Thursday News: The tax man cometh; Avon Romance restarts a community writer’s forum; Color eInk reader introduced in Russia
Publishing NewsAmazon / Serials / writing9 Comments
This is just for fun and because Jayne sent it to me.
Internet sales tax: who’s for it, who’s against & what comes next – An Internet sales tax is about to pass the Senate and may do so as early as the end of this week. It may surprise you that Amazon is a supporter of this bill given its tax dodging efforts in the past. But in reality Amazon supports this because it wants the level playing field which means retailers like eBay must also enforce sales tax on all of its sales as well. We should know more about the effect of the bill by early next week. EBay is currently requesting an exception on the grounds that it will hurt home based sellers. GigaOM
Share Your Book – Avon Romance has launched a writing community, again. Aspiring writers can upload content for readers to comment and vote on. Avon and Its parent HarperCollins has hosted sites like these in the past including Authonomy and the writing website that a number of now published historical authors participated such as Tessa Dare, Courtney Milan, and Elyssa Patrick. avonromance.com
Pocketbook Unveils the World’s First 8? Color E-ink eReader in Russia (video) – The Digital Reader – Nate at The Digital Reader reports that Pocketbook has released an 8 inch color E ink reader. it will go on sale in Russia first and there is no planned worldwide announcement. The device runs on a custom Linux firmware, has alighted touchscreen, Wi-Fi, a microSD card slot, and an audio jack. The Digital Reader
Amazon To Introduce Kindle Paperwhite In China This Week – According to reports, Amazon is readying its Kindle paper white to enter the Chinese market at the end of the week. Mike Cane noted that the price point might make adoption very slow given the iPad clones and other black-market designs that are sold freely in China. Mike Cane’s xBlog
With Kindle Singles, David Blum Jump-Starts His Career – Digital book world linked to this article at the New York Times with the description “Kindle singles art making Amazon much money.” Yet the article is really about the Amazon Single success. Authors earn on average $22,000 for an under 10,000 word piece. It was launched in January 2011 and about 28% of the titles have sold more than 10,000 copies. Per the article, Amazon is carefully vetting the articles it is publishing increasing prestige by “tightly limiting the number of offerings.” Kindle Singles and services like them may have a niche audience but the benefit of digital and the low barrier to entry is that niche audiences can be served and the provider can make money. NYTimes.com
If they pass the internet sales tax, will they then tell the states to stop collecting sales tax on things? Because if not that, that’s getting in to some really high tax rates. I know here in PA, last year I was asked if I had ordered anything online that needed sales tax paid on. I wasn’t asked this year, but this year I dropped off my stuff and picked it up later. Do they honestly think it’s good to damage the economy further by putting people off of ordering online because then they have to pay two sales taxes? Sheesh.
It’s not TWO sales taxes. It’s one. This isn’t a national sales tax, but just requiring online sellers to collect the relevant state’s tax, so the state wouldn’t have to try to collect it when you file your income taxes by asking about what you bought without having paid the tax.
I’m in a state with no sales tax (kind of like having a two-legged stool when it comes to funding schools, but that’s a different story). I suppose any companies in my state that will have to collect other state’s taxes will write it off as a business expense, thus possibly lowering their state tax bill. Makes my head hurt.
On our state tax forms you have to pay an amount you pick out of a chart based on your income level. If this goes through universally (and isn’t just another pick on Amazon ploy) it could actually be cheaper for some people. I know I buy many books from Barnes and Noble and thus get taxed twice, once by B&N and again through this random amount the state takes. I don’t know if my taxes will go up or down but not paying the same tax twice is better for my blood pressure.
Does anyone know how the internet sales tax will impact small businesses and people who have small home businesses who sell over the internet (arts, crafts, etc.)? My main worry is that having to collect sales tax and then distribute it to the states, etc., will be an overwhelming burden on freelance type businesses.
ETA: I just read that as-is, the bill exempts businesses that do less than 1 mil in revenues yearly. So that answers my main question.
I don’t have the source at my fingertips, but I read something yesterday saying that another reason why Amazon is in favor of this is because they are planning on rolling out a service for smaller vendors where they calculate the sales tax that a customer owes, for a fee or percentage of the sale, of course (allowing them yet another way to make money and dominate the market). I’ll try to track down the link.
I confess that I have enjoyed not paying sales tax on stuff ordered from Amazon. That and the free shipping are big draws.
BTW, why do cats like roombas so much?
Calculating state tax is something a computer program can do. Once it’s needed, I bet QuickBooks will do it, and iPad apps, etc. It will be cheap. Whether or not the states require filling out complex forms to send it to them is a another question, but that’s about government bureaucracy, not tax. One hopes states who want to collect will make it easy.
The UK requires you calculate VAT on self-employment income. No one wants to fill out another form, but it’s not going to kill anyone who has anything like a real business (as opposed to people off-loading their used books for a few extra bucks, but one presumes they’d have the same kind of exemption as for teen babysitters and income tax).
That’s gotta be only on your side of the border. All businesses are required to collect PST, GST or HST (Prov, Goods and services, harmonized (combine the 2 at source)). Now that we have HST in our Prov there is no more some PST, some GST, some both.. it’s all HST. I do know that when it was GST to collect it you had to have sales of $30,ooo or more annually. I don’t know what the cut off was for PST nor what it is for HST.
I’ve always paid HST online.