Quote - > Quote - Oh, and will that lovely new Internet Tax the US Sentate just voted for apply to that price?

Misperception: that isn't a new tax, and it's not an "Internet Tax". It's requiring people to pay the sales tax for items they should have already been paying (if their jurisdiction has a sales tax) by closing a loophole that was being exploited.

Basically, if you were buying, say, a chair in a state where the sales tax was 5% (or whatever), if you bought it at a local store you'd pay the price plus 5%. What some businesses were doing was selling that same chair over the net, even if they and the customer were in the same state, and not charging the 5%. So local businesses who weren't trying to get around the rules were being boned, and taxes that should have been collected weren't.

If the item you're buying wasn't already subject to a sales tax if you went to a store and bought it in person, there's no change. If you were buying from an online supplier not abusing loopholes, there's no change.

 

This is inacurate. 

No sales tax on internet purchases was done deliberately in order to boost internet sales back in the 90s. There was no loopholes being exploited. If you're purchasing from a retailer that is in your own state, internet or in person doesn't matter, you have to pay sales tax. You only get out of paying sales tax if the place you're buying from does not have a presence in your state. 

Certain huge corporations have made deals with different states that prevent them from having to collect sales tax in that state. 

Example: Amazon started building a distribution center in SC in 2011, but then stopped when they were told they had to collect sales tax on SC customers. They had made deals with Governors in other states to not collect sales tax, but SC wouldn't agree to that. But SC wanted the jobs that Amazon was offering. So it was an argument for quite a while, until finally SC caved with a compromise that Amazon could go tax-free for a certain period of time. I want to say 5 years but not sure on that. Once that agreement was reached, Amazon continued building their distribution center. 

The internet sales tax bill(s) that are currently being debated in congress are about making ALL internet purchases taxable, whether the company resides in your state or not makes no difference. So yes, there will definitely be a change if you're a regular internet shopper. 

As for the cloud and software, get used to it. All major software will be moving to the cloud within the next few years. Most already have begun. This mostly benefits the companies, not the consumers. The cloud allows them to finally have full control over DRM. No more pirated photoshop, or ms office, etc. If you don't have an internet connection, you won't use it. It also benefits them in that more people will be able to afford to use their software, because 20 or 30 bucks a month seems much more affordable to the average sheeple than 300 or 1500 all at once. 

I predict music and movies will go the same way within the next 5 to 10 years or less. If you aren't connected to the cloud, you won't be watching anything or listening to any tunes. At least not legally.

 

~Shane