Apparently, Microsoft is not the only Washington State company raising questions about the harmful impact of its tax practices on states.
Michael Mazerov of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities launches a well-researched critique against Amazon for failing to collect sales taxes in most states: Amazon’s Arguments Against Collecting Sales Taxes Do Not Withstand Scrutiny (pdf).
He makes several key points, two among them:
1) While "Amazon says collecting sales tax in every state would be excessively burdensome...[it] already shoulders most of those burdens for thousands of companies that sell on its website. For example, it calculates and collects sales taxes in every state except one for the Target department store chain, which has outlets in those states and therefore acknowledges an obligation to charge tax on its Internet sales made on Amazon’s site."
2) "Amazon argues that having to collect sales tax would be unfair, because Amazon doesn’t directly benefit from public services in most states. ... Amazon and its subsidiaries have facilities in at least 17 states that levy sales taxes. ... Those facilities, and the people who work in them, receive the same kinds of state and local public services received by every local retailer that is legally obligated to charge sales tax. Yet Amazon’s website discloses that the company charges tax on its own sales in only four of these 17 states."
Mazerov says Amazon is resisting charging sales tax to maintain an unfair competitive advantage over rivals which typically have to add 5 to 10 percent to customer bills for sales tax.
via Slashdot
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