Amazon and Texas

[nannahill]

Hopefully every Texan is purchasing everything they need at Amazon this week because from 1 July you can add 8.25% sales tax to your order.

 

[drocu]

Living in NY, I've always been jealous of places that have been tax-free when buying from Amazon. I hope wherever I move next is still tax-free.

 

[redrako]

Same thing in Mass. It has to do with Amazon opening a bricks and mortar presence in state.

 

[Easttexasman]

I hate seeing this. I guess I will just buy from someone else.

 

[Tobacco]

This really is too bad--not living there now but do maintain a residence. Will stop using amazon for a lot of stuff. The tax free was always a consideration.

 

[jpipes3]

Amazon only charges tax on items sold by them. If it's an item sold through them, but not by them, then the sales tax isn't added (unless the seller happens to be in your state).

 

[drocu]

This really is too bad--not living there now but do maintain a residence. Will stop using amazon for a lot of stuff. The tax free was always a consideration.

Yeah, I hear ya. When possible, I'll order from Newegg because they're still tax-free for us. On the other hand, if I need something and am too lazy to leave my couch, I'll just order from Amazon using 2-day Prime shipping. The way I see it, if I went to the store, I'd have to pay sales tax anyways so I may as well have it delivered to my front door. Yup, I'm definitely that lazy.

 

[Crixus]

Amazon has to have physical buildings somewhere. If anyone has fought not having to collect state and local taxes, it is them. However, it looks like the brick and mortar criteria affects them like everyone else. Their actual physical presence is limited to certain states, and unfortunately those residents will have to pay (up front) to play.

Sorry it caught up with you Texans. Thanks for taking one for the team.

 

[nannahill]

Amazon has a warehouse in Irving TX. The story I heard was when the Texas Comptroller's office heard about this they started a sales tax discussion. So Amazon closed their warehouse down ... sort of. But then the warehouse opened (employees never stopped working there apparently) back up again and so the Comptroller's office was on their case again. I think a deal has been arranged where Amazon is providing jobs for Texans and the Comptroller's office has said OK start charging sales tax from 1 July and we'll ignore the previous four years worth of sales that they would have to otherwise pay sales tax on.

We knew it was coming. It was just a matter of when.

 

[heybatter]

bummer.

 

[jay22w]

Don't they know the state motto'Don't mess with Texas'.. That's a shame, as it is a great place to find products.

 

[Jim]

The irony is that some of the items you are paying tax on never were present in the state except in a digital way. That an'y right.

 

[nannahill]

You're right Jim. If the TX office wanted to be mean about it they could enforce individuals paying use tax.

 

[Mischka]

Same thing in Mass. It has to do with Amazon opening a bricks and mortar presence in state.

There is no definitive law here in Mass. that requires Amazon to do so. Gov. Devil Patrick and his minions will spend every penny they can get their paws on, so I hope any attempt to force Amazon to tax us fails miserably. State governments need to start operating within their financial means, like their citizens do.

Money-grabbing legislation just keeps the government fat-cats fat.

/rant off