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?
They have to have their HQ somewhere, and I suppose that’s where the top guys want to live. But there’s no reason why a distribution center should be taxed as if it were a retail outlet. Presumably that can be moved to a state that is less troublesome.
The reason Amazon has to fight this is that if they give in to Texas, every other state will jump on them too. But this way, the tax writers may understand that their greed entails a penalty—loss of jobs and income to the state.