Northwest Web Report - Latest Comments

Re: Washington State Destination Based Sales Tax

takeshi38 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:21:19 -0000

I consider your thoughts but it is hard to believe if there are complicated things that comes in the mind of people and also there are some cases that they really don't believe on some news and updates that comes.

Re: 70% of Idaho’s Economy is…

Steve4322 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:20:25 -0000

I love your blog -- I found it in my Google search and added it to my Yahoo reader.

Re: Washington State Destination Based Sales Tax

JEBCommerce — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:41:14 -0000

We shouldn't believe what the Department of Revenue of Washington State puts on their website?

Re: Washington State Destination Based Sales Tax

Kate — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:15:30 -0000

This is great example of "don't believe everything you read on the internet." About half of the information in this article is correct.
1) The state of Washington cannot force out of state retailers, who do not have a physical presence in the state, to collect Washington tax. So, if a vendor in Florida ships something to Washington, they are not required to collect Washington tax. Same with the Idaho vendor. However, if that same Idaho vendor delivers goods to a Washington location, they create a business presence for themselves and are required to collect Washington tax.
2) There has NEVER been a federal moratorium on sales taxes for goods purchased on the internet. The federal moratorium prohibits internet access fees from being subjected to sales tax. Every state that has a sales tax also has a complimentary use tax. If you buy someting on the internet, and don't pay sales tax to the vendor, you owe a use tax that should be paid directly to your state.

Re: Washington State Destination Based Sales Tax

Mike Harmon — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:00:35 -0000

A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks

Re: 70% of Idaho’s Economy is…

JJcutt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:53:30 -0000

Jason, thanks for clearing that up bud. It very exciting to know that we live in a state that is so competitive. Congrats on the NYTimes article and thanks for stopping in.

Re: 70% of Idaho’s Economy is…

Jason Crawforth — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:22:31 -0000

Hi Michael and JJcut,
Yes, many people outside of Idaho (and inside!) don't know the full size of Idaho's tech sector. Technology is the largest industry in Idaho (in GDP) and represents nearly 24% of Idaho's GDP. It is bigger than agriculture, forestry and mining combined.

The 70% statistic about Idaho's total exports (in dollars) for the science and technology industry actually used to be 74% of Idaho's total exports. We dropped slightly to 70% this year. Here is the study: http://www.aeanet.org/pressroom/prac_TCS_2008_i...

Regards,
Jason
jason.crawforth@mobiledataforce.com

Re: 70% of Idaho’s Economy is…

JJcutt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:24:13 -0000

I was wondering about that number as well. Although, I am sure it's not referring to the number of people working in the High Tech industry, but rather the total revenue generated. But I don't know. Anyone have a source we can get a confirmation on this %?

Re: 70% of Idaho’s Economy is…

Michael K. Campbell — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:39:07 -0000

Yeah.... I imagine that tech in Idaho is a LOT bigger than what most people consider. But there's no way it's 70%. Because that would be 7/10 working adults either directly working in technology, or working in some sort of support role at a tech or high-tech manufacturing company).

Great article though.

Re: The Idaho Tech Economy Woes

JJcutt — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:11:11 -0000

You know, everything that I have read shows that Boise has been doing well in regards to its competition (Spokane, Portland, Seattle). But I am going to guess that with the downturn in the economy, all these cities are going to take hits.

In regards to keeping jobs in the US... the average American family needs a certain wage to be able to pay the bills. Overseas, especially in Asia, folks can work for practically nothing. I'm wondering if our inflated dollar is adding to this problem, too. But as a CEO of a large company, in most cases you see little allegiance to American made product. Companies are in it to make money.

Re: The Idaho Tech Economy Woes

Jamie Birch — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:49:19 -0000

JJ,

I thought Idaho had done a lot to be friendly to companies. Isn't that why Buck Knives moved here not too long ago. 1500 jobs is huge, especially for Boise. It would be interesting to see how Washington, Idaho and Oregon match up on taxes and the like. I had a booth across from the state of Montana at a catalog show a year or so ago. They were talking to all these merchants about relocating to their state and flashing tax breaks in front of them to get them there.