Fish: [tropical fish club] Amazon to begin: Going back on topic.

That's a question that's received a lot of debate lately here in SD. I
have my own opinion but I'll do my best to remain neutral and stick to
the facts as far as I know them. My Profession is taxes so I do have a
bit of background ;)

There's been a proposal to levy a sales tax on _all_ goods sold online
by a business located in South Dakota no matter where it was shipped or
the purchaser was located. If it were being shipped to a State that
imposed a sales tax on online sales coming into the State there would be
double taxation. Mail order companies faced the same challenge in the
1960 and it was the opinion of SCOTUS (National Bellas Hess,
Inc. v. Department of Revenue) at that time that merchandise ordered
through the mail or common carrier can not be taxed by any State unless
the Merchant and Purchaser both reside in that State. My favorite
electronic parts supplier only take orders by US Mail even though his
catalog is online for this reason.

The principle was upheld in 1985 in Burger King v. Rudzewicz.
/"that a substantial amount of business is transacted solely by
mail////and wire communications across state lines, thus obviating
the////need for physical presence within a State in which business
is////conducted. So long as a commercial actor's efforts are
"purposefully //directed" towards residents of another State, we
have////consistently rejected the notion that an absence of physical
contacts////can defeat personal jurisdiction there."/

There are more cases and precedent but the question of "is it legal?" is
"probably not" but so far nobody has filed suit in Federal Court for
being charged sales tax for online purchases that I can find.

Now that we're wayyyy off topic:

I'm moving my 55 with a 20 gallon sump/fry tank across the room and
adding a 29 this week. I'm going to clean out the 55 and take pictures
of how I set up my system for low maintenance and post them on the group
picture site. I had a 55 with a 15 sump tank and vertical 12 gallon
custom tank set up and running for over 6 years with only dead fish
removal, water changes and algae removal from the glass.. Livebearers,
Angelfish and ghost shrimp all reproduced quite happily with the shared
water supply.
The 55/20 have been up for about 4 months and I wouldn't be moving them
except we got new furniture (and a 29 with the trimmings almost free).
We have a variety of tetras, danios, mollies, guppies, swords, loaches
plecos, redtail sharks, ghost and cherry shrimp, gold mystery snails, 10
breeding size koi angels and of course pond snails, lots of plants too.
Everything is doing very well and I hate messing with something that
works. The 20 will be drained low and moved without (hopefully)
disturbing the biofiltering, the 29 filled with water from the 55 and
all the fish from the 55 moved there and then move the 55 and redo it.
Both tanks will drain to a common sump and I do have a 15 to use for
quarantine for new or sick fish. Angels, plecos and mystery snails will
stay in the 29 and once the system stabilizes I'll move everything else
to the 55. I've been told more than once that the way I do it won't work
but I guess the fish don't listen.

The only thing so far that hasn't thrived is red clawed crabs but I
think they'd do better with more salty conditions than I want in a
community tank.

Good thing I have most of the week off.'

Tim Hills

On 9/2/2012 20:50, sevenspringss@wmconnect.com wrote:
>
> Since these outfits are taxing people outside their state with shipped
> items, I wonder if it's legal or not.
>
> Ray
>

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