Amazon To Pay Texas Sales Tax

An anonymous reader writes "The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Amazon.com will soon start collecting sales tax from buyers in state of Texas. 'Seattle-based Amazon, which had $34 billion in sales in 2010, has long opposed collecting taxes. That has drawn fire from state governments facing budget shortfalls and from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, who say online sellers essentially give customers an automatic discount when they don’t collect taxes. Combs has estimated the state loses $600 million a year from untaxed online sales. However, Amazon has recently begun making deals with a number of states to collect sales tax. Those deals have usually included a one- to three-year window exempting Amazon from sales tax collection.'"

Re:Location based?

[Lunix Nutcase]

It's based off the address you give them.

I'm in Texas and have already gotten charged tax

[honestmonkey]

It was for a few short stories on Kindle. They cost me $1.07, instead of the $0.99 that was listed. I just assumed they were already charging tax. I haven't gotten charged tax on physical items yet, though.

Re:Location based?

[wiedzmin]

Doesn't have to be shipping, if you live close enough to the state border you could drive there to pick it up. Canadians living near the border do this all this time to avoid paying customs fees or to get around stupid shipping restrictions (on Amazon Kindles for example). There are services that offer package pick up in US cities along the border.

Re:Location based?

[dodgerfan]

Nope, just the shipping address.

Re:Good thing I don't live in Texas

[JazzHarper]

Does Amazon have operations on the ground in Texas?

Yes, they do.

Also, California, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington, of course. That's as of four years ago. Probably more, now.

Re:Well, a good reason to use other sites...

[the eric conspiracy]

Texas does have one of the lowest per capita state debts, being 45th or so.

It also has an absolutely rubbish education system (49th in verbal SAT) and the largest percentage of minimum wage workers in the US. These crappy jobs of course don't offer health care coverage as often as better paying jobs. The unemployment rate is right at the national average at 8.2%.

While it does lead the nation in job growth, it is also leading the nation in population growth.

And that's despite being wealthy in natural resources like oil.

Re:Fair?

[mybecq]

How can they just collect taxes from one online store and leave the other million alone?

Learn about Tax Nexus [about.com] and you'll have your answer.

Pennsylvania is making them collect next year

[danbuter]

Starting next year, Amazon will have to collect Pennsylvania state sales tax, as well. The state politicians have been pushing for this for several years, in fact. Amazon was given a reprieve to allow them to set up their system, but it looks like they will have to collect starting next year.

Re:A red state raising taxes!!??!!!???

[Artifakt]

Only four states exempt prepared foods from sales tax, and the definition of prepared varies so that for some of them, anything in a grocery store more complex than raw flour, eggs, and milk, such as frozen waffles, counts as prepared. The 4 states with the highest overall sales tax don't exempt prepared foods and two of them don't exempt non-prepared foods either. 13 states have a higher sales tax rate for prepared food than their general sales tax rate.
          18 states tax perscription drugs, and 37 of them tax non-perscription drugs. 41 states tax clothing, but 2 of them admittedly have a set threshold deliberately designed not to tax cheap clothing (either below $100 or $175).
    The reason there is no sales tax on rent is that real estate is by definition taxed by property taxes, not sales taxes. Every one of the states has property taxes paid by renters. Including rent in the your necessities list is thus disingenious at best.

Sounds like the anti-R slam is totally accurate.