Amazon plays hardball with state taxers

Orange County Register ^ | 2-15-11 | Jan Norman

[freedombiz]

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs in 2010 sent Amazon a bill for $269 million in taxes plus penalties and interest for sales made through Amazon to Texas residents from 2005 to 2009, the Statesman.com reports.

Amazon responded this month by announcing it will close its physical presence in Texas and take 119 jobs with it. That presence is a warehouse that is one of 52 fulfillment centers the Seattle-based online retail giant maintains. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot force online and mail order retailers to collect sales tax in states where it has no stores, warehouses or other physical presence

[freedombiz]

States desperate to balance their budgets are again going after people who shop on the Internet and the retailers who serve them.

[wally_bert]

Corporate Atlas starting to shrug? I would love to see some of these CEOs tell the greedy gov’t types no more.

[Migraine]

Fails constitutional muster, I think. Definitely ex-post facto; probably bill of attainder as well.

Nice try. I didn’t say “admirable” try.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I shop at Amazon and love the fact that I pay no tax and get free shipping.

I hope that doesn’t change.

[NoLibZone]

Walmart must be pushing to stop Amazon.

[mbs6]

I don’t shop at Amazon. They make profits on selling books about the virtues of pedophilia, among other disgusting topics.

[farmguy]

If I understand what I read about this in the local (FW) rag, the state refuses to release details of the audit that came up with the amount due.

[wally_bert]

I love Amazon. Pricing and shipping are usually very good for no moe than I do. Selling is also way easier and better than Ebay.

[PastorBooks]

Were they made aware of those titles?

Amazon will sell anything with a barcode on it. I am going to have a book published in the next few months through Lulu.com, an on-demand print shop, and most of their titles are sold through Amazon. Much of Amazon’s stuff is actually coming from third-party companies.

If Amazon were to get complaints, I would imagine Amazon would pay attention. They may not have any idea what they are selling.

Do you have any more details?

[Lemondropkid31]

They pulled that book months ago. They no longer sell it. They don’t do a review of everything they sell, however they did call the book free speech, which is what I didn’t like, but because of the outrage over the book, they pulled it.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I check Amazon’s website regularly, and I like shopping there. I’m fond of the black and white Perry Mason TV series from the 50’s, and I bought all of them from Amazon. Over the years I bought so many books and other things there. I consider them to be reputable.

[Sarajevo]

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs

Way to go, skippy. Gov.Goodhair has to take stimulus dollars to balance his budget, and now you're putting Texans out of work.

[wally_bert]

I have most of the Perry Masons myself. As a lad of the 70s and part of the 80s, it was one of my favorite shows then and now.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I have most of the Perry Masons myself. As a lad of the 70s and part of the 80s, it was one of my favorite shows then and now.

Watching Perry Mason is a great escape from Barak Obama. Plus I enjoy seeing all those beautiful cars and life as it was in the 50's...

[hinckley buzzard]

Ultimately Amazon and similar entities will be situated offshore, along with the jobs they create, and the profits they earn. Gubmint is a pig which always learns the hard way.

[2001convSVT]

Well Said “NO MORE”!

[hopespringseternal]

If I understand what I read about this in the local (FW) rag, the state refuses to release details of the audit that came up with the amount due.

Kinda reminds me of a friend who went through an IRS audit. The chick running the audit let him know right up front that it was all hers, she was just there to let him know how much of HER money she was going to let him keep. Treated him like dirt the whole time.

On the other hand I had a friend who was an IRS special agent. His job was actually going after people who ran. He was the polar opposite.

In this case, the comptroller is just trying to shake down businesses to make up a budget shortfall. While Texas is one of the better states, I still think Amazon will do things of lot more value with the money than the state.

[Dayman]

Texas is trying to play fast and loose with their tax laws. There are some important details missing from this news story. Amazon has their distribution centers set up as a different corporate entity then their sales entities. Their sales entity is based in OR if I'm not mistaken, but they have distribution centers all over the country. Sales taxes are only owed on Internet purchases if your purchase an item from a business with a sales entity in your state so only people in OR owe taxes on items purchased directly from Amazon. Nothing is purchased from the distribution centers, items are only shipped from there with no compensation from one entity to the other. That way Amazon doesn't have to deal with a bunch of different tax jurisdictions. States taxing Internet purchases that occurred through interstate commerce would be unconstitutional, anyway. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 5 of the Constitution says simply: "No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state." States can try to get sales tax out of interstate purchases, but they're SOL.

[texas booster]

Actually, I understand that a company needs a presence in a state before it can be taxed on sales, Internet or otherwise.

A distribution center would seem to qualify as a warehouse, and thus a presence, triggering the tax liability.

Once a company adds in-state, home based sales reps they become liable for sales tax collection. I would expect the same treatment for distribution centers.

[US_MilitaryRules]

You know, they also sell a lot of christian books to! WOW!!!