Amazon to start charging sales tax in Texas

[Mr Bean]

Anyone know if the the non state portion of the sales tax (2%) goes to the municipality where the distribution center is located or where the purchaser is located?

[HRMaddie]

Well, I guess I'll order my new tvs before July 1st, bitches, at least I'll save money on taxes and cheaper than bull$#@! stores like Sears, Best Buy (although I might be able to score a gift card on Shaggy for that), Conn's, etc. Plus get it dropped at my door. Now to go find a different online retailer for the future.

[Jameslaw]

How much of your shipping is out of state? I imagine you are not collecting anything on those orders, right?

Right now, almost none. I have an occasional one here there. Hopefully, I will getting many more soon as our website is just about to go up. But, no I don't collect sales tax on those orders

[CooterBrown]

It's still $#@! tons better than driving to a store and dealing with crowds and annoying sales people. My time and convenience is worth way more than any sales tax.

[Jameslaw]

On a side note: keep in mind retailers also typically pay a lot more in property taxes per square foot as well.

[Jameslaw]

It's still $#@! tons better than driving to a store and dealing with crowds and annoying sales people. My time and convenience is worth way more than any sales tax.

Pretty much this. I use amazon all the time now, and I probably won't be changing my habits much based on paying sales tax.

[USC Troll]

I like how Combs is playing it like a victory for Texas. "Congrats! Ya'll get to pay hundreds of millions in taxes!" It's not like Amazon collected the taxes and failed to remit them to the comptroller.

[zzzz]

I like how Combs is playing it like a victory for Texas. "Congrats! Ya'll get to pay hundreds of millions in taxes!" It's not like Amazon collected the taxes and failed to remit them to the comptroller.

It is a victory for Texas. Like nearly every other state, we've had to pinch our budget because the economic downturn hurt tax revenues. Those hundreds of millions will help. The alternative is to cut services more or raise other fees/taxes.

[vox]

There's really no reason sales tax shouldn't get paid on the internet.

I will neg rep you into oblivion with that kind of talk...

[USC Troll]

Seems like most people don't want to pay more taxes.

[Grammer Police]

Seems like most people want other people to pay more taxes.

[Tennesseehorn]

I've NEVER stated that law enforcement was not a valid and valuable government service. My complaints are about the ethical, mental and psychological shortcomings of the people who are drawn to the profession and the manner in which those people arbitrarily, capriciously and violently perform their jobs.

Case in Point: Millions of upper middle class white people are flagrantly stealing hundreds of millions of tax dollars from state coffers. Will law enforcement officials even raise a finger to stop this theft? No. But these same officials are more than happy to flood Houston Metro buses with officers to perform warrant-less bag searches on dark skinned folks who are carrying around some recreational amount of weed. Then they suck each others $#@!s over their "success" and have their PR peeps go on TV and tell us how much safer we are now.

Bernard

and your point is?




Amazon has several facilities here in Middle Tennessee (Nashville area) and just negotiated a new deal with the state. Amazon will start mailing out tax bills based on your purchases of the last year------Yikes! Retroactive like Clinton's tax hikes in 1993.

[HRMaddie]

Retroactive - holy $#@!! That's $#@!ing ridiculous!!!! I'll probably keep prime, but for larger purchases I will definitely find another online retailer.

[rage-a-holic]

I've got 500 in GCs to use and then they can eat $#@!

[Rigo84]

This sucks my prime just renewed, but their prices are still better then most B&M so I guess i will keep it.

[Anastasis]

Yep prime is done.

[Longhorn Al]

I'm neither happy or pissed about this. I saw it coming.

I'll be pissed if they send out retroactive bills, though.

[DrManik]

I got one year of Prime for free since I'm a student and they just notified me that it ends next week. They did, however, say that since I'm a valued student member, I can purchase Prime membership for only $39 a year. This tax $#@! sucks but I think it's probably still worth it in my case to keep using Amazon since I'm getting a discounted Prime membership.

Seriously though, $#@! this tax bull$#@!.

[El Guapo]

This whole deal is like the early days of music downloads, before the RIAA or whatever it is cracked down. You kinda knew that technically it wasn't right, but damn it was good while it lasted.

Amazon would have been better off pulling their warehouse out of Dallas. This is going to be a PR disaster for them, especially if people start getting retroactive tax bills, though I don't see that Texas is going that far.

[SamBass]

no perry fan here, but this is straight from the statesman article, so the '$#@! perry' comments seem misplaced in this context...

Last year Gov. Rick Perry denounced Comb's decision to collect the taxes, saying it would cost Texas jobs and discourage companies from moving to Texas.

[maninblack]

Wrong problem to be addressing. The solution is to reduce the size of government to the point taxes are no longer needed. Oh well we'll spend and tax ourselves into oblivion.

[kevwun]

Bump to remind everyone this is starting on July 1st. If you have any big ticket items you were planning to buy in the next couple of months, do it now and save some money.

[Lil' Fry McFly]

In Kansas, we have been paying sales tax on Amazon for as long as I can remember because Amazon has a warehouse in the state. It's still far cheaper to buy almost anything on Amazon than it is at retail, and the prime membership is still a pretty good deal at $50 per year if you use the video streaming and kindle services. It's also a good deal if you are too impatient to wait a week to get your goods.

[Zathras@B5]

Wrong problem to be addressing. The solution is to reduce the size of government to the point taxes are no longer needed.

Yes I too want to live in a third-world country without public support for education, transportation, health, or social services

[Grammer Police]

Yes I too want to live in a third-world country without public support for education, transportation, health, or social services

Fallacy of false dilemma. You are guilty.

[UofTOrange]

In Kansas, we have been paying sales tax on Amazon for as long as I can remember because Amazon has a warehouse in the state. It's still far cheaper to buy almost anything on Amazon than it is at retail, and the prime membership is still a pretty good deal at $50 per year if you use the video streaming and kindle services. It's also a good deal if you are too impatient to wait a week to get your goods.

I find it pretty hilarious that people are acting like they won't use Amazon still. Prime is an awesome deal, especially if you share your membership with someone else (which is allowed, you just have to trust them with your payment info). We share ours with my in laws and split it. It's freaking awesome. And there seems to be more and more that is available via prime. Paying the taxes isn't a big deal, the items are still cheaper on base cost so overall it's still cheaper and it's good for the state.

[Wally Pryor]

What is tax predicated upon, billing or shipping address? I assume the latter.

[William Cannon]

What is tax predicated upon, billing or shipping address? I assume the latter.

shipping

[smoky b]

If I pre-ordered something today that doesn't get released until July, will I get taxed?

[Chad Fuck]

Fallacy of false dilemma. You are guilty.

Fallacy of senses of humor/hyperbole. You are guilty.

[MrPhlegm]

mule$#@!

You ARE Guilty

[Chad Fuck]

mule$#@!

You ARE Guilty

Thanks for noticing!

[CaptainEd]

well, was it still supposed to start 7/1? because i was thinking about ordering something this morning and when i checked my cart no tax was going to be applied (Estimated Tax To Be Collected: $0.00).

[drunkfan#1]

I can't believe people are trying to argue that it's fair that Amazon doesn't pay a sales tax because... uhh... like... they have to pay for shipping or something. WTF? Brick and Mortar stores have been screwed this whole damn time. Go out and support your local businesses.

[smoky b]

I can't believe people are trying to argue that it's fair that Amazon doesn't pay a sales tax because... uhh... like... they have to pay for shipping or something. WTF? Brick and Mortar stores have been screwed this whole damn time. Go out and support your local businesses.

I paid sales tax on a digital download today. That seems pretty wtf.

[Traffic]

I can't believe people are trying to argue that it's fair that Amazon doesn't pay a sales tax because... uhh... like... they have to pay for shipping or something. WTF? Brick and Mortar stores have been screwed this whole damn time. Go out and support your local businesses.

sales tax is a pass-through. Amazon.com doesn't "pay" a sales tax, they charge it and then remit that to the state. the sales tax has always been owed by the purchaser.

for example, I currently accrue sales tax on any purchases I make through amazon.com for my company. I then remit that to the state of Texas. once I start paying amazon directly for this, I don't have to worry about accruing and remitting myself.

[Jameslaw]

I paid sales tax on a digital download today. That seems pretty wtf.

Why?

[al pastor]

. Go out and support your local businesses.

If I want service I'll go to a b&m. If I know exactly what commoditized product I want, I'm going to chose convenience.

[smoky b]

Why?

Because we're talking about brick and mortar vs online. There aren't too many local brick and mortar stores where I can go to download an album. And I guess you can add in the fact that I havent actually downloaded it yet. It's currently stored on Amazon's cloud.

[LongIslandIceSIP]

sales tax is a pass-through. Amazon.com doesn't "pay" a sales tax, they charge it and then remit that to the state. the sales tax has always been owed by the purchaser.

for example, I currently accrue sales tax on any purchases I make through amazon.com for my company. I then remit that to the state of Texas. once I start paying amazon directly for this, I don't have to worry about accruing and remitting myself.

Exactly. Anyone who hadn't been accruing and paying your state sales tax on online purchases like Amazon could be in trouble if audited. It's never been "tax free!", it's just been on you to pay the taxes.

[YChang]

Sales tax or not... I'm still not driving out to a mall or shopping center if I can find it on Amazon.

[ToY]

What sucks the most is their TV price match policy. Now its pretty much negated.

[Crayon1973]

I'll join the contrarian bandwagon...

We're at a point now where tons of people go to a brick and morter store to look at and demo a product but then order it from Amazon on their smartphone while at the B&M store because they save a little money on the price and another 8.25 percent on sales tax. Those B&M stores can't just stay open forever and not sell things. The retailers I work with on a daily basis have to contend with the same issue: A person will go into their store and see a diamond for $5000, which, with tax is $5400. They can buy the same diamond on blue nile for $5000. The store loses the sale every time.

I obviously can't view this in an impartial manner but it just seems like a lot more people are butthurt over losing out on 8% savings than are ok with e-commerce having to "play fair". They already have a huge advantage in not having the giant overhead that B&M stores must pay, if they have to charge sales tax as well that doesn't ruin my life.

[Jameslaw]

Because we're talking about brick and mortar vs online. There aren't too many local brick and mortar stores where I can go to download an album. And I guess you can add in the fact that I havent actually downloaded it yet. It's currently stored on Amazon's cloud.

I'm still not following. Are you saying because it's digital and you don't have a physical product (ei an actual CD) in your hands you shouldn't pay sales tax on it?

[smoky b]

I'm still not following. Are you saying because it's digital and you don't have a physical product (ei an actual CD) in your hands you shouldn't pay sales tax on it?

Pretty much. What exactly has been sold to me? There are no files on my computer.

If I wanted to dodge sales tax for digital services, couldn't I just create an account with a New Mexico address and pay with an Amazon gift card? Whatever service I download or stream comes to the computer I'm ordering from regardless of where it's located.

[Traffic]

Pretty much. What exactly has been sold to me? There are no files on my computer.

If I wanted to dodge sales tax for digital services, couldn't I just create an account with a New Mexico address and pay with an Amazon gift card? Whatever service I download or stream comes to the computer I'm ordering from regardless of where it's located.

Sec. 151.009. "TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY". "Tangible personal property" means personal property that can be seen, weighed, measured, felt, or touched or that is perceptible to the senses in any other manner, and, for the purposes of this chapter, the term includes a computer program and a telephone prepaid calling card.

Tax Code - the great State of Texas.

You're paying sales tax for the privilege of enjoying your music in Texas.

[Crayon1973]

If I wanted to dodge sales tax for digital services, couldn't I just create an account with a New Mexico address and pay with an Amazon gift card? Whatever service I download or stream comes to the computer I'm ordering from regardless of where it's located.

you must be really hard up to work that hard for 8.25%

[u2-horn]

Pretty much. What exactly has been sold to me? There are no files on my computer.

um, wat?

[mikey4]

um, wat?

Probably streaming from the cloud player or video streaming service.

[smoky b]

Probably streaming from the cloud player or video streaming service.

Correct - My purchase is currently on the cloud player.

But as Traffic pointed out, if I can hear it, they can tax it.

I'm guessing the folks who have Netflix streaming-only get charged sales tax as well then since Netflix has distribution centers in Texas.