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Amazon Forbids Crossing State Lines With Rented Textbooks
New submitter Galaga88 writes "In what is probably another attempt to evade charging sales tax, Amazon's terms of use through Warehouse Deals forbids crossing state lines with certain rented textbooks. The penalty for doing so? Retroactive forced purchase of the book. At least it's yours to keep afterwards. 'Some experts believe the policy is another reflection of the extreme lengths to which the company continues to go in order to avoid collecting state sales taxes. But could Amazon’s use restriction and other complicated rental conditions cause problems for students or lead potential textbook renters to take their business elsewhere? It seems like a policy that would be nearly impossible to enforce. But Richard Hershman, vice president of government relations at the National Association of College Stores, points out that if a student has textbooks sent to her home state and ships them back from a different state where she attends college, Amazon could easily note the new shipping location.'"
the problem is keeping track of tax rates in 3000+ counties plus cities plus other 'special' economic zones.
It's certainly a doable thing, but it ain't easy, nor is there any mechanism for knowing what is the 'correct' tax to charge at a given point.
Next up, is it shipping address? Billing address? what if the tax rates are different between them?
What if the tax rate varies on other factors?
What if my IP says I'm in Sweden, what then?
It's not as easy as collect the tax when there are quite a few permutations that don't tell you when they change.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Believe it or not, there are people with computers and databases that track this information and it all can be done automatically.
You can obfuscate it if you're trying avoid paying tax or you can just pay the tax.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Believe it or not, there are indeed companies that do just this.