Calling B.S. On Amazon's Taxation Arguments

theodp writes "Over at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Michael Mazerov carefully picks apart Amazon's arguments against collecting sales taxes, arguing that they simply do not withstand scrutiny. While Amazon officials say collecting sales tax in every state would be excessively burdensome, Mazerov notes the e-tailer already collects sales tax in virtually every state for numerous other companies that sell on its website. Mazerov also finds it disingenuous for Amazon to argue that it should not have to help support public services in states in which it has no physical presence when the company fails to support public services in most of the states in which it does have a physical presence. Finally, Mazerov isn't buying Amazon's argument that its opposition to collecting sales tax is not driven by a desire to gain a price advantage over competitors, which he finds at odds with the company's own actions and SEC filings. By claiming sales-tax immunity, says Mazerov, Amazon has enjoyed an unfair 5%-10% price advantage over local retailers, while also depriving states and localities of hundreds of millions of dollars of legally due revenue each year."

Comments

Taxes are good...

[mi]

If there is an article about virtues of taxes on Slashdot, you can bet, it was posted by kdawson...

Just saying...

Re:Use Tax

[travdaddy]

I actually do pay use tax, and the fact that no one else does really makes me feel like a chump.

I'm sure the IRS does a little happy dance every time they see that someone actually paid their use tax! At least you should never ever be audited.

Re:Use Tax

[Rude Turnip]

You're not thinking like the IRS. Their line of thinking would be as follows: "Hurm...they are paying use tax. Must be trying to hide something else."

Re:Use Tax

[blueskies]

Actually, if you leave that field blank on my state's taxes, your odds of an audit go up by nearly an order of magnitude.

To turn this around, the 1000 people or so that fill that blank in can decrease their odds by 10 to help offset their other tax evasion risks?

If you provide other probabilities, we can all max-min the system.

Re:Internet Tax Freedom Act & Why Only Amazon?

[tomhudson]

Amazon responded by saying "fine, we won't have any affiliates in New York then" and cut them all off.

Can we:

1. make that world-wide?
2. make that apply to everyone, not just Amazon?

It would cut down on a lot of wasted bandwidth, etc.

Taxation is Theft

[MrSnivvel]

Taxation is Theft. Pure and simple.

http://mises.org/etexts/taxrob.asp

I'll leave the statists here to justify their servitude.

Re:Use Tax

[Shagg]

But have you ever physically left your state, bought something, and brought that something back home with you?

This is Slashdot. I thought most of us have never physically left our Mom's basement.

Re:Use Tax

[bitt3n]

I think the real problem is that since nobody does this, they expect Amazon to do the legwork.

I actually do pay use tax, and the fact that no one else does really makes me feel like a chump.

I hope you're paying the chump tax, otherwise you're nothing but a scofflaw.