Any telecommuting fpDevelopers watching this?

[Fairlight]

When asked his whereabouts on Wed, Mar 30, 2005 at 09:43:18AM -0500,
Nancy Palmquist took the fifth, drank it, and then slurred:
> 
> Right now, I am not required to collect tax for purchases sent outside 
> the state.  I don't expect that to last forever as someone will want tax 
> on those sales.

That's covered under the "Use Tax" in most every state--the purchasing
party is supposed to report their out-of-state purchases and pay their
-own- state's sales tax on those items.

> What I do object to is being required to act as a tax collector at all. 

I find most people object to taxes in general.  :)

> Probably a nightmare but it would be applicable to internet sales, 

We don't -want- interference in Internet commerce.  Every sane group of
people I know is petitioning their legislators to keep their mitts off the
net.  We don't need anything applicable--they already waste more money in
government spending on things the public doesn't care about (or need) than
is reasonable anyway.

> boost.  But I know it will never happen.  How in the world will they get 
> 50 states to agree on anything.

The same way they get them to do anything--blackmail them.  "Oh, you want
Federal funding for 'x' problem area?  Sorry, not unless you're on-board
with our pet legislation."  I believe that was the case recently here with
VET testing.  Our county pulled VET testing, and they were threatened with
loss of Federal funding unless they either reinstated it or came up with
some ridiculous way of proving they still met EPA guidelines.  The fact
that VET testing has been nothing more than a revenue stream and doesn't do
a thing to help the environment apparently makes no difference.  

There's always a set of strings somewhere--it's a matter of finding them.
It'd be ridiculously easy for the Federal government to "convince" the
states to fall into line.  California could be forced on just about any
issue if emergency disaster relief funding was tied in as a conditional,
rather than guaranteed, I'm sure.  It's just a matter of getting laws
quietly passed without the public being made aware that they're being sold
out by the idiots they voted into office.

mark->
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