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If you bought taxable items today, you may have noticed a slight change with the sales tax: The city sales tax is now 8.875%, up from 8.375%. It's a move proposed by Mayor Bloomberg back in January, due to the poor economy. It's hoped that the 0.5% will raise $900 million in city revenue. This translates to an extra 50 cents for every $100 spent, and the Daily News reports, "While it's pennies with each purchase, it adds up: A family earning $75,000 a year would pay an estimated $170 more in sales tax over the course of a year, the Independent Budget Office says." Flashback: In 2007, Bloomberg asked the state to keep sales tax at 8.375%.
NYC Sales Tax Goes Up Today
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Crazy woman on the subway. This is too great not to post!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOCbij4lgl
[more]
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I'm the taxman,
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I'm the taxman
(if you drive a car, car;) - I'll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I'll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I'll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet.
'Cause I'm the taxman
-- George Harrison
How about leveling the playing field and taxing all internet and catalog sales? In Quill v. North Dakota the Supreme Court said that Congress could give states the power to collect sales tax even in cases where a company had no physical presence in the state.
Only a matter of time until Congress does this. Puzzling that they didn't do it years ago.
Online purchases are almost invariably discretionary ones. Nobody buys essentials like groceries from an out-of-state etailer. You put tax on those purchases and people will just decide to not buy them at all. I know it stopped me from buying a lot of stuff on Amazon. In this economy, discouraging spending is the last thing government should be doing. But Bloomberg doesn't care. He probably spends five figures a year on sales tax withoug batting an eye. Yeah, this is the billionaire who feels the public's pain and deserves another four years.
Just because something is discretionary doesn't mean everyone is going to stop buying it simply because sales tax is applied. How did you come to that conclusion?
discretionary (adj): exercised at one's choice; nonessential
I'll tell you now, if prices suddenly jumped close to 10%, more than a few people would be thinking about buying new computers, HDTVs, small appliances, etc. Do you even want to delay such spending if you were the government trying to stimulate the economy? Bush's economic stimulus checks didn't help precisely because people socked away a lot of that money instead of spending it.
I meant "re-thinking buying new computers..."
Maybe YOU don't buy "essentials like groceries" online, but a lot of people DO.
Really? You order a lot of groceries from out of state? Wow. I find going down to the local Pathmark a lot faster, easier and more satisfying in terms of selection, especially in the refrigerated and freezer cases.
You know what raise money for the city without raising taxes? Enforcing already existing laws. Traffic laws for example. These are never enforced and yet, would bring in millions of dollars if the traffic cops would do more than stand on the corners and look at the traffic. Blocked bus lanes, blocked intersection boxes, incessant and unjustified honking - just think how much money the city could raise if traffic cops did their jobs!!
Not really.
When a car is ticketed for an expired meter, NYC gets all the money. That's why we have a Parking Violation Bureau army.
But, a speeding ticket means Albany will get most of the money. That's why NYPD doesn't have a speeding ticket quota.
Thanks for playing.
So... where in aed's comment did he talk about Albany/NYS and/or speeding?
Ouch. What's the word the kids use? Oh, yeah. Angrygod got PWNED! Maybe some anger management classes are in order?
How about cell phone use while driving? Up to $160 per infraction. If NYPD actually enforced that one law, there wouldn't be a budget crisis.
ditto on the "incessant and unjustified honking"!
I'll keep ordering from sites that doesn't do taxes with ny. ny sucks on sales tax. already tax enough.
Good thing I don't have any money to spend!
Newegg is the place to be. Amazon is garbage.
Overstock.com also doesn't charge sales tax. Amazon should have followed Newegg and Overstock's lead and just kicked out all NYS affiliates.
The most regressive tax of all. Really shameful, the way they keep hitting poor people in this city.
I'm gonna check out this newegg.
Oh, jeez, newegg is just computer parts. Um, I sometimes buy other stuff....
No, it's not just computer parts. There are televisions, small appliances, major appliances, etc.
Overstock.com has a lot of other stuff, including home furnishings, jewelry, clothing, books, sporting goods, etc. And dirt cheap shipping, on top of decent prices. $2.95 for your entire order, regardless of how much you buy.
bloomberg doesn't care. a half a percent raise is nothing to him.
If they just enforced the cellphone use laws they would be able to balance the city budget and pay for the war in Afghanistan for at least 2 years.
Angrygod11 - my comments were pretty specific about what traffic laws should be enforced. Parking meter violators and speeders should be ticketed but my concerns are what I have already stated. $350 for honking? Can you imagine the $$ that the city could take it if it was enforced!! Running red lights is another thing that's ignored. I was almost run over by a police car that ran a red light and when I yelled at them they followed me in the car as I walked down the block, yelling at me the entire time. So how can we expect the police to ticket violators when they see nothing wrong with the violations. And what is blocking bus lanes? Police cars. Enough already. Stop raising taxes and enforce laws.
Traffic violations are largely state laws and parking violations are largely local NYC laws. The former collects fine for state government and the later for local NYC government. Since we are review alternatives to raising local sales taxes for local government, forget about using speeding tickets to stop this.
The Great Recession, as its now been labeled by a few media sources [WSJ, to name one], is great isn't it?
I'm sure bloomberg doesn't want to raise taxes so that people will spend less money making it tougher for NYC businesses. But I suppose this tax raises it just enough that people will not notice it as much and still raise a substantial amount for our city, which desperately needs funds to maintain the living standards we have had.
I am sure the last thing Bloomberg wants to see is New York City return to the way it was in the 1970s. When the city was crime ridden, and with very little funds for city projects.
Besides, I'm sure when the Brooklyn Bridge Park opens up in the several years, it will be worth it. Unless, of course, that doesn't get finished on time.