Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Fights Back Against NY Online Sales Tax
The New York Times is reporting on Amazon's lawsuit contesting the recently enacted New York state law which requires online retail outlets to collect sales tax on items sold to the state's residents. Amazon disagrees that it should be required to collect such tax without a physical presence in the state. We discussed the 'Amazon Tax' last month. Quoting:
"The new law is based on a novel definition of what constitutes a presence in the state: It includes any Web site based in the state that earns a referral fee for sending customers to an online retailer. Amazon has hundreds of thousands of affiliates--from big publishers to tiny blogs--that feature links to its products. It says thousands of those have given an address in New York State, although it does not verify the addresses. The state law says that if even one of those affiliates is in New York, Amazon must collect sales tax on everything sold in the state, even if it is not sold through the affiliate."
I wonder if Amazon could just refuse to sell items to people in NY state, and additionally drop all affiliates there (or at least stop accepting new affiliates). I'm sure all those affiliates (bit and small) would make some racket to their state legislators if they were cut off.
:P
Of course they'd never go that route, I think. It sure would be fun to watch, though.
And this would scale to global customers, how exactly? Chinese or Swedish or maybe Australian buyers paying average-US-state sales tax on their purchases?
If something like this (the NY solution, or parent's) gets implemented for real, then online vendors will simply move out of the US to the land of the (tax-)free.
It's internet commerce. Any solution needs to be globally viable, or it will be doomed to silliness. This is also why it's going to be darn difficult to solve.
If you want to talk about greed, let's talk about the state legislatures and localities that have an insatiable appetite for raising taxes. That's their solution to every fiscal shortfall. They seem to be unable to grasp the concept of "living within your means". Not satisfied with what they can extract from their own citizens, they want to force out-of-state businesses to do their dirty work for them. As far as I am concerned, they can all go to hell.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Firstly
The question is whether the vendors must collect those taxes on behalf of the state. Generally, only those companies that have a physical presence, such as an office or store, in the state of the purchase are required to collect the taxes.
By have a physical presence in NY, I'm deriving benefits from the state; Amazon without a physical presence in NY receives no state benefits and should not have to work as the states agent withput consideration.
Secondly
Amazon's legal obligations are dependent on the actions of a third party over which it has no contract or control. It would be like the county tax assessor telling your your property taxes will increase 25% on sunny days!
Thirdly
NY is the poster child for it's mishmash of sales tax laws, my understanding is that you can be liable for state, county, and municipal sales taxes in some places of NY, the chief obstruction to a coherrent, unified national state sales tax system is NY
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Shipping through customs is going to be a lot worse than most sales taxes.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Um, some of us live in states that don't have sales tax.
And we've got guns.
And we believe we should live free or die.
Just sayin'.
(Actually I have no guns, but I think all my neighbors do...)
How far do you want to take this? Should I have to pay sales tax to my home state if I buy a cookie and bring it across the boarder?
The REAL problem with collecting sales tax for online sales has nothing to do with the customer paying the state. It has EVERYTHING to do with the burden on the retailer. Do you have any idea how big a mess the sales tax system in most places is?
It can very from county to county and even from town to town in the county.
So under your system let me show you how this would work.
Any website that sells anything is going to have to register with not just EVERY STATE but every county and town. Each of them will require that you pay a fee to get your tax number... Oh joy.
Then every quarter you will have to file a few THOUSAND tax reports. One per city, county, and state.
Then you will have to have some way to decide which local gets the tax and what the rate is. Do you tax the shipping address or the billing address?
So what your plan would do is drive every small web store right out of business.
It is unconstitutional for the states to tax interstate commerce.
So your little rant is just that a rant. Do we give to many tax cuts to the very rich and big companies? Yea I think so but this has NOTHING to do with that. In this case the tax break is going right to the consumer aka the little guy.
Under your plan the burden would be on the small companies and the consumer.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Wow.. you sound like a such a bleeding heart liberal.. oh wait.. this is slashdot. Legally avoiding taxes is stealing.. that takes some balls of come up with. I call bullshit! It's my right to minimize taxes I pay in every legal way. Greed (as you call it) or free market capitalism (my preferred term) is has been not only driving this country, but also most of the civilized world. When did US, with the largest GDP in the world (right on par with the entire EU) become the 2nd rate nation? It's not about gimme, it's about keeping the money you worked hard for. If you feel like helping your state/federal government you can always send them a check...