[Kevin]

http://www.projo.com/news/content/BUSINESS_TAX_PROBLEM_07-30-09_HSF7JHN_v29.3c1d325.html

Rhode Island is wicked aggressive. I won't be moving there in this lifetime.

[zawadi70]

http://www.projo.com/news/content/BUSINESS_TAX_PROBLEM_07-30-09_HSF7JHN_v29.3c1d325.html

Rhode Island is wicked aggressive. I won't be moving there in this lifetime.


I moved to Rhode Island from Louisiana about 3 years ago and I regret it only the last few months.
I don't know if Rhode island realize, you cannot stimulate an economy with more taxes :crap:

I get emails at least once a week from merchants who regretfully have to let me go.

There is also a "death tax" here too in Rhode Island. better off croaking in Connecticut or some other place. You have to pay to die here. :toasted:

I'm going to keep my head up and learn everything there is about affiliate marketing and then leave.

I love this small New England state, but If i want to make a living I will move back to the deep south and live good on fried rattlesnake and niche websites.

[simcat]

There's a growing number of people in jobs or businesses (like affiliate marketing) that are able to work strictly at home... not chained to a 'job'. And some of them can easily move/& tell their state to shove it.

Weird thought:
Maybe in the future there will be 'practical' states to live in, and other states will be 'status' states. Like ritzy neighborhoods, cool because they cost so much.
Oh well back to reality...

[netnow22]

I moved to Rhode Island from Louisiana about 3 years ago and I regret it only the last few months.
I don't know if Rhode island realize, you cannot stimulate an economy with more taxes :crap:


Tell that to all the liberal democrats.....

[MattMcWilliams]

I mean this with no disrespect towards Rhode Island or its residents at all, but what makes the government there think they can attract businesses and workers to their state if they continue to pass stupid laws like this?

No affiliate is going to move there. No small business is going to move there. No aspiring entrepreneurs are going to move there. Nobody looking for employment is going to move there. No one wants to die there.

I have been to Rhode Island and I LOVED it! It is beautiful and the people were awesome (we were mostly in Newport), but it's not special enough to overcome all of these barriers.

[markwelch]

Am I really the only person reading this thread who doesn't see much connection between this article and the plight of Rhode Island web publishers?

The article describes aggressive enforcement measures by the state's sales-tax collection agency, against in-state "brick and mortar" businesses which have collected sales taxes but did not remit them to the state.

Talk about an unfair advantage! These are stores that are collecting and using sales-tax money to pay other bills, giving them an advantage over other stores that remit the taxes to the state.

Yes, this enforcement effort does appear to be "penny wise, pound foolish," because it forces small businesses to shut their doors because of tax delinquency, when a more reasonable solution might be to require steps to insure that current sales taxes are remitted and payments are made on the back taxes. But I assume that the state lacks adequate resources to enforce such agreements, and many unethical small businesses would take advantage of this. And many hopelessly failing businesses should accept their fate and stop collecting and stealing sales-tax money.

At some point, the state must say, "Pay up or shut down" -- otherwise the scofflaws get the advantage.

And of course, the business owners who actually did remit the sales taxes should not suffer because of bureaucratic mistakes.

I'm sympathetic to small businesses in a "cash crunch" (I'm in one right now) and I suspect that the state might impose a lower interest+penalty rate on past-due sales-tax-remissions than other creditors (which suggests a solution: increase the interest and penalties so the state gets paid first).

We're not talking about "taxes on the business" -- we're talking about sales taxes paid by consumers which businesses are legally required to safeguard and remit to the state. We're not talking about "new taxes." We're talking about business owners who use the sales-tax money (which isn't theirs) to pay other bills.

It would be absurd for the state to impose sales-tax duties on out-of-state merchants in the name of "fairness," while at the same time the state allows in-state businesses to collect and keep sales tax money. Talk about an unfair advantage!

[Kevin]

Mark:

You're correct, and I hope my title didn't make it sound like I was drawing a comparison. Just the opposite in fact.

My point was that they seem uber aggressive in collection tactics AND that because of budget shortfalls, we will see more of this. While we can't specifically know the circumstances of all 1200 of those businesses, it's the only state that I'm aware of that's gone on a mass "lock up" patrol to collect.

In this case, I'm assuming all of those taxes are justly owed. I simply find the tactics and timing to be interesting at best.

[Trust]

Am I reading a different article? It reads like these are businesses that owe taxes and haven't been paying their taxes like they're supposed to. That's on the businesses, you're supposed to pay your taxes.

"State tax officials have put more than 1,200 businesses across the state on notice this week that they are out of business unless they pay their overdue sales taxes immediately."

So they haven't been paying their taxes on time.

[Kevin]

I suspect there are at least 5 times that many here in NY though Trust. First I've read of a state being that aggressive. And some of the figures looked pretty small for that kind of response.

I'm not saying they are wrong to collect the taxes. Simply pointing out I question their methodology.