Speaking of Sales Taxes, on July 1st Florida becomes a "Internet Sales Tax" state.
 

Florida becomes on July 1 one of the last states to implement that out-of-state online retailers are required to collect sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians from non-Florida sellers and submit to FL. This means you will pay sales tax on ALL purchases from eBay and Amazon as well as all your favorite online stores that DO NOT have a nexus (business connection) in FL.

Up until now the business (or on eBay, the seller) had to have a nexus in FL to be required to turn over sales tax. eBay and Amazon for example (and many other sites) have been doing the collection of taxes and sending them on to the proper states after charging the BUYER. Purchases made on eBay and shipped to FL up until July 1st have not been taxed unless the seller (not buyer) was located in FL. On Amazon any item sold by sellers OTHER THAN Amazon were NOT taxed if the item was marked "Shipped by Amazon and sold by < non FL seller>". Shipped By Amazon Sold by Amazon always taxed since Amazon has a Florida nexus.

The money is all SUPPOSED TO go to reducing business taxes here in FL. Good luck on that. Just like in NJ lottery sales and casino taxes were all supposed to go to education and road tolls were supposed to go away in 5 or 10 years about 50 years ago.

Of course everyone here kept records of all their non-sales taxed online purchases and submitted them to the State of FL so the new law won't make any difference! :D

The last state remaining NOT collecting outside sales tax is Missouri.

As Of July 1, Florida Will Require Online Sellers To Collect 6% Sales Tax From Residents

Most of my purchases thru Amazon Prime are already taxed. Very rarely do I shop locally when I do I comparison shop. Most items are at least 20% cheaper on Prime even with tax. One thing for sure be it locally or Prime it all originates from China or some other foreign country.

This was also done in hopes people would buy in-state. There is, however, no incentive for consumers, and when the socialistic tax dollars reduce business taxes, I guarantee there will be no price reductions on products. If politicians wanted to encourage in-state buying, they would have given the consumer an incentive to do so.

For the last 4 years or so Amazon has been already been collecting Florida sales tax on internet purchases for Amazon sales as well as for Amazon sellers that use Amazon to ship their goods.

I don't know that it was so much intended to encourage in-state purchasing as it was to de-incentivize out-of-state purchasing.

I will buy the least expensive and most convenient version of the same product. Saving 7% by purchasing out-of-state is certainly an incentive; this change intends to remove that incentive. Shopping from my couch and having the item delivered to my door is terribly convenient. I'll purchase in-state if I can get that convenience, but usually I cannot.

If reduced costs in the form of reduced business taxes do not help to reduce prices then maybe there really is a problem with our system.

Not true for everything. I just bought two padlocks from Amazon last week. They were sold and shipped by Amazon, but there was no tax added.

I place about 2-3 orders every week from Amazon. Most are sold and shipped by Amazon because I try to avoid third party items. They add tax to some items, but not to others. I don't know why.

"I don't know that it was so much intended to encourage in-state purchasing as it was to de-incentivize out-of-state purchasing."

If that's the case, then they failed. If I have to pay tax either way, I'd rather sit at my computer and order on-line.

However, for quite awhile, Florida has required residents to pay sales tax on internet purchases unless the seller charged sales tax. Look it up at the FL Dept if Revenue website. Had to file every quarter, but it depended on the honor code. I paid for a long while, then it seemed like more and more sellers were charging sales tax. I eventually stopped paying.

I think it is standard for all states to require the customer to pay sales tax on all purchases if the product is received in the state. But, the states don't expect the honor code work. That is why they require the merchant to collect the tax.

There is no such thing as perfect. I do buy from Amazon. Imagine you have a retail store.
A customer comes in and expects no demands attention from your paid for sales person
and then they turn around and buy from Amazon.

Buying on ebay for example. Free shipping from China? How can they do that? You can buy stuff for less than it would cost to ship it to China.

People selling stuff on Amazon. Due to quantity they buy Amazon one way or the other pays less for the goods. Shipping? Amazon pays far less for the same shipment than a small seller. The reason why you see products shipped by Amazon that is sold by other sellers.

Taxes? I used to sell expensive photographic equipment. At a sales meeting it was announced 80% was sold across state lines. Simple reason to avoid sales tax. A regular tactic was to take payment had the product to the customer and ship an empty box to an address in another state.

Credit cards. Most sales are on credit cards. The old days with it is a cash business and people with untaxed suitcase money are mostly over.

Where we are and how we got here.

Law and reality are far different. Require the merchant to collect the tax. The merchant is not paid for the time and effort to do this. Honor? It is actually criminal to collect tax and pocket it. How much is charged and not collected, since it is criminal to do so, the number is a guess depending on the bias of the guesser. We've all seen, I will give you 10% off if you pay cash do we think that money will be declared income?

Yes, last year, when I helped a friend buy an expensive ring, I found out that sending the empty box tactic is used regularly by so called "reputable" jewelers in The Villages. Also, they will give a large discount if you pay cash. So, they are cheating Florida and the IRS. Not much honor.

There is no such thing as perfect. Taxes, we all demand but want others, anyone but us to pay for it.

Reduced prices? A computer for example. I remember when they were like 3,000 and those dollars were worth more than the dollar today. Today a better faster computer is like $300.

Competition does bring price down. Mail order such as the monster that Amazon is, makes us wonder why service in retail is gone. You cannot pay quality people to service customers, have people learn from them and then buy from Amazon. Then after having spent their money at Amazon they want the people you are paying to show them how to use it.

Where we are and how we got here. I do buy from Amazon. Technical support? You call the company direct. You get one of those messages. If, it is a full moon and a high tide and your name is hit number 47. You forgot the other 50 choices, to repeat this message press or that extension is busy while you are on hold, we gocha here comes our ads.

No answer is necessary. Not much honor. I hold all to the same code of ethics.
I am not religious but for many Thou shalt not steal means to them don't steal from me
but I will justify stealing from you.

If, you did not do this, you can bet others did. Jewelers well are in a dirty business.
You decide to insure a jewelry item. You get an appraisal for insurance. It is roughly twice what you can buy the item for. The insurance company also knows this.
If, it is lost stolen they pay you half the appraised value and they don't refund the tax you paid. You assuming all is honest get to pay the tax twice. Roughly 14% loss.

Trust? For me it died years ago.

I think a lot of people buy items in a retail store because they don't even realize that it is easier and cheaper to order it from Amazon. Last week, I ordered a refrigerator filter from Amazon for 10 dollars less than Lowes and it was delivered the next day. Why would anyone drive to Lowes, hope it is in stock, and wait in line, for an item like that?