PSA: Ebay automatically collecting Sales Tax on purchases shipped to certain states now

[RSinSG]

I’ve maintained for years that if the average US citizen knew how much they were actually paying in taxes there would be an uprising. Having worked for a local government for 30 years and been hands-on involved in the process of designing and implementing “fees” and assessments I know how governments use terminology to generate revenue under the radar.

 

Suffice it to say every aspect of your life is taxed to one degree or another, and if you find a clever way to save some of your money the government will find a way to get a cut of it. From taxing you for collecting rain water to selling your 15 year old car to your cousin- everything is a potential source of revenue to a government.

 

Try this experiment some time - get a small notepad or use your smartphone and document all of the taxes / fees you pay for a whole month. Write down the tax from your receipts and gas purchases, restaurants and drive-thru’s, car wash, etc. Check to see if you live in a neighborhood that has assessments for lighting or recreation and look at your property tax bill for all the different taxes attached to your house. Then after a month multiple the amount by 12 to get a ballpark amount of what you’re paying on top of income taxes. It’s pretty staggering actually.

 

I’m a Amazon Prime member and I use the service because I got tired of wasting time and gas driving to multiple local stores looking for something no one had. My first option is to always buy local but sometimes it’s not worth it.

 

 

[bladehunter]

my beef is that Taxes in Pa never go where they supposed to be . our gas tax is very high and was claimed to go to keeping up the roads. check out the roads in PA , they are famous ( rightfully so ) for being terrible.

 

Would love to support a local business if I could but golf and fishing shops in my area do not exist, only DSG.

 

Bingo. Precisely the reason I’m SC we’ve fought upping the gas tax for 20 plus years. We know they will just waste it.

 

Example. They instituted a $25 per vehicle “ road use tax “ to be levied on every registered vehicle. With the promise of it going straight to our roads. Well it did. They’ve paved the roads in Charleston and myrtle beach 3 times since ours in the upstate have. $ 25 doesn’t sound like much till you add it to your junker trash hauling truck and it doubles the tax bill for the year on a truck they value at $289.

 

We had a stretch of I85 shut down last year due to a pot hole so big it caused a 25 car pileup and $45k in vehicle damage claims being filed arguably the state for bent rims tire blow outs etc.

 

Our roads here are worse shape of my life. Seriously, no exaggeration. And I remember when some were still dirt. No stretch anywhere that doesn’t have constant potholes to dodge.

 

And best part. The state operated on a $400 mil or so surplus for tha last 10 years in a row. Just building up a war chest for who knows what ? So no. Im against them collections anything for online services. They will just buy more assault vehicles , or re pave the tourist traps to keep up appearances.