Power Sellers Unite

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17240 Location: Texas

Texas has sent Amazon.com Inc. a $269 million bill for uncollected sales taxes on purchases made by state residents from the Seattle-based Internet superstore over a four-year period.

Now that Texas has gotten tough with the No. 1 online retailer, other states could be tempted to pile on with their own assessments as local governments face huge shortfalls, analysts said. Recent estimates put Texas' two-year budget shortfall at as much as $21 billion.

Amazon.com Inc., with sales last year of $25 billion, said Friday that it plans to "vigorously defend ourselves in this matter."

The uncollected sales taxes are from December 2005 to December 2009 and include interest and penalties.

R.J. DeSilva, spokesman for the Texas comptroller of public accounts, said the bill was sent to Amazon.com in August. It wasn't publicly disclosed until Friday, when Amazon.com revealed it in a regulatory filing.

"The company has requested a re-determination, which means this is an ongoing audit and could be decided as part of the administrative hearings process," DeSilva said in a statement. "The company would send documents, and this process will continue."

more.. link to news article

GreyJaguar · Joined: 12 Jul 2008 Posts: 316

Be interesting to see what the outcome of this will be. I'm not up to date about the different states and their tax laws. But...hard to believe that Amazon would be so lax on collecting appropriate sales tax and not paying the various states. That's a hefty amount even before interest and penalties.

Is this before online retailers had to begin paying sales tax to certain states?

Patty00 · Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 1018

If Amazon loses one of these sales tax cases it will open the door to ALL sellers collecting sales tax in ALL states!

seewhatimsellingnow · Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 1253 Location: Ohio

I'd HATE to see the one EBAY will get!! lol lol Betty Lou

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

The suit is based on the fact Amazon has facilities is Texas, making them liable for sales tax for sale to Texas buyers. Pretty straight forward legally.

Schistosomiasis · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 192

seewhatimsellingnow wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")I'd HATE to see the one EBAY will get!! lol lol Betty Lou

I think Amazon is being taxed on stuff it owns and sells. Ebay doesn't really sell anything itself, so i don't think they'd be liable for taxes. Although, I could be missing some legal point here...

mojavelyn · Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:30 am Post subject:

Amazon maintains a physical presence in TX, a warehouse I think???? A subsiderary of the company??? And that makes them liable for taxes of items sold in Texas, no matter where it is shipped from.

Amazon does sell items, ebay doesn't.

ArthurIhde · Joined: 01 Oct 2010 Posts: 43

Well,so that is it.

elpereles · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Posts: 1478 Location: Puerto Rico

Amazon has money and the facilities in Texas so they must pay. The problem is the method of some of the states government throwing bills to some companies and other are free to go. In my opinion Amazon need to make a research/investigate is other big sales/retailers companies in Texas are really paying their taxes.

For example here in Puerto Rico. The government makes the easy way to big store retailers (WMart) meanwhile little retail sellers need to pay all penalties to the state government.