently work in your garage making prototypes and finally you have it right.

Your young, under 30 years of age with limited business knowledge but you have a product. And your market is not only where you live but nationwide but also the rest of the world. When you opened the business, you find out from someone that you must collect taxes from your customers to be paid to the state they are located in. Wow what a revelation. And you thought all you had to do was make the gizmos and get paid for them. but this is on top of all the other rules and regulations that you are learning about.

I could be wrong, but I believe long term and I think it is already happening young people will not be opening businesses and product development will and I also think is diminishing. I understand that many young men are buying old equipment to do work that just involves them such as carpentry work.

One more time the government is stepping out of the realm of activity they are charged with performing which is basically to protect us from foreign invasion. Seems to me they are the invaders.