Tennessee - Email from Amazon about Tax (Chattanooga: buy, income)

[Wmsn4Life]

Originally Posted by foxywench

if recal correctly, if its not collected at time of purchase its up to the consumer to "do the right thing" and pay DIRECTLY to the state...
amazon cant bill you months later and go "hey by the way you now owe us this much cause we "forgot" personally i wouldnt be paying anyone naything without talking to my accountant and then id ONLY pay directly to the state.

You don't owe Amazon the use tax. You owe it to the state of TN and would report it to the state. You would pay it on the next tax return unless you qualify for some sort of exemption.

https://apps.tn.gov/usetax/

Tennessee Code T.C.A. § 67-6-5 (f)(3) is the section of state law that addresses this issue.

2014 is when Amazon will be required by the state to collect the tax at the time of purchase, which is new for them. There is a grace period until 2014 while Amazon tries to get federal law on this issue changed. The e-mails are a notification, required by the legislation, that you may owe the use tax, even though as was mentioned earlier, federal changes in the law might make the whole issue moot.

[TN Tin Man]

So if you sell threw Amazon then you would have too contact all your TN sales. With the same statement.

[Wmsn4Life]

Originally Posted by TN Tin Man

So if you sell threw Amazon then you would have too contact all your TN sales. With the same statement.

The onus to collect sales tax is on the Marketplace sellers. Amazon leaves it up to them. Vendors are required to pay the sales tax out of their profits, and most add the charge onto the cost of the item, or they're supposed to. Amazon offers no help with this issue.

[LauraC]

The online tax form is easy enough except Amazon sends you the total amount of your purchases for 2011 and the online tax form asks for dates and amounts. I just plugged in the total amount Amazon gave me with a 12/31/2011 date. The online form calculates the tax for you after you plug in your county.

[donsabi]

I wonder how many people would have ordered from Amazon if they knew they were going to have to pay tax on their purchases. Most of the items Amazon sells is not stocked by them and is sold by a separate business. It is easy enough to buy the same item from another supplier and avoid any tax.

Amazon telling Tennessee customers about owed tax » Knoxville News Sentinel

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by donsabi

I wonder how many people would have ordered from Amazon if they knew they were going to have to pay tax on their purchases. Most of the items Amazon sells is not stocked by them and is sold by a separate business. It is easy enough to buy the same item from another supplier and avoid any tax.

Amazon telling Tennessee customers about owed tax » Knoxville News Sentinel

You're supposed to pay tax on anything you buy.

[HelloWorldItsMe]

After seeing several people say their total for 2011 purchases..I looked at my email from them again..I miss spoke before/read my email wrong. My total is just for 2011. Sorry about that..but my question is..is not everyone getting an email or maybe at different times? I know someone that bought lots of stuff last year/2011 and she has not gotten an email yet. Maybe they are just staggering the emails.

[Beretta]

Originally Posted by HelloWorldItsMe

After seeing several people say their total for 2011 purchases..I looked at my email from them again..I miss spoke before/read my email wrong. My total is just for 2011. Sorry about that..but my question is..is not everyone getting an email or maybe at different times? I know someone that bought lots of stuff last year/2011 and she has not gotten an email yet. Maybe they are just staggering the emails.

They are still in the process of sending emails.

[donsabi]

Originally Posted by Beretta

You're supposed to pay tax on anything you buy.

I am sure that everyone in Tennessee is paying tax on everything they buy on the internet. Isn't that right? You did say "supposed" didn't you?

I remember a related tax story in Bristol TN where a woman purchased a living room set in Bristol Va. She paid the Va tax. After TN officials learned of this they sent her a notice and bill for the TN tax on the same set. She refused to pay the TN tax and the TN tax police threaten to put a lien on her house. The news station did not follow up so I have no idea how this turned out.
Most states have reciprocal agreements that allow a resident to purchase an item in another state paying tax to that state without any liability in the state where they reside. PA and NJ are two.

Most states do not charge a sales tax on internet sales.

It makes you wonder where Gov Haslam is going with this. What's next, maybe craigslist or LSN? Why not farmers markets, flea markets, and garage sales?

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by donsabi

I wonder how many people would have ordered from Amazon if they knew they were going to have to pay tax on their purchases. Most of the items Amazon sells is not stocked by them and is sold by a separate business. It is easy enough to buy the same item from another supplier and avoid any tax.

Amazon telling Tennessee customers about owed tax » Knoxville News Sentinel

I would. It's the delivery and variety of Amazon products that keep me shopping there especially for books. Plus, I hate shopping and if I want to browse items at 2:00A wearing pajamas, I can. There are no shelves I can't reach, no parking issues, no gasoline used, no crowds to deal with. No wasted trip time if they don't have what I want. No lines at the checkout.

The only thing I refuse to do is rate my purchases.

I get most of my stuff directly from Amazon not third party sellers. The online tax form (Amazon gave you a link) is really quite easy to use. You don't do any calculations yourself. No tables to look up.

It says this in the Amazon letter: "The total sales price of purchases you had shipped to Tennessee in 2011 was $XXXX." Am I to think if you purchased items to be sent to someone in another state, by Amazon, it's not taxed? If that's true and you are buying gifts for people in another state, don't have Amazon ship them to you, have them shipped directly to the intended recipient.