Maybe a more precise wording is "you can be forced to collect tax from others and must pay registration fees to collect said tax by politicians you do not elect and who act knowing you are powerless to object."
While that may be true, it's meaningless. As a tourist, you are also subject to tax that was enacted by representatives you didn't elect. You can choose not to go there, just like a business can choose not to sell to someone who lives there. In California, every city has it's own sales tax, so every city I go to is taxing me without representation.
There are many many cases in the US where you are taxed without a choice of the representatives. You have a choice not to be taxed though, by not going there or doing business there.
I despise Norquist, but I believe the words above are not true in a consequential sense. The law may say 'the state taxes the consumer', but who is meaningfully affected?
The business handles the mechanics of collecting and paying the tax. And whose pocket the tax really comes out of depends on the elasticity of demand, IIRC my economics. That is, it depends on how much the business can raise the price without hurting profits:
If the product is highly price sensitive, something like a can of peas, then the business can't raise the price very much without hurting demand and the tax will effectively come out of the business' profits. If the product is highly price insensitive, such as life-saving drugs, then the cost of the tax will be passed on to the consumer.
The sales tax is collected after the transaction, so price elasticity has nothing to do with it.
What you wrote applies to other things like an increase in rent or property tax, which has to be built into the cost of the product. But it doesn’t apply to sales tax.
I'm not sure what you mean - would you explain? To the degree demand is inelastic, the seller will pass on the cost of the tax to the buyer. The buyer knows what the final bill will be, regardless of when the government collects the tax.
(Also, when I buy things in U.S. states with sales tax, the tax is on the bill and even if it's not part of the advertised price, I expect it and it's part of my purchase decision. People regularly cross state lines to avoid sales tax.)
The business isn't paying the tax though? If the people paying the tax don't want it, they should replace their reps or move to a state that doesn't have that tax.
So we could think of it from the point of the business but that wouldn't be based in fact.
They tried that for 10 years and it didn't work. Very few people pay use tax like they should. But it wasn't cost effective to enforce every individual offender. So now they're trying something different.
Thus forcing the businesses to pay or be punished. The business likely has the option of not passing the cost along to the consumer, but in the end they are the one being forced to pay the state.
No, they are forced into being tax collection agents. But they aren’t being forced. They could just not sell to people in that state if they don’t like it.
For example, at my company, I won’t hire anyone from Kentucky because their employment costs are too high. It’s a choice I get to make. I limit my employee pool but I also avoid costs I don’t like.
Being based in California I can’t choose to follow California tax law or not, but I also get to vote here.
Both you and Cerium are correct. Depending on buyers to collect sales tax from themselves hasn't been working. And forcing someone in a different jurisdiction to do it might not be defensible.