
Amazon offers Texas 5,000 jobs in trade for sales-tax exemption - taylorbuley
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2015383772_amazontexas22.html
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MichaelApproved
"Finally, it wants the Texas comptroller's office to set up a website where
its customers can send sales tax owed on Amazon purchases to the state.
Historically, voluntary sales-tax payments haven't been reliable."

I thought that part of the story was a joke. _"Historically, voluntary sales-
tax payments haven't been reliable."_ has got to be an understatement.

Has anyone here ever voluntarily paid sales taxes?

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SwellJoe
When I ran a business in Texas, I generally did. There were occasions where I
bought parts intended to resell them, but ended up with them stuck in one of
the desktop or development machines...so, I probably cheated a little bit, but
not much.

But, I was under the impression individuals were not legally obligated to pay
sales tax on goods from out of state, but this article makes it sound like
they are. So, I never paid on individual purchases during the 15 or so years I
lived in Texas.

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dangrossman
Not that I'm some kind of tax expert, but AFAIK, "sales and use tax" is levied
on categories of goods and services, regardless of where they're purchased.

There's only an obligation to COLLECT the tax by retailers with a presence in
the state, but all residents of the state have to pay the tax on all
purchases.

When it's collected by the retailer it's called sales tax, when it's not it's
called use tax and you have to send it in yourself.

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noonespecial
Today corporations are negotiating directly with states. As equals. Not long
ago, cities and counties were about the most they could swing. It won't be
long until it becomes countries.

That used to strike me as extremely dystopian. Now I'm not even sure that
would be so bad.

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brianbreslin
Some corporations already negotiate at national levels. GE probably does all
the time with the same leverage amazon has at a state level.

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maratd
Same goes for GM, large banks, etc. and those are only the ones we read about.

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shib71
The idea that it is valid to insert arbitrary and tangential (if not
completely unrelated) laws into bills is something about the American system
that baffles me.

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SkyMarshal
It's nuts, do other countries have a solution to this?

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cbailey
While it's common practice for a city government to give tax breaks for large
corporations in exchange for bringing a large number of jobs (almost like a
"thank you" for bolstering the local economy), the sales-tax exemption is new
to me. I had to reread the beginning of the article before it really hit me.

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evan_
Keep in mind that they're already sale-tax exempt in Texas. They don't have
any locations in Texas, therefore they don't have to charge sales tax.

They _want_ to open a facility in Texas, but they don't want to have to start
charging sales tax. Doesn't hurt to ask.

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daniel_solano
Actually, they have had a facility in Texas for some time that they were
planning on expanding. Last year, the comptroller demanded they pay back
something on the order of $600M in back taxes and penalties.

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evan_
oh, then it doesn't make any sense.

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giardini
This appears to be a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment. If Texas can do this for Amazon may I also request it for _my_
Texas corporation? Can I get a better deal than Amazon's? Do we now all haggle
with the state about how much tax we pay?

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sixtofour
I could go the rest of my life without buying a book. There's enough
information and entertainment on the Internet and among my friends.

If corporations and states require me, the consumer, to keep track of their
bookkeeping for them, indeed make it dangerous to purchase something online
when I don't have the time, inclination or ability to find out where each
vendor's presence happens to be, I might just opt out entirely. It's the safe
thing to do.

