RE: ebusiness and a free lunch

["Guy T. Curtis" <gcurtis@potlatch.com>]

Steve,

It is true that an mail order (email or otherwise) are exempt from Idaho
paying state taxes if they are being sold from an organization with no
Idaho office location.  This has been true for years though.  The purchaser
is then required to pay those, I believe.

It is not a true or fair statement to say that ecommerce rides FREE on
public supported services.  All internet operations pay both Federal and
State access taxes and fees just to have access to the internet.  Most
dialup users do not see these fees, as they are typically bundled into the
Inernet Service Providers (ISP) monthly or annual fees.

If you look at businesses like amizon.com, or cd-now.com either of those
could be operated anywhere on the internet (down town Moscow for example).
All that is required for these new business models is a little no-how, some
good marketing, and a good ISP.  The ISP side of it covered pretty well
with Moscow's first ISP (First Step Internet), the rest is up to the
creative entrepreneurs.

Guy T. Curtis
At 09:05 AM 1/5/1999 -0800, 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
>
>
     ___________
    ||---------||     FFFFFF  LL        AA   TTTTTT
    ||      _  ||     FF      LL       AAAA    TT  
  []||_____(*)_||[]   FFFFF   LL      AA  AA   TT
   \|___________|/    FF      LL      AAAAAA   TT
    /\_________/\     FF      LLLLLL  AA  AA   TT
  _|_|()|||||()|_|_
 |{}{|\ o|||o /|}{}|  FFFFFF  EEEEEE  NN   N  DDDDD   EEEEEE  RRRRR
 |{}{|_|_|||_|_|}{}|  FF      EE      NNN  N  DD  DD  EE      RR  RR
 |{}[___WILLYS__]{}|  FFFFF   EEEEE   N NN N  DD   D  EEEEE   RRRRR
 |{}{|         |}{}|  FF      EE      N  NNN  DD  DD  EE      RR RR
 |{}{|         |}{}|  FF      EEEEEE  N   NN  DDDDD   EEEEEE  RR  RR
  """ 1951 CJ3A """   gcurtis@potlatch.com