Rock Auto June 2019

Αnyone tried ordering from Rock Auto today and get this?

"We cannot ship to this address because it is located in a tax jurisdiction that currently requires sales tax collected from customers be paid separately to state and city governments. We comply with state-administered taxes nationwide, but we do not have the capacity to file city tax returns in hundreds of individual localities where we have no physical presence."

I think it's been an issue before with them but I just ordered parts from them on May 28 and the order went through and they were delivered fine. No difference in ship-to or bill-to address on my account.

F'n frustrating.

 

On Saturday, June 1st Colorado's new online sales tax law went into effect. The changes are forcing small businesses out of web sales because of it requires them to tax based on the buyer's location, meaning the sellers are responsible for taxing in 71 different home-rule cities.

 

So we're boned permanently or temporarily?

 

Wow. That blows

 

That I do not know, and from the sounds of it, the gov isn't quite sure either.

 

Thats too bad man. At my last job I spent a lot of time on the road. Almost 2 months of that was in Boulder. I really loved that whole area, what little of it I got to explore. Actually ended up buying my truck there and having it shipped home

 

Its not just CO that's doing this. 24 other States do it
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/...line-sales-tax-laws-in-effect-as-of-saturday/

 

Looking into it, our law HB19-1240, was introduced back in March. It was passed by the House April 19, 2019, by our Senate May 1, 2019 and sent to the governor on May 14, 2019. The governor signed it May 23, 2019 and it came into effect June 1, 2019. So much for a warning and time to deal with it. That sounds like the Charlie Foxtrot, that Rock Auto (in this case) didn't have systems in place in time.

 

wow, that is a fast turn around, but then again it is a tax bill so not surprising it was rushed through.

 

they just add my state sales tax onto the sale, plus shipping

 

This might be the first of many retailers who cannot manage this...

 

Don’t normal online businesses just collect the damn tax if you are in an applicable state? I mean I know Amazon is huge but they tax accordingly. Seems to me if the online retailer just puts in a protocol to tax based on address then it’s fine.

 

What I'm gathering (and I'm just barely understanding things) is that we had an existing law that online retailers had to collect state sales tax already. The new law that was enacted required non-local retailers to abide by any taxes put in place by home-rule cities. We have 71 such cities (and these are not unique to Colorado I don't believe).

The Colorado state-level Dept of Revenue is not responsible for collecting or administering any home-rule taxes. So any retailer who wants to sell into a town like Grand Junction has to file annual returns in each of them individually. This most obviously impacts online retailers but would also affect an in-state business who in the past didn't do that either. So a national company went from dealing with 25 states who collect taxes to 96 state and local governments if they want to sell into all 71 cities in Colorado. Maybe Denver will hurt but the other 70 cities probably don't generate enough revenue for Rock Auto to offset the administrative costs.

A large company like Amazon has a gaggle of tax lawyers and accountants but a relatively small outfit like Rock Auto can't deal with 71 municipal tax returns annually. Then trying to know each customer's status in Colorado is prohibitive and potentially opens them up to legal action if they get it wrong.

So they are practically forced to just not sell into Colorado any more.

 

Interesting. So basically forcing people to either buy through massive online corporations or buy local. Some real intelligence went into pushing that into law. Probably painted as a buy local thing but really it’s just putting more money into said massive retailer pockets.

 

I was not keeping up since the legislature adjourned on May 3, so it was finally passed just days before they closed up shop. But I would not be surprised if protecting local businesses was the rhetoric.

And now since they are adjourned it's on the books until next January for sure and only special session or a court injunction can change it. In 6 months the damage done will be enormous. A whole Christmas season, for example.

What's interesting is the control arms I bought from Rock Auto at the end of May were shipped from Aurora (near Denver), so they have a warehouse or at least a connection to a warehouse in the state. But they are I believe a Wisconsin company.

 

Colorado has officially been Californicated. We follow in lock-step with what California does. We could have had smaller, less-intrusive government, but no, this is what we voted in. I was born in Colorado and I've lived here my entire life, but I'm getting to where I can barely tolerate the inane laws and regulations.

 

Interesting you blame California for Colorado decisions, especially never having lived in CA. Not sure I get that. Maybe it’s just both states advancing in a parallel fashion?

 

My point is that what's good for CA isn't always what's good for CO. I'm not blaming CA. I'm blaming CO. Also, even though I've never lived in CA, I have spent a lot of time there. I have more family there than here.