Posted on 10/25/2010 9:44:06 AM PDT by epithermal
According to Amazon, last month the state of Texas issued the company an assessment of $269 million for uncollected sales taxes for a four year period from Dec. 2005 to Dec. 2009. Amazon says the assessment is "without merit" and says it intends to "vigorously defend" itself in the matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at techflash.com ...
Amazon.com has a brick and mortar or other physical presence within Texas?
Amazon.com has a brick and mortar or other physical presence within Texas?
http://www.statesman.com/business/texas-seeks-269-million-in-sales-tax-from-987685.html
Texas seeks $269 million in sales tax from Amazon
By Barry Harrell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 10:13 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, 2010
snip
Amazon, which is based in Seattle, has a distribution center in the Dallas suburb of Irving.
Because of that physical presence, Amazon is supposed to collect sales taxes on transactions in Texas, under a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But the world’s biggest online retailer has not done so in Texas.
Other companies with stores or other operations in Texas do collect tax on online sales, including Sears, J.C. Penney and Dell Inc.....
In a statement e-mailed Friday to the American-Statesman, R.J. DeSilva, spokesman for the comptroller’s office, said that Amazon “has requested a redetermination, which means this is an ongoing audit and could be decided as part of the administrative hearings process.”
DeSilva said state law prevented the comptroller’s office from commenting further as the investigation continues.
Amazon’s Irving facility has a taxable value of about $33 million, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District’s website.
end snips
let’s hear some more about how conservative texas is
They have/had a subsidiary owning a distribution center in Irving (I think). That subsidiary just happens to have the same corporate address as Amazon itself does. Amazon is walking on very, very thin ice on its claim that it doesn’t owe sales tax.
Amazon headquarters is based in Seatle, WA.
If a Texan goes to Seattle and purchases a hotel room, does he owe Texas taxes on that room? Or if he buys clothes, jewelry, rents a car, buys furniture, electronics or anything else? Nope.
If I order clothes through mail order, phone or have a friend ship me goods, no taxes are collected.
This sounds like nothing more than a state government shake-down, on a successful (and therefore ‘evil’) company.
They have a distribution center in Irving, according to the article.
Yes the have a facility in Irving Tx and other states as well in which they don’t collect taxes.......
Snip
In a study last year, Michael Mazerov, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington D.C., found that Amazon has warehouses in at least six states in which it doesn’t charge sales tax on its own sales. “What Texas has done is evidence that the states are losing patience—particularly when there is very aggressive tax avoidance behavior like Amazon has exhibited with its warehouses,” he said.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304354104575568512331020710.html#ixzz13HV50Dpi
The Texas Comptroller's Office has been looking at whether Amazon's distribution center in Irving, Tex. gives the company a physical presence, or "nexus," in the state, which would require it to collect sales tax, according to a series of reports in The Dallas Morning News.
Shouldn't the Comptroller determine whether there is merit BEFORE assessing taxes?
well, there you go, utterly destroying my argument, by introducing some essential facts. God Bless Texas. Go get your money, plus penalties.
If Texas is successful here, look for Amazon to only have distribution centers in states with no sales tax.
The Texas Controller will be successful in killing several hundred jobs in Irving, which will move to a 0% sales tax state.
Is this saying that Amazon should collect sales taxes for all 50 states?
Or just assess taxes on sales made to Texans?
I don’t see a problem if Texas wants a Texas company to collect taxes on products sold to Texans.
This is interesting.
Where does the actual sales transaction take place? Washington or Texas?
Buyers are supposed to self-report internet purchases. How does Texas know they haven’t already collected these taxes?
What does that mean?
The whole state sales tax mess is a fiasco just waiting to happen. I work for an online retailer. For years state gov’ts have been threatening to tax ALL internet purchases. It would be a logistical and bookkeeping nightmare if we were to have to collect sales tax (at different rates for each state) from different states. And who would we pay that money to...would we have to send 50 checks to 50 states to meet the requirements. If the money is deposited in a “tax repository”...then who divides it up and decides how much each state gets.
We sell some of our products through Amazon but the sale is actually from us, we just pay Amazon a fee (akin to selling something on Ebay) so is Texas seeking to collect tax on the products that Amazon really isn’t “selling” in the truest sense of the word. For many companies they are more a broker, not an actual seller. Or does that mean that we have a physical presence in the states that Amazon has a physical presence? The definition of a “physical presence” is bound to get tricky in this day and age.
Some of the pressure on online internet retailers comes from traditional brick and mortar establishments. Well my company has a traditional brick and mortar showroom, but we have a website too. And for those retailers that are squawking that the internet offers unfair advantage, I say, get a website of your own and compete in ecommerce with the rest of us.
Just to make your day, Missouri has over 1800 taxing political subdivisions and special districts.
Talk about unworkable, jeez!
“let’s hear some more about how conservative texas is”
Must be all those Californians that moved there!
“If a Texan goes to Seattle and purchases a hotel room, does he owe Texas taxes on that room? Or if he buys clothes, jewelry, rents a car, buys furniture, electronics or anything else? Nope.”
The Texan didn’t consume or use the product in Texas so no, he should not owe taxes on it. If he buys something out of state then brings it into the state to consume then technically he owes taxes on the value of the goods unless it’s specifically exempted by state law. Buy a car out of state and then bring it to Texas and see how long you can get by without paying taxes on it.
True, in my state, for instance, different counties have different sales tax rates. This already causes us issues in collecting taxes from our state alone...as you said, what if it was duplicated across 50 states.
Inconceivable!!!
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