Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Youth Central Logo

YOUTH ARE AWESOME

Youth Are Awesome, commonly referred to as YAA, is a blog written by youth for youth. YAA provides the youth of Calgary a place to amplify their voices and perspectives on what is happening around them. Youth Are Awesome is a program of Youth Central.

Any views or opinions expressed on this blog belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people or organizations that the blog may be associated with, unless explicitly stated. All content is for informational purposes only.

More taxes?

In the United States, the Senate has recently been discussing the implementation of an online sales tax –other than how it will work, will it really be beneficial to the economy?

One important argument for the online sales tax is that it will create a fairer base of competition between traditional stores that have a real world shop and online stores. The difference the price that stores can charge online without having a sales tax when compared to stores that have to charge a sales tax can make a major difference in where consumers are buying goods, especially where taxes are over ten percent. Also, many people have begun to abuse these traditional stores, visiting them to try out goods, and then finding the goods online and buying them from there. This leads to increased difficulty on the part of the traditional stores, as they are becoming less of a store and more of a sampler location for other companies at great expense.  For many avid users of the internet, this is not a disadvantage, but a benefit. By not placing a sales tax on online sales, many people have called this tax break a subsidization of the internet business, helping to encourage the move to online sales and leading to increased convenience. The playing field isn’t fair – but is that for good or for bad?

Best Buy
This or…
Online store
this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the IRS already lacking the money it needs to run its daily operations, this increased amount of taxation will lead to an increased amount of stress on the organization, making it harder to get all the work required for taxes completed in the same amount of time. This also means that the gains from the taxes may be offset by necessary increases in government bureaucracy to aid these businesses, especially considering the great amount of small business aid that the government offers.  This also means more work for these new online businesses, again limiting the development and productivity of these businesses, while also forcing them to get a tax adviser to help them keep their assets organized and their taxes paid as their business grows. In a time of budget cuts and tough decisions, the effects on the economy may be greater than a small boost to the government’s income.

So though the United States is planning on enforcing online sales tax across the entire country, what is the status of a Canadian online sales tax? Canada already has an online sales tax, but the effects of this tax aren’t clear. Canada hasn’t had any major successful online start ups, but that could be contributed to either the sales tax or the lack of success that any company has that is based in Canada (Nortel and Blackberry are some notable examples). Canada applies the sales tax the same way that all GST is applied, with this fair approach being the most advisable option for implementing a sales tax in the United States. The sales tax could lead to a balancing of online and traditional shops, with the economics possibly balancing out, without much of a positive or negative effect. Support for a sales tax will be from those who value traditional stores – should they be saved?

nad
nadhttps://www.youthareawesome.com/author/nad
Hi! I'm Nad, and I enjoy playing tennis, reading and playing video games. I spend most of my time playing on the best device, the PC. I enjoy doing mind puzzles as well, with my favourite video games echoing that desire - Starcraft and Civilization always top my list. I also have a passion for business, and want to explore that area more as I grow up.
RELATED ARTICLES

Most Popular