Some Online Retailers Halting Shipments

Retailers began taking necessary steps in the last couple of weeks to protect their employees and customers from the growing spread of the coronavirus by closing their brick-and-mortar stores. Now certain retailers are taking the further step of closing their e-commerce sites as states' stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders are preventing them from fulfilling online orders.

For example, L Brands, parent company of Victoria's Secret, announced that it is halting e-commerce orders for that brand through March 29. Reformation announced it’s closing its Los Angeles factory and distribution center, as a result of California’s “Safer at Home” mandate. Any online orders will not be shipped until distribution centers reopen, the fashion retailer's statement said. And New York-based Marysia announced its online store will be closed indefinitely.

Online Sales Tax Collections Start in New States Today

Sales tax collection statutes and regulations that require online retailers to collect sales tax on online orders from residents of 10 states go into effect today, Oct. 1, 2018.

The statutes and regulations, the details of which vary by state, apply to online retailers that do not have a physical presence in the taxing jurisdiction.

Sales tax collection laws applicable to online retail sales go into effect today in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin. Similar laws will go into effect in Connecticut and Iowa in the coming months.

In deciding the South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. case in June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its previous precedent that required a business to have a physical presence, or nexus, in a state to be subject to local taxes.

32 states have now passed statutes or regulations to require sales tax collection by remote sellers, according to Internet Retailer Magazine and DigitalCommerce360.com, the most-recognized publishing group on e-commerce business intelligence. Internet Retailer and DigitalCommerce360.com explore the online sales tax issue and its impact on online sellers and sales in the October issue of Internet Retailer.

While collection laws are going into effect at the state level, lawsuits challenging states’ moves remain active, and three bills have been introduced in Congress to address the issue. “The roots of the battle over an online sales tax go back decades before the birth of the World Wide Web,” says Zak Stambor, editor of Internet Retailer magazine. “While the Wayfair decision fundamentally alters the playing field, I’m not sure we’re done with the fight over online sales tax.”

Visit Internet Retailer/DigitalCommerce360.com, for deeper coverage of the online sales tax issue.
 

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In Germany, You Can Rate Your Priest Online

On the internet, you can rate your restaurant meal, your make-up, your mechanic and now in Germany your priest.

Hirtenbarometer (http://hirtenbarometer.de) or the "shepherds' barometer" is the first online platform where priests can be rated for their performance at church services, on projects for youths and the elderly, on their credibility and on how up to date they are.

"Pastoral work should be qualitative," Andreas Hahn, one of the founders said of the original idea behind the site, adding they hoped "to stimulate dialogue to improve pastoral work."

Launched in April, the site has been well received by users. "We are overwhelmed by our own success," Hahn said. With 25,000 parishes and some 8,000 priests registered so far and the option to add more, the site's reach is growing.

But while the site has proven a hit with users, reaction from the Roman Catholic church, which has been rocked by abuse allegations in the past year and witnessed a record number of parishioners leaving the church, has been more muted.

Neither the archbishopric in Berlin nor the German conference of bishops wanted to comment on the website.

The Vatican is usually mum or slow to make statements on issues like this.

The protestant church said that it found the rising interest in public feedback as embodied by the hirtenbarometer concept a "positive development," according to a recent press release.

How are the ratings made?  I'm not making this up. Ratings for priests on the site are represented by sheep, whose woolly coats range from white to black to visually express a priest's rating. The pope and other prominent German priests so far sport light to middle grey wool.

Amazon's Christmas Ordering Cutoffs

If you are waiting for the last minute to complete your Christmas shopping, Amazon.com is there for you.

Here is their list of deadlines heading into Christmas:

Order on Amazon