Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/flanews/public_html/wp-config.php on line 34
Capitol News Service » Blog Archive » Missing Sales Tax

Welcome to

Capitol News Service

Florida's Best Political Coverage on Television

 


 


 


Recent Posts

RSS Quote of the Day

  • Charles Baudelaire
    "Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation."
  • Wilson Mizner
    "The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away."
  • Benjamin Disraeli
    "Silence is the mother of truth."
  • H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
    "Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness."

Missing Sales Tax

November 30th, 2015 by flanews

It’s cyber Monday, which means your credit card might need a break by now. As Matt Galka tells us, all of the online transactions could actually be costing the state some money.

It’s deal season throughout the country and the state.  James Miller with the Florida Retail Federation says retailers have high hopes for business with Black Friday having just passed and the holiday shopping season going into full swing.

“All the numbers so far, the preliminary numbers, show that it was a strong Black Friday. We expect Cyber Monday to be equally huge. It doesn’t change our perspective that there’s going to be an increase of 4.5 or 5% for Florida in terms of year over year growth,” he said.

Cyber Monday – the online version of Black Friday, provides another opportunity to boost revenue numbers. But there’s a problem. While the deals are great for online shoppers, it’s actually the state that could be missing out on big bucks.

Sales tax isn’t collected on all online transactions. But Robert weissert with Florida TaxWatch says it’s supposed to be.

“The cost to the state from this lost sales tax revenue is possibly in the billions of dollars. If you buy something online and the retailer does not charge you the taxes, it’s your responsibility to send in the money to the department of revenue,” he said.

It’s up to Floridians to fill out their own sales tax forms when shopping online. Good luck. The Department of Revenue says they only collected $8.2 million dollars of online sales tax this past year. A fraction of what could be paid.

“It’s a really important issue, not only for total sales tax collection, but also, we’re turning regular Floridians into scofflaws. People are avoiding paying taxes because they don’t know they owe the tax,” said Weissert.

Florida did cut some of their losses last year. 2014 was the first time the state collected sales tax from online retail giant Amazon. Sales tax collected from Amazon alone is expected to be around the $100 million dollar mark.

Posted in State News | Comments Off on Missing Sales Tax

Comments are closed.

copyright © 2016 by Capitol News Service | Powered by Wordpress | Hosted by LyonsHost.com