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Local businesses, like Gene's Camera Store, in South Bend, think Amazon.com customers should pay sales tax in Indiana. (WSBT/Ted Land / November 27, 2012) |
SOUTH BEND - Nothing irks Jack St. Pierre more than when someone comes into his shop, looks at one of his cameras, asks a bunch of questions, then goes home and buys the thing online.
"Don't get me started," said St. Pierre, owner of Gene’s Camera Store, in South Bend, “it's very frustrating. How would you like to work for free because people rob you of your time and then say ‘well thanks, I’m just looking,’ or ‘I’ll get back to you,’ and they don't.”
People do it all the time. And why wouldn't they?
On sites like Amazon.com you can get that same camera often for a better price and you don't have to pay state sales tax.
Shop owners complain state rules that allow tax-free online shopping put local storefronts at a disadvantage.
“It is really unfair competition when some do not have to charge tax and others do,” said John Boyer, who works at The Mole Hole, a gift shop in South Bend.
This could be the last holiday shopping season where customers enjoy that tax break.
A pair of state lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation that would require online retailers to start collecting Indiana’s 7% sales tax this coming July, six months earlier than planned under a deal Governor Mitch Daniels brokered with Amazon.
Indiana would join a growing list of states like California, Texas, and New York which have ended tax-free online shopping.
“It's time that there was sales tax fairness across the United States,” said St. Pierre, who has found ways to convince customers that there are some things you cannot get online.
He gives free classes, complimentary camera maintenance, kicks in dozens of prints, and if anything goes wrong, they know where to find him.
