Senate votes to move forward on bill taxing Internet sales

By Kim Dixon and Nanette Byrnes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A measure to empower U.S. states to require out-of-state retailers to collect online sales tax cleared a legislative hurdle in the Senate on Monday, after earlier winning official backing from President Barack Obama.

Seventy-four senators voted to limit debate and move forward with a final vote on the proposed legislation in the Democratic-controlled Senate, likely on Wednesday.

"You have businesses all around America on Main Streets and shopping malls collecting sales tax on the things that they sell, competing with Internet retailers who do not," said Democratic co-sponsor Senator Richard Durbin.

Supporters of the measure include brick-and-mortar retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Best Buy Co Inc and cash-strapped state governments, along with Amazon.com Inc, which hopes to simplify its U.S. state retail tax situation. Opponents include many online merchants, including eBay Inc and Overstock.com Inc.

Prospects for the bipartisan measure are murkier in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where some Republicans view it as a tax increase.

Lobbyists on both sides are working to make their case in Congress. Several new wrinkles emerged on Monday, a key one being that the Obama administration for the first time officially backed the measure.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the bill "will level the playing field for local small business retailers who are undercut every day by out-of-state on-line companies."

Amazon, with its extensive network of distribution centers, already collects tax in nine states, and has agreements with seven more states to start charging in the next year. Amazon has been actively supporting the bill on Capitol Hill.

The bipartisan National Governors Association supports the tax, and in a letter to lawmakers on Monday said the disparate treatment of online and Main Street businesses is "shuttering stores and undermining state budgets."

For its part, eBay's chief executive launched a major lobbying blitz this week, pleading with its millions of users to oppose the effort.

WALL STREET WEIGHS IN

In a twist to the lobbying on the issue that has gone on for years, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association came out in opposition to the bill.

Representing big investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group, but also online companies like E*TRADE Financial Corp, SIFMA said the bill could lead to a state-level financial transaction tax and "unexpected" consumer costs.

Eleven EU countries are embracing a federal-level financial transaction tax on trading in stocks, bonds and derivatives. The Obama administration opposes such a tax for the United States.

The idea of imposing a financial transaction tax at the state level in the United States seemed unlikely to Verenda Smith, deputy director of the Federation of Tax Administrators.

She said she was not aware of any states that impose such a tax. "It's hard for a state to even broaden their sales tax to include hairdressers," Smith said. "I don't want to think how hard it would be to broaden to financial transactions."

Under current law, states can only mandate that online merchants with physical stores or affiliates within state borders collect sales tax. Consumers are supposed to pay the tax on their own, but few even know about this.

As a result, online-only retailers often have a pricing edge over bricks-and-mortar retailers in many markets.

Critics say it will create more complications, especially for small businesses, which may have to comply with conflicting state laws and new software.

"The bill has never been about helping Main Street but about helping Big Box stores," said Steve Delbianco, an official with a coalition of e-commerce companies called Netchoice.

The legislation would extend the authority of U.S. states to online sales outside their physical borders, though it would not require them to do so. It would exempt merchants with online annual out-of-state sales of $1 million or less.

"The reason the (banks) are nervous about it is they have managed to successfully argue against their services being taxed because it is so mobile," said Kim Ruben, an economist and director of state issues at the Tax Policy Center, a centrist think tank in Washington.

(Additional reporting by Lisa Lambert and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Sofina Mirza-Reid, David Gregorio and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/internet-sales-tax-faces-senate-vote-obama-backs-183957410--sector.html

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Texas town where plant blew starts long recovery

WEST, Texas (AP) ? From money, food and clothing to new appliances and crews armed with chain saws, help is pouring into the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant exploded.

As the donations come in, how long and how much it will take for West to come back aren't yet known.

Residents have just started burying the 14 people who died in last week's blast. Some don't yet know what happened to their homes. They're struggling to replace missing medications and documents.

Others are just starting to work with insurance companies to figure out how much money they'll get for repairs.

The explosion last Wednesday at West Fertilizer left a crater more than 90 feet wide and blasted the walls and windows off dozens of buildings in the town of 2,700.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-town-where-plant-blew-starts-long-recovery-221945331.html

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Condition of 5-year-old Indian girl who was raped improves

NEW DELHI (AP) ? The condition of a 5-year-old girl who was raped, tortured and then left alone in a locked room for two days has improved, a doctor said, as protests continued in India's capital over the authorities' handling of the case.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. But D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Sunday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.

Police say the girl went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.

A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi. After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody Sunday and was being questioned, police said.

The attack came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

For the second consecutive day, hundreds of people protested Sunday outside police headquarters in the capital, angry over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl's parents that she was missing.

About 100 supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party protested outside the home of the chief of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, demanding that the government ensure the safety and security of women and girls in the city.

The protesters also demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police officials accused of failing to act on the parents' complaint be dismissed.

"Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behavior should know that they will be punished," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.

Police said they detained more than 50 protesters when they tried to break down barricades on the road leading to Gandhi's house. The protesters were released after a few hours.

Police also placed restrictions on the gathering of more than four people on the main avenue in the heart of New Delhi after university students said they planned to hold a demonstration there. Despite the police order, about 100 students gathered at New Delhi's iconic India Gate monument and held a peaceful protest late Sunday.

Sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about their sense of insecurity when they leave their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India, where there has been a fierce debate since December's fatal New Delhi gang rape about the routine mistreatment of females.

"The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society," Singh said Sunday at a meeting with civil servants.

A day earlier, Singh had urged Indian society "to look within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst."

The fatal beating and gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving New Delhi bus sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.

But activists say that merely passing strong laws is not enough, and that the government has to convey its intention to crack down on crimes against women to its officials and the police.

"Enacting strong laws are simply a first step, but it needs the government to focus urgently on implementation if it is serious about protecting children and other victims of sexual abuse," Human Rights Watch's Ganguly said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/condition-indian-girl-raped-improves-122022057.html

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Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez: Caught Kissing!!!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/justin-bieber-and-selena-gomez-caught-kissing/

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This Is the World's Most Complicated Timepiece

Modern digital watches can be beautifully engineered and designed items, but they will always lack the craftsmanship that their mechanical predecessors possess. This hand-wound masterpiece, declared "the most complicated watch in the world" by its maker, doesn't do anything a digital watch couldn't replicate but it does so with soul. It also costs $5 million which makes for some very expensive soul. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qmevL9yBUEo/this-is-the-worlds-most-complicated-timepiece

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Celebrities earn high income, pay low tax ? TalkVietnam

VietNamNet Bridge ? According to the latest report, by April 11, only 44 out of 210 artists who were invited to go to the tax offices to make personal income tax declarations have performed this duty.Asking for high remuneration, pop star rejected from int?l firework festival

Topping the black list of the tax authorities is a female singer, who recently was the judge of a popular reality show. She is also an image representative for many major brands but she paid very low personal income tax. In 2009, this singer paid only VND37 million ($1,600) of tax, equivalent to VND3.1 million/month or the total income of around VND20 million ($1,000) a month.

It is ridiculous that her reputation is on the rise, her remuneration is increasing but her tax payment is reducing, from VN37 million in 2009 to VND30.6 million in 2010 and only VND8.1 million in 2011.

Another female singer who is also known as an MC, contestant of TV shows, and recently the judge of a TV reality show has not declared personal income tax since 2009. A very famous overseas Vietnamese comedian is also in the same situation.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Bureau, some singers declared personal income tax but they paid very low tax compared to their real income. For example, a male MC of many TV game shows paid very modest tax, VND18.8 million ($900) in 2009, VND27.8 million in 2010, and VND54 million in 2011.

As being revealed by the tax authorities, the highest tax that a top male singer in Vietnam paid in 2011 was only VND373 million ($18,000). The tax office did not accept that figure and asked the singer to declare his income again. Finally, he paid up to VND773 million ($33,000) of tax.

A folk singer declared personal income tax of only VND13.3 million ($600) in 2009 but the tax authorities requested her to declare income again. She had to pay additional tax of up to VND400 million ($20,000).

Ms. Le Thi Thu Huong ? Vice Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tax Bureau ? said in the past four years, the bureau assigned district tax departments to manage the collection of personal income tax of artists and this form of management did not work well. The bureau is collecting information of the income of artists in collaboration with show organizers, night clubs, etc.

T. Van

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Source: http://talkvietnam.com/2013/04/celebrities-earn-high-income-pay-low-tax/

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Source: Case being built against ex-Texas official

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Texas authorities investigating the killing of a district attorney and his wife are working to build a case against a former justice of the peace prosecuted last year by the slain official's office, a law enforcement official said Monday.

Eric Lyle Williams, 46, was arrested over the weekend and remains jailed on a charge of making a terroristic threat. He is being held on $3 million bond.

Authorities allege he emailed an anonymous threat to law officers from his personal computer one day after Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found dead in their home on March 30. The email implied that if authorities didn't respond to various demands, there'd be another attack, according to a probable cause affidavit released by the sheriff's office.

Williams' arrest came after federal and local agents investigating the couple's deaths searched Williams' home and a storage facility, and investigators are now focused on trying to build a case against him, according to the law enforcement official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.

The official said at least 20 weapons found in Williams' storage locker are being tested by ballistics experts. A Ford Crown Victoria similar to one seen and video recorded in the McLellands' neighborhood on the day they died also was found at the locker, the official said.

A state law enforcement official spent two-and-half hours visiting with the storage facility's manager Monday. The official went into the manager's office with a small black duffel bag and left with the bag as well as what appeared to be several documents. The manager, Larry Mathis, declined to comment after the meeting.

The storage locker is located in Seagoville, about 15 miles west of Williams' home, where two signs on the front doors Monday instructed media seeking comment to contact David Sergi, Williams' attorney in the theft case. However, a woman who answered the phone at Sergi's office said he would not have any comment on the case Monday.

Authorities have said little about their investigation into the McLellands' deaths and have not named any suspects. Previous possible culprits mentioned included a white supremacist prison gang known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, which had been targeted by a task force that included McLelland's office.

Two others have been arrested for making terroristic threats during the investigation into the slayings, but authorities said they had no connection to the deaths.

The McLellands were killed about two months after one of McLelland's prosecutors, Mark Hasse, was slain outside the local courthouse. McLelland and Hasse both participated in last year's prosecution of Williams on charges he stole three computer monitors from an office building.

Williams has said he submitted to gunshot residue tests and turned over his cellphone after both McLelland and Hasse were found dead.

Both prosecutors gave closing arguments before a jury convicted Williams last March. They questioned his character and suggested he was prone to threatening others. Williams received two years' probation, but lost his position as justice of the peace ? an elected judicial officer who typically handles smaller civil and administrative matters ? as well as his law license.

Williams has appealed the verdict, and on March 29 ? one day before the McLellands were found dead ? a state appeals court in Dallas agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.

___

Associated Press video journalist John L. Mone contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/source-case-being-built-against-ex-texas-official-182858068.html

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