BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - The days of shopping online, tax-free may be coming to an end. A new bill on Beacon Hill could force e-commerce sites like Amazon, Overstock and Zappos to charge Massachusetts shoppers sales tax. Local retailers say the Web sites have an unfair advantage. In the Commonwealth, the sales tax loss in 2012 is projected to be $335 million.
Local retailers may want to spend more time worrying about me hauling my ass over the border to Salem, NH for all my shopping needs and less time worrying about whats going on in cyberspace. No joke, just last weekend I drove 35 minutes to Salem to pick up the new motorolla xoom, tax free. Total tax savings, $37. Was it worth the 60 mile round trip? Hell yes, exorbitant gas prices included.
Instead of crying like a bunch of bitches how about just build a website and sell your shit tax free too? I’ve never understood physical businesses failure to adapt to e-commerce. Put your store online, tell your customers and ship that shit to them. You think CW always ranted and raved on the interwebs? Until about 6 months ago you had to see me in person to have access to my genius dementia. Then came this blog, and shortly after
Twitter, and sooner or later I'm going to have to figure out what this Tumblr thing is all about. My point is you have to roll with the times.
The internet isn’t your problem here, the brick and mortar stores right up the road selling stuff tax free is. Don’t kid yourself and think I’d drive 15 minutes to your store if they were taxing me for shopping online, I’d still just drive another 15 minutes North and buy my stuff duty free.
