
Amazon to collect Conn. sales tax, ending dispute - iProject
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Amazon-to-collect-Conn-sales-tax-ending-dispute-4248901.php
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mercuryrising
I don't think Amazon's 'edge' is sales tax, I think it's a wide variety of
goods, and me buying things on my couch.

Because of tax, time, and gas, it's more expensive to drive to a store 20
minutes away, get 'hassled' by employees, and purchase something (with sales
tax) than it is for me to roll out of bed, type in 'Amazon', find the thing I
want, add it to my cart, login with my password, and buy it. I get to track it
too, like a predatory animal waiting for my prey to arrive in the mail.

Amazon has hit a convenience point that no one else can touch. They bought
'Small Parts', now I can do almost all my Home Depot shopping on Amazon too
(although my purchases at Home Depot are almost always ones that can't wait
for shipping).

The tax will be a small bump in the road that people try to make a huge deal
out of, but it's the convenience they'll follow.

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greenyoda
Very true. And it's even worse to drive to a store 20 minutes away and not
find what you're looking for (either the store doesn't carry it, or it's out
of stock, or nobody can tell you what aisle it's in). My usage of Amazon
didn't decrease at all when they started charging sales tax in my state.

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chaz
> Amazon also promised to spend $50 million to build a facility at an
> unspecified site and create hundreds of jobs.

With their tax advantage disappearing, Farhad Manjoo's comment about Amazon's
strategy to open same-day delivery centers in these settled states comes to
mind.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2012/0...](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2012/07/amazon_same_day_delivery_how_the_e_commerce_giant_will_destroy_local_retail_.html)

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jpdoctor
With amazon ceding to demands on collecting state sales taxes for interstate
commerce, they have opened the door to a competitor.

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nitid_name
The problem is that states aren't seeing the sales tax revenue from out of
state purchases and have become increasingly insistent that they receive said
revenue. They've tried collecting it on income taxes (who really files that
anyway?) but it doesn't work.

Facing increased budget pressure, the states aren't likely to give up. More
than likely, any competitor who isn't at least Amazon-sized (and let's be
serious, other than maybe Walmart, who is?) is going to get leaned on hard by
the state's legal department if the competitor doesn't roll over on the Amazon
tax.

I don't foresee any competition taking over Amazon's market share over a 6.5%
sales tax.

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jpdoctor
> _The problem is that states aren't seeing the sales tax revenue from out of
> state purchases and have become increasingly insistent that they receive
> said revenue._

That's not a problem: It's a use-case covered explicitly by the US
constitution. The real problem is that the states have been slow to change and
adapt to a world where interstate commerce is edging out intrastate commerce.
Trying to overrule the constitution is just waiting for someone with deep
pockets to make a federal case out of it.

Already amazon is losing biz on electronics to the folks that aren't
collecting.

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gamblor956
_Trying to overrule the constitution is just waiting for someone with deep
pockets to make a federal case out of it._

Already happened, in the famous _Quill_ case. Consequently, is permissible to
impose a sales tax on out-of-state retailers if they have a "substantial
nexus" with the taxing state.

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niggler
If this trend continues, ultimately all 50 states will be collecting sales tax
from Amazon. In that case, what is amazon's edge going forward, especially if
the retails stores can come close on price while offering immediate
gratification?

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CapitalistCartr
Immediate gratification is the ONLY advantage local chain stores have over
Amazon for me. Every other aspect of shopping with them is inferior. With
Amazon having to pay sales tax, they have no reason to NOT build local
warehouses, and then the local box stores will have to learn to provide decent
service or, more likely, go out of business.

~~~
niggler
So in the scenario (read my post) amazon has to charge sales tax.

Have you been to Costco? I daresay their customer service blows away amazon

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borlak
I've been to Costco. It's a madhouse, and quite unnerving for an introvert
like myself.

But that's not even the main reason I like Amazon -- it's for the product
ratings. How do I know what I'm getting at Costco is the best quality for the
price? I can get a very good idea of that at Amazon. Not to mention Costco
can't even being to compete with the product selection at Amazon.

~~~
lazerwalker
Not being able to compete with Amazon's product selection is a feature, not a
bug. Amazon's answer to the question of "how do I know I'm getting something
that is high quality at a good price?" is to give you a wide range of options
and give you all the data to make an informed decision. Costco's answer is to
give you only one or two choices after building up an underlying sense of
trust that (a) their prices are fair (everything is priced at a flat
percentage over cost, rather than varying profit margins based on the item),
and that (b) the products they choose to sell are generally very high quality.
There are a lot of groceries and household goods that I buy at Costco rather
than anywhere else because Costco's house brand is better than luxury-brand
competitors and costs half as much.

As someone who likes to fuss over every single purchasing decision and compare
a dozen nearly-identical models of something before buying, I agree that
Amazon's model is preferable. On the whole, I buy more things from Amazon than
Costco. But that doesn't mean that Costco's model doesn't have merit for a lot
of people.

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muzz
Interesting that no one is calling this an "Amazon tax", as was done when
California did the same thing

