George wrote:
I would have no problem if all we are talking is the state sales
taxes. But all of the other jurisdictions are demanding their cut,
too and therein lies the rub.


So whats the difference? The unfairness is that brick and mortar
businesses are mandated to be tax collectors. If you buy something
from them they are mandated to collect whatever taxes are applicable.
So if the state is say 5%, and the county is 2% the merchant must
collect 7%. Why should another merchant no need to do that?

Ah, you've never owned a retail business.

When I make my report to the state comptroller, *I* have to specify which
sub-authority gets what. There are over 2,000 separate taxing authorities in
my state (city, county, metro, hospital districts, mosquito control
districts, enterprise zones, etc.). *I* have to compute the amount of tax
due EACH one.

For example, I may sell a $100 item to some rancher in a sparsely-populated
county. The only tax is $6.00 to the state. If I sell that same item to a
customer in a metropolitan area, I may have to collect, and report
individually, $6.00 to the state, $1.50 to the customer's city, $0.50 to his
local transit authority, and $0.25 to the community hospital district (total
8.25%) and report each separately.

Now multiply the above by, say, 1,000 customers scattered across the state,
complicated by quarterly reporting, and you begin to see the difficulty for
just one retailer dealing with his home state. (Imagine a spread-sheet with
2,000 columns - the taxing authorities and 1,000 rows - the customers.
Further imagine different percentages for each of the columns. Has your
brain exploded yet?)

Now pretend this same retailer is faced with, potentially, 11,000 sales tax
jurisdictions across the land. It's mind boggling.