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> Amazon (or more accurately, the purchaser) should be paying all sales taxes in the state where the purchaser lives, period. Seems cut and dried to me. If the

by anamax 15y ago

> Amazon (or more accurately, the purchaser) should be paying all sales taxes in the state where the purchaser lives, period. Seems cut and dried to me. If the corner store has to run sales tax, Amazon should too. Actually, the "corner store" doesn't have to collect sales tax. The "corner store" collects sales tax for the jurisdiction it is in. (Car dealers are an exception because of licensing.) CA says that its residents owe sales tax on anything that they use within the state. For example, if a CA resident walks into a store in Nevada, buys something, and takes said something back to CA, CA thinks that it is owed sales tax. I've never seen a Nevada store collect CA sales tax for sales to CA residents. I've never even seen someone suggest that said store has an obligation to collect CA sales tax. Why is Amazon different? And yes, most Nevada stores will ship.

jbooth 15y ago
Amazon's different because they're bigger than a rounding error, basically. The principle is "same amount of taxes for everyone". I don't live in California but if I did, I wouldn't be huge on the idea of tax-disadvantaging local businesses against out of state businesses.
- phirephly 15y ago
  Then pursue the customers and force them to actually report their rightful use-tax when they file their taxes at the end of the year. Amazon isn't not collecting CA sales tax because they think it shouldn't be paid. They're not collecting the sales tax because they have no legal requirement to.
- calloc 15y ago
  Except that they are not... a book on Amazon may cost $10 and a book at your local Borders may cost $10. At your local borders sales tax gets collected, and the book ends up costing $13. When you purchase it on Amazon you pay $10, and are then supposed to declare that you bought the book and pay a Use Tax. That Use Tax for a $10 is $3. You as a consumer are now obligated to pay the state $3. Having a business collect sales tax for a state it has no presence in is not in accordance with federal law, and California law does not apply due to interstate commerce laws. Thus there is no way to force Amazon to collect tax for sales to California residents. -- Go tell the consumers to pay taxes for all of the stuff they have bought, it is the consumers who should be paying the taxes and aren't.

by anamax 15y ago

jbooth 15y ago

Amazon's different because they're bigger than a rounding error, basically. The principle is "same amount of taxes for everyone". I don't live in California but if I did, I wouldn't be huge on the idea of tax-disadvantaging local businesses against out of state businesses.

phirephly 15y ago
Then pursue the customers and force them to actually report their rightful use-tax when they file their taxes at the end of the year. Amazon isn't not collecting CA sales tax because they think it shouldn't be paid. They're not collecting the sales tax because they have no legal requirement to.
calloc 15y ago
Except that they are not... a book on Amazon may cost $10 and a book at your local Borders may cost $10. At your local borders sales tax gets collected, and the book ends up costing $13. When you purchase it on Amazon you pay $10, and are then supposed to declare that you bought the book and pay a Use Tax. That Use Tax for a $10 is $3. You as a consumer are now obligated to pay the state $3. Having a business collect sales tax for a state it has no presence in is not in accordance with federal law, and California law does not apply due to interstate commerce laws. Thus there is no way to force Amazon to collect tax for sales to California residents. -- Go tell the consumers to pay taxes for all of the stuff they have bought, it is the consumers who should be paying the taxes and aren't.