sales tax

Common sense suggests that as home prices decline, the property taxes based on their valuations ought to as well. But property taxes nationally are clicking higher. Why is this occurring? Several factors are at work -- and they bode ill for state budgets.

Nine in 10 retailers are expected to offer online deals today, Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. Those deals are expected to push online sales to $32 billion during the holiday season, up more than 10% from last year. Numbers like these should have retailers salivating,...

On Wall Street, the retail sales figures that count aren't absolute numbers. Investors act based on how those numbers compare to what was expected, and in the case of Black Friday Internet sales, reality beat the predictions. That's good news for Amazon.

As states grapple with increasingly squeezed budgets, the battle to collect sales taxes from retail behemoth Amazon has heated considerably over the past year. Now, Texas has raised the ante by hitting Amazon for four years of back sales taxes.

Despite the searing weather and a lukewarm economic recovery, major merchants are expected to report growing retail sales in their August tallies on Thursday. But don't count on the kind of increases we saw at the beginning of the year.

Congress, which is trying to find money by looking under the sofa cushions, has resurrected a plan to require Internet shoppers to pay state and local sales taxes. The bill, dubbed the Main Street Fairness Act, was explained thoroughly earlier this month by Walletpop Blogger Josh Smith. In short,...

What started as an experiment in 2002 is now an annual ritual. In states across the country, parents wait anxiously, school supply list in hand, for a "sales tax holiday" to make the cost of back-to-school shopping a little more bearable. This year, however, some shoppers are finding out that a...

Congress is once again considering legislation that would force online retailers to collect sales tax for all purchases. The Main Street Fairness Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, would change the current law, which only requires sales tax be charged on purchases when the retailer has...

Famed investor Warren Buffett and William Gates, Sr., the father of Microsoft's Bill Gates, say the rich should pay more taxes. In this economic downturn, some voters are choosing higher taxes over cuts in vital government services, stoking the ire of conservative groups.

Among Thursdays legal news, Amazon launches a war against sales tax compliance by suing the state of North Carolina over divulging customer lists, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission sets its sights on ratings agencies, specifically Moody's, and the G-20 considers regulating credit default swaps on sovereign debt.