Amazon Supports a Bill Forcing Online Shoppers to Pay Sales Tax

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[Perdogg]

The days of skirting around having to pay retail sales tax by shopping online may be coming to a close—and Amazon, of all companies, is supporting the effort.

Online retailer Amazon.com has a long history of fighting requirements for shoppers to pay their local state sales tax whenever a purchase is made via the Internet. Most recently, Amazon has been battling it out with California, which has been trying to force Amazon and other online retailers with ties to the state to collect sales tax on purchases.

[GeronL]

When a company gets big enough, they always seem to join the establishment.

[Rome2000]

They did add free streaming of many TV series and movies in their Prime service.

Their streaming service sucks, to get it you have to pay for Amazon Prime at $79.00 a year

Anything remotely interesting they charge $1.99 for on top.

Netflix you pay $7.99 and all of the same shows you get for no additional charge.

[Ciexyz]

Get your books and DVDs from your library or its interlibrary loan program.

[wally_bert]

Almost all of my Craigslist peddling has been good to pleasant but never had a bonus like that and I do some IT break fix for people. My customers are mostly seasoned citizens from church.

[GeronL]

Now people are all going to want copies of that list. :p

[boop]

Screw this! WHO gets the “tax”? The State? What if it’s from a state that has no sales tax? Then let me guess... the FEDERAL government? Once this door is opened, there is NO turning back. A few bucks here at the beginning, and soon EVERYTHING is taxed. And it will never be undone. Similar to the income tax. At first it got those greedy bastards who made $100,000 per year. In 1913 dollars. At 1%. Soon, surprise, everyone over 33K/yr pays it. In 2011 dollars, which amounts to about a guy in 1913 who made $1500 per year.

[Scutter]

I don’t think that is it at all. Jeff Bezos would prefer that there was no such law, but they looked at the situation and decided that it was inevitable. They support this law because it at least makes the process of calculating the taxes simple and straightforward.

[af_vet_rr]

I don’t think that is it at all. Jeff Bezos would prefer that there was no such law, but they looked at the situation and decided that it was inevitable. They support this law because it at least makes the process of calculating the taxes simple and straightforward.

I wonder if Bezos is playing a game of chicken and is hoping that by coming out in support of this and generating a lot of attention, that it will raise consumer anger at Congress/states over this issue and force Congress to back off for a while, or pass a bill to delay discussion of it.

[right tech]

I agree , this will kill amazon and ebay. One of the main reason I go there , save on tax.

[rikkir]

I don’t disagree with you but there are a lot of forces aligned against us.
There are both Republicans and Democrats in support of this, along with almost all of the big Brick and Mortar stores. Let me tell you, it’s hard to get in a fist fight with Wal Mart. They have deep pockets,and there are a lot of legislators with their hands in them.
They are going to collect the tax nationally, and then dole it back out to the states (Anyone believes this will ever happen, I have a bridge for sale).
Amazon is getting hit on this hard, because we are the biggest. I’m not kidding when I say Jeff Bezos has been fighting this. It was a very public and ugly fight in CA over the last few months, in which it was reported that there were threats from both sides that Amazon just wouldn’t sell to anyone in CA any longer. Try and wrap your brain around that one.
Bottom line is Jeff Bezos has put up a brave fight, and I am proud of him, and I completely understand his point on this. If you know you’re not going to win the fight, find the most painless way to lose.

[Segovia]

My neighbor told me this morning that the state that I live in, mainly because you can’t move a family farm, (Pennsylvania) sent him a letter last month informing him that he was responsible for paying the state taxes on all the tobacco products that he had bought from an Indian reservation. (This was in the thousands of dollars) They knew every carton he had ordered. The seller had a notice posted that buyers information was never revealed. But the state knew down to the last cigarette. If they can do that with tobacco, they can do it with anything. Greedy bastards!! Last summer I bought a new tractor from the Kubota dealer across the state line, I’m expecting a call from the state dept. of revenue. It hardly seems fair. I buy lots across the state lines, because where I live I don’t get any of those great state “services” that my PA taxes pay for, why they hell should they only think of me when they want money?

[Scutter]

I wonder if Bezos is playing a game of chicken and is hoping that by coming out in support of this and generating a lot of attention, that it will raise consumer anger at Congress/states over this issue and force Congress to back off for a while, or pass a bill to delay discussion of it.

That's definitely a possibility, but I don't think it is likely. They tried something similar when they shut down all Amazon affiliates in California (after California passed a sales tax law) - didn't work.

[Gene Eric]

Assuming it’s a federal bill, the federal legislatures should bug off concerning interstate issues of state level tax revenue.

[potlatch]

Ping of interest.

[Bellflower]

Maybe they see it as the handwriting on the wall and are just trying, at this time, to cover their backside. The Obama cartel's agenda may seem very stifling to just about any business owner. If Obama and more dems gets out (very hopefully) he may change his tune, providing it isn't too late.

[cynwoody]

I am against taxes, but I have to to note that the bill levels the playing field because small business owners were at a disadvantage compared to amazon.

Actually, the little guys fly under the radar. They can fill all of the out of state orders they can get without worrying about whether they have a nexus in any of the states except their own. But being huge and wanting to build an efficient nation-wide distribution network, Amazon increasingly loses that luxury. They are the target of all those parasitic state governments. And now that those states are leaning heavily on Amazon, Amazon wants to level the playing field by screwing the little guys as well.

No big deal, except I buy stuff from those little guys ...

[1_Rain_Drop]

I live in NY. Amazon has been adding sales tax to all purchases no matter what State they’re originating from. They’ve been doing this for the past 3 (?) years. Anything entering NYS is taxed. The end destination is taxed not the place of origin.

Now that they’re owned by Amazon, W00t charges sales tax even though they’re in Texas. No fun paying sales tax on a BOC.

[devolve]

.

This will lead to “barter” and “swap”

.gov will attempt to tax that too

Then it beomes “gift” or “taken as trash to the dump” as a favor

.gov is hungry

feed .gov

CraigsList has many unreliable sellers - BEWARE

.

all of .gov is overpaid and corrupt and is involved in insider trading - they exept themselves - they write the laws and sit on the committees

Mafia Princess Nancy Pelosi is to be exposed on 60 Minutos this Sunday night I believe

non-politicians go to prison for that

Even Martha Stewart did

Meanwhile known tax-cheats like (D) US Secretary of Treasury Turbo-Tax Timmy Geithner and (D-NY) Charlie “Red” Rangle keep writing tax laws or regulating and living free and high on the hog

Slick Willie never paid a penny of taxes on the millions of dollars of ‘gifts’ and ‘pay to play’ stuff he collected in a huge White House room - including custom engraved firearms, sculptures, paintings, antique furniture, and — cash in the bag (Monica Lewinski was not taxable - but the pizza was !!!)

GOOGLE Search : : “The blood of tyrants and patriots”

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[CaptSkip]

I love Amazon Prime. I hate Magazine Time.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Perdogg.