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Amazon To Collect Indiana Sales Tax In 2014
An anonymous reader writes with this quote from an Associated Press report:
"Amazon.com will begin collecting Indiana's 7 percent sales tax from customers in the state in 2014, under an agreement announced Monday. ... Gov. Mitch Daniels' office said Indiana will become the fourth state with such a tax collection agreement with Seattle-based Amazon. It follows a lawsuit by Indianapolis-based shopping mall owner Simon Property Group against the state over the issue and a lobbying push on state legislators by traditional retailers to end what they call an unfair price advantage for online retailers. The deal doesn’t include any other companies, but Daniels said the state is asking Congress to require all online businesses to collect state sales taxes."
The power to tax is the power to destroy. The 14th Amendment specifically prevents laws from applying to different people in different ways. It was passed to prevent Jim Crow laws. This is just a 100% attack against a targeted business that is unconstitutional and bordering on the laws that prevented blacks from voting and serving on juries after the Civil War.
Zip code's not enough. The item type itself will cause different tax rates. For example, clothes vs. housewares may have different sales tax rates. Carbonated beverages often have additional taxes that other products don't.
Furthermore, how the item will be used can vary how it is taxed. An example being Canada, where clothes bought for dependent children are tax exempt, but not clothes bought for oneself. You have to declare at the register how the tax will be applied. While this may seem extraordinary, it does happen in the US as well. Off the top of my head, I know that the sales tax for California is different for food sold as groceries vs. food sold for immediate consumption (on or off premises). Ordering a sandwich at Subway's "toasted" (aka heated) triggers a different tax rate at the register.
These arbitrary taxation systems exist at all levels of government (Federal, State, County, Municipality) and often there are further breakdowns for special economic zones or redevelopment areas.
Oh, and zip code lookup isn't enough. Zip codes are defined by the Postal Service and do not necessarily respect county and city borders. I have family members living within the city limits of one of the 10 largest cities in the US, yet their official zip code and street address belong to a neighboring suburb city (pop ~200,000). I guarantee a zip code lookup would result in the wrong tax rate.
Finally, in a zip-code lookup, which tax rate applies? Where the seller has their headquarters, where the distribution facility is, the purchaser's billing address, or the delivery address? They could all be in the state and easily still have different tax rates.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Well this puts Amazon on a more even footing with Barnes and Noble, since they are stuck paying local taxes and are having trouble competing with Amazon.
Hmm, I sense the possibility of a science fiction story here. Some alternate future where "even footing" is not accomplished by removing impediments from those who are limited, but by adding impediments to those who are unfairly gifted.
All Hail the God of "Even Footing".
The brick-and-mortar retailers should explain to Indiana voters how replacing the regressive state sales tax with a higher progressive income tax would benefit the 99%.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
They tax your money when you earn it. They tax it when you spend it. And they continue taxing you so long as you keep what you spent it on.
Also, they tax you extra for living in specific regions and again for working in specific regions, sometimes.
The only to escape taxes is to be very rich.
Humans are awesome.
*some* of the malls? Almost all of them. Of course the Simon family is FROM indiana and the National headquarters is in Indy ( despite them having more properties in other states). The thing that's most annoying is that they have consistently been greedy when it comes to major decisions. Rather than invest heavily in Malls that were struggling to combat the economic down turn of the area ( i.e. Lafayette Square Mall ) they decided to put all their money into the northside malls, Castleton, Keystone, Carmel's Clay Terrace and Hamilton Town Center.
All of the latter malls would have kept on going fine without Simon beefing them up, and now Lafayette Square mall is defunct and they whole surrounding area has gone to hell in the last 10 years. Thankfully there's been the relocation of Best Buy and the new superwallmart to help breathe some life back in there, but that Simon abandoned that area completely should have been discouraged by the city.
it never used to be this way however... Simon changed to its greedy ways slowly as the founder Melvin Simon retired from the company in the 1990's and died a couple of years ago. They used to be a huge charitable organization and really helped the community. What a shame
Amazon has 3 distribution centers in Indiana and just announced a fourth one, and HAD AN EXISTING DEAL WITH INDIANA NOT TO CHARGE SALES TAX.
The only reason the state is pursing this now is to appease the Simon Family which is buddy buddy with many key legislators.