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Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

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Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#31

Post by evgen »

jhgfdsahgf wrote: post #30
Kaizyn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The states get around this by insisting that companies doing business in their state must collect sales tax on state residents.

Easy way around it - all deliveries to Texas are shipped from an Amazon warehouse in New mexico and, deliveries in NM are shipped from Arizona etc. All the orders are taken by Amazon Bermuda.

It does not matter where you ship from, if you have a "presence" in the state you get dinged for sales tax on sales to residents in the state (or at least that is what TX and a lot of other states are claiming...)

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#32

Post by jhgfdsahgf »

evgen wrote: post #31
jhgfdsahgf wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy way around it - all deliveries to Texas are shipped from an Amazon warehouse in New mexico and, deliveries in NM are shipped from Arizona etc. All the orders are taken by Amazon Bermuda.

It does not matter where you ship from, if you have a "presence" in the state you get dinged for sales tax on sales to residents in the state (or at least that is what TX and a lot of other states are claiming...)

But the warehouse in Texas will be owned by Amazon(texas) inc and the delivery was from a completely separate company Amazon(NM) - they all happen to be owned by Amazon(Bermuda)

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#33

Post by netcan »

jedberg wrote: post #25
potatolicious wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but be sympathetic to local businesses though - lack of sales tax probably pushes a lot of their former customers towards online shopping; and to be fair, it is an unfair playing field (after all, the brick and mortars can't very well stop charging sales tax). I for one order all of my expensive hardware from out of state...

And technically you are committing a crime. It is your responsibility to report use tax to your state for things you buy from out of state.

I'm not from the US so I don't really understand the details.

What this always sounds like to me is that ecommerce broke the American sales tax system. Transferring responsibility to individuals is obviously a nonexistent solution to loose ends that never got tied up because they represented such a small portion of sales. I really don't understand how this will get fixed again without nationalizing sales tax.

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#34

Post by drawkbox »

lrm242 wrote: post #12
Semiapies wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I suspect the state's claim won't stand when it's all hashed out, but that'll probably be after the next election...

Amazon will undoubtedly settle. Texas is trying to close a budget short fall for the next cycle that begins in 2011. Amazon has a distribution center in Texas and Texas believes that means they have a nexus of operations. Amazon disagrees. Texas wants/needs money and Amazon certainly doesn't want the court to rule that they are subject to paying sales tax because their distribution constitutes sufficient operations t…

Good way to help the decision for Amazon where the next distribution center will be built, not in Texas. They are already getting jobs and tax revenue from employees there. They should change Texas to Taxes.

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#36

Post by lfittl »

Figs wrote: post #17
jws wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as there is more than one lawyer on the planet it won't be that simple. Amazon has fulfillment centers in Texas and a subsidiary as well. This may be sufficient to trigger Texas' state sales tax laws.

I wonder how long it will be before all the data centers move to places like the Bahamas...

Though I'd clearly separate data centers and fulfillment centers. Much harder to ship from the Bahamas ;)

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#37

Post by Tangurena »

netcan wrote: post #33
jedberg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And technically you are committing a crime. It is your responsibility to report use tax to your state for things you buy from out of state.

I'm not from the US so I don't really understand the details. What this always sounds like to me is that ecommerce broke the American sales tax system. Transferring responsibility to individuals is obviously a nonexistent solution to loose ends that never got tied up because they represented such a small portion of sales. I really don't understand how this will get fixed again without nationalizing sales tax.

Historically, mail-order purchases were exempted from sales tax - unless the seller had a presence in the state. Before there was the internet, before there was telephone, some retail companies got their start shipping catalogs to rural people. The people would order items via mail, and the items would be shipped via train or mail.

Two of the biggest mail order retailers were Sears and Montgomery Ward. To make sure that customers reached for the Sears catalog first, they made theirs slightly smaller (about 1 cm smaller in width and height) so that the folks in the house would stack the smaller catalog (Sears) on top of the larger one (MW). Those old catalogs had everything: clothes, furniture, tools and even house kits.

The 1897 one even had opium: http://www.amazon.com/1897-Sears-Roebuck-Catalogue-Israel/dp...

Re: Texas sends Amazon a $269M uncollected sales tax bill

#38

Post by Tangurena »

Figs wrote: post #17
jws wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as there is more than one lawyer on the planet it won't be that simple. Amazon has fulfillment centers in Texas and a subsidiary as well. This may be sufficient to trigger Texas' state sales tax laws.

I wonder how long it will be before all the data centers move to places like the Bahamas...

New York is one of the states that treats co-lo as enough of a presence to trigger the "you must now collect sales tax" requirement. I think TN is another.

However, in this case Amazon had at least one warehouse and at least one office in TX.

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