Moby Lives alerted me to the existence of this Forbes editorial that was published over the weekend:
Are Amazon.com’s days as a haven for sales-tax shirking shoppers numbered?
Retail analyst David Strasser, a managing director at Janney Montgomery Scott, suggests that they could be. “There’s a lot of momentum building,’’ he said Friday. “(Amazon founder) Jeff Bezos has built a company strategically around avoiding sales tax. But they’re going to have to deal with this,” he added.
Wait a minute. Hasn’t Amazon successfully fended off pesky state tax collectors for 16 glorious years? Yes, but the battle has entered a new stage as Amazon builds warehouse/fulfillment centers in more locations, states grow hungrier for revenue, and a rising sales tax rate (it now averages 9.64% nationwide) puts retailers who do collect tax at an ever bigger disadvantage.
The pressure is building on Amazon.com nationwide, and for good reason: The lack of sales tax on internet sales was an important part of internet retail growth, but now that it’s become an essential part of our lives, it’s time for online retailers to start paying their fair share.
Isnt there a decades old law that forbids the taxing of phone based catalog orders?
Okay, but isn’t sales tax the most regressive tax there is? Maybe Amazon should pay some form of corporate tax instead? Oh, right. This is America, where corporations don’t pay taxes and real people are expected to make up the shortfall out of their wages.
OR we could abandon stupid regressive sales taxes and switch to a proper progressive graduated income tax.
Or local governments could just enforce the laws they already have on the books, which require the purchasers to pay use taxes on the items they buy. But no, politicians can’t piss off Joe and Jane Overspender by dinging them for unpaid taxes on the shake weight they bought on Amazon or eBay because they might not vote for you next election. What this situation calls for is job security through more laws and regulation.
@ 2
You do realize when you raise taxes on corporations, they turn around and raise the price of their products that you buy, right? If you raise taxes on corporations, they don’t suddenly decide they’ll be less profitable – they pass it on to you. So it would come out of ‘real people’s’ wages anyway.
Point being: what three said. Also luxury and status taxes.
@2: I know! What’s a good liberal to do? On the one hand, sales taxes are regressive. On the other hand, a big company is getting an advantage over local retailers.
For states where Amazon genuinely doesn’t have a presence (skip the affiliate debate for now, please), I’m not at all sure that they have a “fair share” to pay. Where they’ve built a business around not using local infrastructure, and where UPS and their customers are paying taxes and all, it seems weird to try to tax them.
Where they do have distribution centers, I don’t buy the “independent entity” argument at all. If that stands, then local should should be able to set up independent entities that only hand the goods over the counter and therefore not pay sales tax. It’s stupid.
But I am all for states making the choice between jobs and taxes. If a state wants to encourage Amazon to open a distribution center by agreeing not to collect sales tax, more power to ’em.
@5 that actually is a myth.
Try reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations or any first year Economics text – depends on the Demand and Supply curves.
Taxes are paid by corporations to a percentage depending on the slope.
Next Rightwing America-hating Fallacy?
@5,
Take Econ 101, and get back to us on that, dipshit.
NO worries folks, just bought $2500 worth of Mac stuff from adorama.com….. free shipping, no tax.
@9 wrong. You’re not paying the tax you owe, otherwise known as Tax Avoidance.
Not the same as paying no tax. Tax is due.
@4: And just how would you enforce that?
So…..then whats that sales tax they charge already? I bought a $50 gift and got charged 4 in taxes.
” otherwise known as Tax Avoidance.”
Oh nos Will, please don’t turn me in!
@12, you’re a Washington resident; they have to charge you sales tax. But they don’t charge me.
Not impressed, Paul. Their “fair share?” That “fair share” just gets passed on to us in the form of higher prices. I don’t care if you’re talking about a sales tax or a corporate tax, it ultimately ends up on the head of the consumer.
Buy more online, folks. Never bow down and ask the state for permission to conduct commerce.
Why sure fell off the clue wagon there. Right, we ordinary people in the US don’t pay enough taxes so that the Corps can pay none.
Right, take away the advantage that mail-order companies, and customers not being properly served by local businesses (and so have to wait for purchases) have always had.
Governor Walker would be proud of that thought.