Posted on 03/04/2011 3:30:36 PM PST by SmithL
Is Amazon.com getting nervous?
How else to explain its intemperate letter threatening to put more than 10,000 Californians out of work should the state even think about enforcing the collection of unpaid sales taxes on Amazon and other Internet retailers?
"I'm not surprised by what Amazon's done," said Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee. "I think it's their way of getting California to back off."
Support has been growing for legislation, backed by Yee, that would clear the way to collect an estimated $1.145 billion in unpaid taxes that out-of-state online merchants such as Amazon, and catalog houses such L.L. Bean, have thus far successfully evaded.
"If any of these new tax collection schemes were adopted, Amazon would be compelled to end its advertising relationships with well over 10,000 California-based participants in the Amazon 'Associates Program,' " the company wrote to a receptive Republican tax board member, George Runner.
The "associates," or affiliates, get a cut of every sale Amazon makes to customers via a click-through from affiliates' websites.
"Amazon has made it clear to me that the checks they send Californians will be cut off overnight if pending legislation aimed at regulating their operations becomes law," said Runner, one of the elected board's five members.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I agree with your post. When times are tough and liberal Dems are in power, they will go anywhere to get more money.
thanks:) every other poster dumped on my post
“These ‘affiliates’ are simply advertising agents, who get paid a small commission for any sales made by consumers who click through their links and make a purchase on Amazon.”
Have you read the other posts here?
Most think this about sales to Ca. residents.
Thank you for actually understanding the real
issue here.
The sales aren't even to Ca. residents.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2683841/posts?page=30#30
Well... Amazon knows full-well that I am being hounded for the taxes.... They need to change their pricing and business model to be a responsible citizen.
Just my view from my right wing foxhole.
Check out this comment which claims Amazon has a California presence-—>>
Making Amazon collect sales taxes on sales to California customers should not require any special state legislation.
Amazon has a physical presence in California. It has been operating its Kindle R&D subsidiary, Lab126 in Cupertino, Calif. since 2004. I am sure it must have been set up with “Entity Isolation” legal voodoo to get around the “Nexus” issue, but a similar situation didn’t prevent the Texas sales tax authorities from taking aggressive enforcement action against Amazon on account of a similarly setup subsidiary distribution facility in Irving,TX which had been operating for 4 years.
It is worth noting that in Texas, the authorities were unaware about Amazon operating its distribution center in Irving,TX for 4 long years until a vigilant reporter from the Dallas Morning News brought it to their attention.
If similar action is pursued by the California State Board of Equalization, the E-Fairness bills currently being considered by the California Legislature may be superfluous in the case of Amazon whose passage anyway will likely be contentious with vested interests employing familiar “Divide & Rule” tactics and distort the legislation as “New Taxes”.
Concerning Amazon’s threat of cutting its affiliates in Calif., another big state, New York, stood its ground, and Amazon huffed and puffed but now like a sullen brat collects sales taxes for sales to New York customers.
There is no cheating on tax payments here. The only cheating is on tax collection. The Amazon affiliates in California are not selling anything, they’re just advertising for Amazon, yet California wants to charge sales tax to anyone purchasing through those ads, regardless of whether they live in CA or not.
If the CA proposal was to force Amazon to collect sales tax from purchases made by CA residents, then I could see your position, but that is not what is going on here. CA wants CA sales tax collected on a purchase I make from Amazon because I clicked through an ad on a website of a CA resident, even though I live in VA.
I’m kinda not on Amazon’s side here. They are coming off as imperious as in “only suckers pay taxes”
On the otherhand, if CA is patient, they will get the information they need. All your credit card and bank information is going to be shared with IRS and IRS is going to share it with the states. Soon you will get a bill from your state for use tax you have not paid.
My friends and I have a similar conversation about our miniature hobby.
Online retailers get to offer massive discounts, and don’t pay taxes to boot. The brick and mortar stores are going under and nothing is replacing them because they can’t compete. That in turn shrinks the community, which as you can guess, causes more closures.
I love shopping online and saving cash. However, is this type of business going hurt location based retail to the point where there is no physical competition? Leaving only a handful of large international retailers to sell those “got to have it now” purchases may not be a good long term strategy.
These B&M stores provide entry level employment to millions of Americans. (Some even born here and speak English) Without those jobs and experience available to our job market will the work ethic be even worse than it is today if online stores push more small retail sellers out of business?
Any small business owners what to offer their point of view?
I must have missed the part about Amazon collecting the sales tax. First I heard of it.
It would be considered a “Use” tax I suppose. I live in Cali and I know on the state tax forms they ask you if you have bought anything from another state that you are using in Calif if so they want you to pay tax on it. It is ridiculous and a money grab IMO
That's lefty talk if I ever heard it.
You are not commenting from any "right wing foxhole". You're a liar, and I'm calling you on it.
I dont think they are charging the tax I think Yee is asserting by annual revenues how much tax would be due and they want the money if this is the case than Amazon should not have to pay on the otherhand if Amazon is charging the customer sales tax than they need to give the money to California but I do not think they are
What you say may be true but check out Amazon’s longer history of trying to screw states out of taxes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Affiliates#Sales_and_use_taxes
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Amazon is a publicly traded company. Its responsibility is to make money for its shareholders. It's free to trade and free to not trade with anyone it chooses.
... "In the name of the general welfare, to protect the people's security, to achieve full equality and total stability..."Sounds similar to the Fed's charter ...
“Why should local mom and pop cover the high life at Amazon?”
Because the local mom and pop enjoy the benefits these local taxes provide. Any benefits to Amazon are merely tangential.
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