"...almost by definition hits consumers with money to burn."

What? How so? It's got a floor of remote sales not exceeding $1 million, so it cuts down on paperwork for smaller businesses, but what does that have to do with consumers?

Is this yet another example of The Stranger deciding a sales tax isn't regressive because it happens to be a tax you like? You guys do that a hell of a lot.

As a Washington resident I already pay tax on purchases made through Steam. You might as well suck the joy out of everything else I can do online, American Government!

If anything Amazon's sales would go up as we are already charged on sales tax for Amazon.com purchases, and this would level the playing field versus other internet retailers.

If it hurts online retailers in any way, it will be to the benefit of local brick-n-mortar businesses. Right now, some people are buying things online from an out-of-state company to save sales tax, especially expensive things where sales tax is considerably higher than the shipping costs. If they have to pay sales tax regardless, they might be more likely to buy locally to save time and shipping costs.

@1 - When did you go off your meds? It's a poll option, not the officially official Stranger Opinion. Did you also think Paul Constant simultaneously holds all other opinions listed?

-J @3 makes a good point. As it stands it's usually impractical for me to make Amazon purchases because of the tax in question. If all online retailers are taxed, I have to ditch the practical argument and go back to not buying from Amazon because Jeff Bezos is a vampire.

I hate all the poll options. I'd say that as long as states like Washington are stupidly dependent on sales instead of income tax, that it's necessary as long as it goes to the states that are losing the revenue.

@5: An unpronounceable moniker referencing C'thulu does not exactly scream sanity, now does it?

Also, I am told Paul can hold a maximum of twelve conflicting opinions in his head, along with three regulation sized billiard balls in his mouth.

I'm with @4. Sure there are inherent problems with a sales tax, but it seems more problematic to me how online purchases are a workaround to avoid paying tax.

@4, It will help local brick and mortar stores for sure. A store like Glazers Camera would probably sell twice as many cameras if they were able to compete evenly with the big online guys like B&H photo in New York. The other stores that will benefit are the ones just over the border in Portland where there is no sales tax at all.

It's a state sales tax, not federal - wouldn't go to fund a national health care plan.

@5

It's exactly what Constant thinks. Notice there is no poll option for the opposite position: this tax is hella regressive. The only opposing options are what Constant imagines the only reasons to be against it: being a frothing anti-tax libertardian. Or that it merely taxes the "rich" consumers, and should focus on the "super rich".

He thinks the poors only shop at Wal-Mart, never online.

Almost 70% of people making less than $25k shop online. This tax hammers them. Avoiding the tax bill by sending them all to douchebag little artisan boutiques selling less than $1M per year doesn't help the poor. It helps the rich buy their handmade fixie bike saddles and Jayne Hats and other overpriced fop essentials.

Like @7, I can't check any of the choices. I dislike sales taxes in general for their regressive nature, but given our state's dependence on it, I'm in favor of finally closing this gaping loopchasm.

I think it's great. Time to end Mercantalist anti-Capitalist subsidies for online businesses.

Amazon is now lobbying FOR the sales tax. They're moving toward a model where they have warehouses near all major cities to do same day deliveries, so they'll need to charge sales tax in every state. Naturally, they want everyone else to pay it too.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/04/2…

@12 not actually. Technically, you're all supposed to pay sales taxes when you buy things online, being residents of WA state, and remit a form.

I have never - ever - met a person who actually remits that form.

And, stats show, most online consumers in our state are in fact the richest people here.

Constant, you are terrible at writing the polls responses. I support the tax not because of the stupid reason you provided, but because all business transactions should be taxed regardless of their mechanism.

Well the folks shopping online are staying off the roads and not adding to an already polluted environment. So they are benefiting society by shopping online and creating jobs.

Why not tax all these big new SUV's and trucks I see driving around? If people can afford these vehicles they can afford to pay for the environmental destruction and extra road wear they cause.

@12 - Okay there, sweetie. You just put your foil hat back on and lie down a spell. It's a carefully-crafted propaganda piece, of course. Paul Constant is the pro-taxation mastermind you give him credit for.

@20

Name calling isn't much of an argument. You think you can dismiss me by putting me down, but all it shows is that you don't know what you're talking about and you think you can shut people up by bullying them.

If I wanted to play that game I'd point out that Will in Seattle also says only the rich buy online, which means it must be bullshit.

@17 Exactly. I don't know why everyone is getting so upset about finally having to pay a tax they were already supposed to have been paying. They should just be glad they've been able to get away with it for this long.

You're all tax-evading criminals, YOU BASTARDS!

@21 - Okay, fine. How about that you've failed to make a cogent case, and I therefore feel no need to take your ramblings seriously? I don't mean to call you names when I say you sound deranged, only to say that you sound deranged.

@21 I didn't say that - in fact, if you look at the words in @16 you'd see I gave no such metrics.

I just pointed out what the Wall Street Journal stats show for our state on the county by county breakdown by income quintile.

@23

Yeah, I can tell by how little attention you give my inane chatter.

I can only assume if I were just slightly more cogent you'd have to quit your job and leave your family to devote your every waking minute to refuting me.

I think if you think the sales tax really matters you're a twat. It's something that's normally taxed being taxed. This is such old news. The internet decided this was cool like 5 or 6 years ago. They even exempt less than a million in sales. Give it up tax warriors.

Can't say no to the Braveheart Cry. I choose freedom!!!!!!

@25 - Yup, cause that's what I do here. I apologize. I should have recognized your first comment as the mature, reasoned rhetoric that took your debate team to nationals. And I had to go and drag us into the gutter.

@19 every item I've ever ordered online was delivered by a diesel or gasoline burning delivery truck. How do your orders arrive, by teleportation?

Anything that can redirect sales from Amazon to local brick-and-mortar stores or even smaller online businesses is fine with me, but then I'm not in Seattle.

@12,13 I'd pay tax on a ticket to see Overpriced Fop Essentials open for Gaping Loopchasm.

@31 that's called a Kickstarter.

Sales tax is, by its nature, a regressive tax. People with the highest income pay the lowest percentage of income. Duh.

@16 - Nice to meet you. We pay our use tax. I can even send you a link to where we file it online each quarter. Why? Because we're a sole proprietor small business. Since we deduct equipment purchases on our federal taxes, and file business taxes with the state, it seems intelligent to pay use tax since there's a paper trail of everything we've ever purchased of significant value right where the auditor would start looking.

@19 - Shopping online saves the environment by keeping us off the roads...you're joking right? So rather than burning 1/2 gallon of gas to buy a product that has already been shipped to WA, I should have a separate item flown, just for me, from New York, Texas, Nebraska or wherever else? Those planes and delivery trucks need gasoline too, how do you think the product arrives on your doorstep?

@29 - Hah. Looks like you though the same thing I did!

Those are some very poorly-written poll options. The Senate didn't pass an "Internet Sales Tax" it passed a bill to enable states to collect sales taxes that are already required by state law, but usually aren't collected on sales that happen online. The things you wrote imply that you think it's a new tax AND that you think it's a federal tax, neither of which are true. Reading comprehension fail.

I'm voting "I think it's a great idea", NOT because it isn't regressive (it is) but because it levels the competitive playing field between online and offline businesses and reinforces the principle that taxes which are required by law ought to be paid. Now we just need to reinforce that principle for the taxes the wealthy pay.