“”Amazon.com has a brick and mortar or other physical presence within Texas?””
As an owner of a bookstore for about 10 years whgo closed due to the online competition, this is a sore subject with me. Amazon should have been paying sales tax all along.
The reason, they have an agency program where they pay commissions to people who are located in those states. Thus they have representation and are therefor subject to the sales tax. I have gone through many sales tax audits with clients, even several out of state sales tax audits for in stae sales delivered out of state. The requirement is not a “bricks & mortor” qualification. It is representation.
Rhino (Warner Bros.) charged me 13% sales tax to a shipment in Texas. Our sales tax tops out at 8.25%.
Think they hit me for Texas AND California sales tax?
I asked them for the justification for this rate that exceded Texas’ own but they gave no response.