RE: ebusiness and a free lunch

[Dale Goble <gobled@uidaho.edu>]

Ah -- but you as a resident of Idaho are responsible for the taxes.
Failure to pay the sales tax on merchandise purchased from catalogs or via
the web is tax evasion.

Dale Goble
Moscow


On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Steve Cooke wrote:

> Robb,
>  There is also the issue that email purchases are not required to pay sales 
> taxes in Idaho. These taxes support state and local public services that we 
> have decided are important. These public services include the highways that 
> the ebusinesses need to deliver their goods. Should local business be 
> placed at a further price disadvantage to ebusiness while the latter free 
> ride on the tax supported public services?
> Steve Cooke
> 
> Greetings and Happy New Year.
> 
> Last week the Spokesman Review had an interesting editorial about 
> supporting
> local businesses.  That editorial seems even more relevant to a small
> community like Moscow.  The premise was that local businesses support local
> activities and with the loss of customers to mail order and internet
> commerce they will have reduced capacity to contribute time and money to 
> the
> community.
> 
> I think this is a valid observation and I know first hand that Moscow and
> Latah County businesses are the ones that we most depend on to support our
> local needs. These local businesses are very generous with time and money
> and I believe this can be directly correlated to the fact that Moscow is 
> one
> of the finest small communities in the country.
> 
> I don't recall funds or volunteer time flowing back into the Palouse from
> Amazon.com or eToys.  Every time one of us goes on-line and spends money, 
> it
> not only hurts our local businesses, it also has an adverse impact on our
> community.  Money flowing out of our community rarely comes back.
> 
> This is not to say that one should not shop by mail order or on the
> internet -- we are all sensitive about the cost of goods and services.  But
> the next time you shop on-line, by mail, or outside the local area, please
> consider the true price of that decision.
> 
> Robb Parish
> Moscow-Latah County Economic Development Council
>