It is great to see Amazon doing this but I am shocked that it is Texas of all places.
Kind of an odd position for Washington-based Amazon. Their HQ is here and they collect sales taxes for the business that they conduct within the state.
How is this different from their business in Texas?
The politicians don’t seem to grasp the idea that with modern shipping and logistics, a company like Amazon can pick and choose where it wants to do business.
Impressive that they can make a change like this in two months. Doesn’t say where they are going.
“Hide your wallets, Boys, the legislature’s back in session.” Mark Twain
Shipping is always the same price, and now I won't have to pay sales tax when I buy from Amazon.
And the morons in Austin might catch a whiff of a clue about how the mortal enemy of commerce is taxation.
If any company has a physical presence in a state, they must impose sales tax on shipments within that state. Period - all 57 states require that.
It’s up to Texas to show Amazon how they came up with that amount due.
Sounds like Amazon made a big mistake by locating it’s property in Texas. Maybe it could have serviced it’s southwest customers from a low population (low customer count) state like New Mexico, to allow it to ship into much bigger Texas tax free.
Yet, it still seems to me that with all the states and municipalities clamoring for more tax money, it seems like an opportune time to study the effect that across the board taxation on e-commerce transactions would have on that business model.
I’d sure rather have some other guy pay internet sales tax to help level the playing field with brick and mortar locations; rather than me get hit with more property taxes because the state defunds local school assistance in order for it to pay its bloated pension obligations.
Good for Amazon. If more American businessmen would show a spine when persecuted by Big Brother, we might still enjoy a little liberty in the US.
From the Austin statesman article.
“Under a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision, that physical presence means Amazon potentially could be forced by the state to collect sales tax on transactions in Texas, according to legal experts.”
No more taxes.
Okay, Amazon, move to California and see how you like it.
Love Amazon.
Very consumer friendly.
Stand up against the takers!
There’s alot going on here potentially.
1. Amazon probably got expert advice before the move and it turned out wrong.
2. There’s a shift to on-line commerce, much of which avoids collecting sales tax if the shipper is out of state. This is legally incorrect. Tax is due based on ship to location, and should be paid to the state by the receiver if the shipper fails to collect it.
3. The shipper is better able to collect and remit taxes than the receiver. Plus the govenment can regulate business behavior than consumer.
4. So it’s not Texas, it’s all the states shipped to from the facility who are losing out.
5. I expect that this loophole will be closed in the next 5 years and we’ll pay tax on on-line transactions regardless of ship from location. First domestically then later international.
I hate how government has become oppressive and large, but also hate loopholes, whether in my favor or not.
Good for Amazon.
TX, beware. One only has to look at CA to see where the taxation path leads.
Taxation is just lawful shakedown policy.
Either TX will change teier law in a New York second or Amazon will vote with its feet, jobs and money.
Technology should be on the brink of forcing government to take their taxation policies and stuff them, but the taxation death rattle is still a long way off due to social policy. Social policy???!! How in the hell did we let the government get to a point of making and enforcing social policy????!!!
Wonder if they’d do better from Mexico.
Obama gave a 50Bln dollar tax credit for the Union run GM.
Reagan was right - government is the problem. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
Sales tax on internet sales has been a growing issue around the country. Amazon is being challenged by others including North Carolina, Rhode Island, Colorado. Texas sent them a bill for $269 million last fall.
Does Sears, Penneys and other major retailers charge a sales tax or collect that sales tax for online/catalog sales? Interesting debate beginning on the subject across the nation.
It’s good to see Amazon shirking their corporate duty?
Interesting... did Al Capone getting taken down bother you also?
Keep the Internet tax free. It is America’s Hong Kong.
The net effect will be to break the back of big government on the state and local level. Replace blanket taxation with user fees and privatization.
A tax free Internet is liberties best friend.
Good for Amazon. This is the way all businesses should respond to government tyranny.
Think I’ll order a book and a DVD to show my appreciation.
I wish all companies had the balls that amazon does. They fight all the way down to the wire with states, and then if the states acts stupidly anyway, they just close out all operations in those states. That’s the way all companies should behave.