Sales Taxes

A small group of opponents to a three-decade transportation sales tax extension on next month's ballot huddled this week for their first news conference, a thinly attended event in a Hyde Park parking lot. Only two television stations showed up - one from USC - signaling the kind of David versus Goliath battle they face. The Coalition to Defeat Measure J included a smattering of groups with accumulated grievances against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

WASHINGTON -- Many of the people criticized by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for not paying income taxes actually do pay taxes -- specifically the federal payroll tax, the independent Tax Policy Center said. And nearly half of those who do not pay federal income taxes are elderly, the group found in an analysis last year. About 46.4% of households paid no income tax in 2011, according to a breakdown by the center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

The stakes could not be higher for Gov. Jerry Brown in the November election. He'll emerge either a savior or a failure. Riding high or trampled. Right now it's a tossup. You may remember the debacle Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger encountered in his failed "reform" election of 2005; also the beating Gov. Gray Davis suffered during the energy crisis of 2001. Added together they may approximate the quandary -- and the thumping -- that Brown would face if voters reject his tax initiative, Proposition 30. Think about it. Here's the governor who pitched himself as uniquely qualified by experience and wisdom to clean up Sacramento's fiscal mess.

SACRAMENTO - The days of most tax-free Internet shopping in California are over. After years of controversy, the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.com Inc., was set to begin collecting state and local sales taxes on California purchases at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Depending on where you live, sales taxes in the state range from 7.25% to 9.75%. New state and local government revenues from Amazon alone are expected to be as high as $100 million during the first year of collection, with the total for all Internet sellers reaching $317 million in the year that began July 1. Much more money is expected to flow into government coffers in coming years as e-shopping expands.

SACRAMENTO -- Saturday is tax day for Internet shoppers in California. Amazon.com, the world's biggest Internet retailer, began collecting sales taxes on purchases made by Golden State shoppers beginning at 12:01 a.m. The tax ranges from 7.25% to 9.75%, depending on where a buyer is located. Chatter on Twitter on Saturday morning showed mixed consumer reaction. "It was a good ride," tweeted Christopher Ferebee, who identified himself as a literary agent and attorney in Southern California.

To everyone planning to spend the entire weekend on their smartphones, their laptops, their tablets or their various other electronic gadgets in order to shop at Amazon.com before Sept. 15, when the mammoth online retailer starts collecting sales tax on California purchases: You do know, don't you, that you already have to pay sales tax on your online purchases? Yes, it's officially called a "use tax" rather than a sales tax because Amazon is an out-of-state company. But that's only a technicality.

Nude lap dances are no different from a ballet performance or musical arts performance and should be exempt from sales taxes, according to an attorney for a New York strip club. That's the argument slated to be made Wednesday before the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, and just the latest example of New Yorkers squabbling over where to draw the line between lewd behavior and high-brow art . The issues in the pending legal case are pretty clear, according to the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets gleefully covering the colorful case.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes -- and that people hate paying taxes. In California, that means some folks are in a tizzy because Amazon.com will begin  collecting sales taxes on online purchases as of Sept. 15. And in New York, it means at least one strip club is flying a “Don't tread on me” flag over lap dance taxes. My colleague Andrea Chang reported Wednesday on the Amazon buying surge among some consumers looking to avoid the tax bite. For instance: Abdel Ibrahim, a tech entrepreneur and trader from San Diego, said he would buy a MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with retina display on Amazon before the cutoff, a move that will save him about $270 in sales taxes.

Chris Cheng doesn't need 40 hand warmers right now, but the longtime Amazon.com customer is loading up on them anyway. With the Internet retail giant set to begin collecting sales taxes on California purchases Sept. 15, the San Francisco resident is among many tech-savvy consumers trying to cram in some last-minute tax-free shopping. Depending on where they live, Californians pay 7.25% to 9.75% in sales taxes, so the savings are substantial - especially on big-ticket items such as electronics.

The California tax man cometh, and he's headed for the Internet. State tax collectors are preparing to crack down on renegade Internet merchants who don't collect sales taxes, and nearly 100 new state auditors, lawyers and other specialists are being hired to help over the next three years. The effort comes at a time when state and local governments are scrambling for money after cutting billions of dollars from budgets and trimming public services. The governor has asked voters in November to approve a hike in sales and income taxes.