Posted on 11/12/2011 7:39:16 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyland.time.com ...
they support it to screw their competition and the consumer
Of course. The big corporations always support legislation that makes it difficult for smaller competitors.
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.
Agreed. First, the exemption from sales tax for amazon destroyed their competitors who had to pay sales tax. Now that amazon is well entrenched, smaller players in the online arena will be the ones who get destroyed with the new legislation. It is a mess.
I order from Amazon all the time. I even pay the 25 dollars a year so that i can have shipping and handling “free” for the year.....a great deal for me and others as long as you order a lot from them. My only concern with this sales tax thing is that you don’t screw up a good thing. Netflix has learned this the hard way. Hopefully Amazon does not have to learn a hard lesson for being stupid.
Well gee, ain’t it grand? We get to pay more to the state government than we already do. And the Republicans in the house and senators like Enzi helped them screw us some more.
I’m in a state supposedly run by Republicans. They will gladly take any tax the feds tell them is available and go back to mouthing their anti-tax lies.
The solution is to cut government and get rid of all such taxes, not just for amazon.
I sympathize with smaller sellers, and I try to support my own local businesses whenever possible, but when money’s tight, what are you going to do? I went to a local auto supply and paid $36 plus tax for two windshield wipers I could have bought from Amazon for $20, tax free, shipped free in 2 days—and often they ship it overnight for free.
But I know this can’t last for Amazon. They see the future, and it’s endless litigation with tax-hungry states. I guess they feel they need to bite the bullet and roll with the punches.
Well, I guess you could say that, as well as the opposite. I don’t like it either, but an objective analysis would question why a retailer who invests in your community by creating a physical presence (brick and mortar), hiring employees, maintaining an inventory of demo merchandise, etc is penalized vs. an online retailer that doesn’t do any of these things. Amazon is in the position now of selectively collecting and paying sales taxes, and I’m thinking their motivation here is to “flatten” the tax by making it apply to everyone everywhere.
Of course the other alternative would be to eliminate sales taxes everywhere, but that’s not going to happen.
Generally I hate whining about “It’s not fair!” - but having talke to a number of small business owners, in this case it’s true. Amazon knows it will still get it’s share, especially since charging taxes across the board will lower their costs.
I won’t give up on Amazon because greedy states are making it impossible for them to do business. It’s not their fault; they’ve fought it as long as they reasonably can. Even with tax, their prices are still far better than brick and mortar, and the value of time saved by shopping online is incalculable. I can order a pair of shoes or a book in less time than it would take me to look for my car keys. As long as Jeff Bezos runs Amazon, I’ll stick with it.
what is this 25 dollar fee? For a year? I shop amazon all the time, but I only know about the super save shipping.. sounds great.
You get Amazon Prime for $25.00 per year? I pay $79.00.
Oh yes. It is called Amazon Prime and you pay a 25 dollar fee and for the entire 365 or 364 days you receive everything else with zero postage. I love it.
Really? Under Amazon Prime?
Gosh. I hope that when my year is up that they haven’t raised the price. Even if they do though I would buy it. Even 79 dollars is a steal as long as you buy a lot. I need to see what changed.
That's a student rate, is it not? I believe you need an email with .edu in order to qualify. We got that price for a year because we have a daughter in college.
I think that’s the plan in the long run.
Make it so people’s only option is to buy on line, which helps foriegn
sellers.
Make it so all people have to have a checking account
from the Government bank to do any business at all. Cash is out.
This will hurt Amazon more than they think. Be prepared.
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