In time, Cyber Monday will pay off for states

The Oklahoman Editorial Published: December 3, 2012

IF Tax Day were Jan. 1 instead of April 15, then perhaps more Oklahomans would realize that their Cyber Monday purchases are subject to sales tax. As it is, the four-month gap offers another reason to utter the old Steve Martin gag line of “I forgot!”

Two measures of the status quo are as constant as death and taxes. One is that Congress continues to punt on the question of sales tax collections for online purchases. The other is that Oklahoma cities are heavily dependent on sales taxes for day-to-day operations.

These two worlds collide because consumers avoid sales taxes by spending money with distant e-tailers instead of local retailers. We can't blame them. Fact is, though, that tax avoidance strategies aren't the same as tax-exempt status. Every dollar spent by Oklahoma consumers on nontax-exempt goods is subject to the sales tax, regardless of where the goods were bought.

Internet sales surged on Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday every year. While the latter involves in-store purchases for which sales taxes are collected, Cyber Monday often means Oklahomans get the goods without sales taxes being added to the total. Whether an online purchase is taxed depends on whether the vendor has a physical presence in the state.

Nationally, Cyber Monday sales were up an estimated 25 percent by midafternoon on the big day. We don't know if that was true here, but it's certain that Oklahomans bought merchandise from remote retailers and weren't assessed a sales tax. They're supposed to pay it anyway at the time income tax returns are filed, by April 15 next year. But will they?

The Oklahoma Municipal League and its member cities and towns certainly hope so. Executive Director Carolyn Stager says she hopes Oklahoma shoppers save their receipts for later remittance of owed sales taxes. Good luck with that!

| |


Trending Now

Around the web

  1. 1
  2. 2
    Savannah Guthrie pregnant with first baby, she revealed at weekend wedding
  3. 3
    Dog who fell off 90-foot cliff rescued by helicopter
  4. 4
    Astrophysicists to announce major discovery today
  5. 5
+ show more