Amazon Sputtering Over MN Sales Tax Law (subsidized, taxi)

[13levine]

Originally Posted by golfgal

This isn't about people buying things on Amazon and having to pay tax on them, you already do this. This is about small businesses that sell products through Amazon and Amazon having to deal with the taxes for them. Many bloggers, for example, rate products or whatnot for Amazon and get paid by how many people go to Amazon from their website. Amazon now has to deal with the taxes for those paid referrals. One example are the blogs that look for the bargain books for Kindle, they will no longer get paid to refer people to those books.

I assume you mean the taxes are hidden in the purchase price because I have made lots of Amazon purchases and there has never been a line of added taxes.

As far as I know I have never paid a single solitary dime in taxes to Amazon. I have always wondered about the fairness of going to the store (or just looking at store on computer) and looking at a $500.00 item that interests me then being able to go home and getting free shipping and pay zero taxes on the item thus saving about $35.00 and having it in a few days right to my door.

I don't like paying taxes either so this is what I have done in the past to get around them.

[Beenhere4ever]

Hardly ever do I shop and item in bricks and mortar before ordering on Amazon. In fact, I often order on Amazon after striking out with the bricks and mortar. Most retail stores have a very limited inventory.

[Trainwreck20]

An interesting (if somewhat dated) link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ref=technology

[Beenhere4ever]

Waiting for my wife at a medical office, I read a long article in Forbes on the fight Amazon fought to avoid adding sales tax to purchases. They staved it off so long that their business evolved a long way from what it was when the fight began. They had a business of collecting tax for businesses that had the "nexus" that required collecting taxes. They were making money doing for others what they refused to do for themselves!! Amazon tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Trainwreck20]

Honestly, I can't really argue with Amazon - they fight for their interests, the states fight for theirs. Amazon is going to lose in the end, but the real reason for their fight is to allow them to build a massive following by not charging taxes, so when they do have to charge taxes, they will be established already. It is business. The courts and legislatures and consumers will all work it out in the end. The problem (if there is one) is the probably 95% of the Amazon customers side with Amazon insofar as they don't want to pay taxes, either. There isn't a groundswell of popular support demanding that Amazon charge the taxes. What elected official is going to make a large part of their platform "I will fight to make Amazon charge you taxes!".

[Beenhere4ever]

Yeh, and in the name of "business", they go from state to state, threatening governments of what they'll do if they don't play ball. It as if Amazon doesn't really consider itself American in any sense. But that's pretty much standard for a corporation of any size. Their threats include huge layoffs, so their employees also have to realize that when the senior management sees fit, their jobs are history. It all is subservient to the bottom line. That being the case, employees must realize they shouldn't do anything out of misplaced loyalty. They mean nothing to the company.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Honestly, I can't really argue with Amazon - they fight for their interests, the states fight for theirs. Amazon is going to lose in the end, but the real reason for their fight is to allow them to build a massive following by not charging taxes, so when they do have to charge taxes, they will be established already. It is business. The courts and legislatures and consumers will all work it out in the end. The problem (if there is one) is the probably 95% of the Amazon customers side with Amazon insofar as they don't want to pay taxes, either. There isn't a groundswell of popular support demanding that Amazon charge the taxes. What elected official is going to make a large part of their platform "I will fight to make Amazon charge you taxes!".

It does behoove lawmakers here in the state, though. Big retail giants like Best Buy and Target have been pressing for a sales tax on online purchases. They're both HQ'd here and have the money necessarily to make it a fight if they want to.

[Beenhere4ever]

When you have high priced lawyers and spineless politicians, you know it'll take a lot of push to create a level retail playing field. MEANWHILE, states will sock those who buy local for more and more things to make up for the revenue lost to online retailing. Fact is that you can pay sales tax at the store for food. Bottle of orange juice. Is that food? Depends. You can find yourself paying sales tax on it. If online retailers were doing what food stores already do, maybe the grocery stores wouldn't be charging you tax on a bottle of orange juice.

[xandrex]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

When you have high priced lawyers and spineless politicians, you know it'll take a lot of push to create a level retail playing field. MEANWHILE, states will sock those who buy local for more and more things to make up for the revenue lost to online retailing. Fact is that you can pay sales tax at the store for food. Bottle of orange juice. Is that food? Depends. You can find yourself paying sales tax on it. If online retailers were doing what food stores already do, maybe the grocery stores wouldn't be charging you tax on a bottle of orange juice.

You've brought this up before, but I just don't see how it can possibly be legal that you're being charged tax on such a food product.

It might be taxed if the bottle is meant for personal, immediate consumption (like a small orange juice) in the same way pop is taxed. Or they're misclassifying things. But I don't think that I have ever paid tax on orange juice and I highly doubt orange juice is taxed just because someone is buying a DVD box set tax free.

[Beenhere4ever]

I've taken managers aside. They say its part of the fine points of the law. By the way, I ordered some cargo shorts online at Sears and they attached some kind of tax. We've got the most labrynthine tax law of anywhere I think. We could have a simple tax system with progressive tax on income and the usual on property tax, but there's a raft of pressure groups who always run that off the tracks. The "fix" then becomes tinkering with sales tax. I argued with the chair of the House Ways and Means committee saying it was just putting more and more tax burden on the poorest people in the state. I guess that's because they don't have high priced lawyers threatening lawmakers.