Comments on: Software taxes

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:09:59 +0000

The government wants to tax everything. Here in washington state they want you to charge sales tax on every product shipped to an address in the state. This is ridiculous considering sales tax is determined by zip code and there are over 200 different zip codes in the state. Talk about a pain the butt - I’m not selling a product rather a link to wholesale ipods or other wholesale electronics. Every time a product is shipped to a washington address I have to charge sales tax. This is where I can see an income tax benefiting me instead of a sales tax.

By: Steve Media

Steve Media — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:24:24 +0000

I almost laughed as I read the quote in your post. But it actually makes sense. I would love to have it work out that way, but we can be sure that microsoft and other big businesses with lobbying will make sure that consumers are stuck with every burden out there, and the huge companies will pay less in taxes as we all make up for it.

Steve

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 06:54:59 +0000

EULAs are based on the myth that you need permission from the copyright holder in order to copy the software to install it. This is simply not true, at least in the USA.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000117—-000-.html

By: craig

craig — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 06:43:34 +0000

Complete nonsense. What a turn around…
The tax on my apartment is bad enough.
http://www.craigrom.com

By: jeff

jeff — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 14:52:53 +0000

Great article. I wonder what the legal status of books checked out of libraries should be…..

Cheers,

Jeff

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 18:41:37 +0000

Or you could just move to Oregon (or one of the other states with no sales tax…)

By: longtex

longtex — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 23:06:12 +0000

…”turning the tax burden back around onto the producer, not the consumer”

This is nonsense - it can’t be done.

ALL expenses and costs of production are rolled into the price of goods and services.

By: Hal

Hal — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 17:58:23 +0000

There may even be an argument for turning the tax burden back around onto the producer, not the consumer.

You might not know it Dougal, but you have bought into a myth. Companies don’t pay taxes. They pass them on to the consumer. If a software maker all of a sudden has to pay more taxes, you better believe that your end user price will increase as well.

BTW in Georgia, we do pay tax on groceries AND gas ($0.15/gal, not a floating pergentage thankfully).

Regarding everyone else saying how confusing tax laws are, it can be done better. For those if you in the US, you should check out The Fairtax (http://fairtax.org). (The rest of you should see if something like this would make sense in your country.) The best part is that it IS simple. No income, medicare, social security, estate, gift or capital gains taxes. The only tax is at the retail level. This would apply to everything from a pear to custom software to sign hanging. No hidden taxes during the production or wholesale process, no forms to fill out, no guilty-until-proven-innocent IRS audits.

One cool side-effect is that this turns the grey and black market economy into taxpayers. Illegal aliens have to buy food, housing and cars just like everyone else!

Anyway I could go on and on. I’m a big fan of the plan.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 22:47:09 +0000

In Australia it’s almost the same as Canada, a 10% GST on everything, but no other taxes for most things. With all the rising software prices anyway it’s hardly noticable (plus when the GST came in they abolished some other taxes).

By: Poohbah

Poohbah — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 17:18:22 +0000

Dude, you’re ate up…

A can of beans is food and isn’t taxible in most states. Services such as Lawncare ARE taxible in most states now. Problem is most of the jack asses running around simply aren’t legal or legit and don’t collect the tax and turn it it.

Most companies charge sales tax, and the EULA not withstanding you do usually own the media lol.