Amazon Has A Tax Loophole For Californians

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Hah! You know this is really pissing off California lawmakers. :cool:

Amazon.com's agreement with Sacramento officials means that, starting Saturday, it will collect sales taxes on items that it sells to California residents. But Amazon will continue to not collect taxes on hundreds of thousands of items that it lists for sale on its Web site, stores in its warehouses, and packages for quick shipment to California residents. Those orders -- called "fulfilled" by Amazon -- amount to a tax loophole that has left Sacramento tax collectors a tad unhappy.
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lol nice.. I bet you the government will find a patch to cover that loophole :D
 
It's sad because California bring in more money from taxes than most countries do yet their state is financially bankrupt.
 
Betauser said:
lol nice.. I bet you the government will find a patch to cover that loophole :D
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The precedent has already been set with New York.

Amazon's we-won't-collect position isn't unique to California. It also doesn't collect taxes on "fulfilled by" items that it ships to customers in states such as New York -- though it will for items listed as "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com."

The exception is if the seller has a physical presence, also called nexus, in those states. In other words, Amazon would collect taxes for a Los Angeles-based photo retailer selling through its site to photographers in San Francisco.
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This makes me very happy. I shall exploit this at the firts oppurtunity.
 
really, that "nexus" law should be done away with. tehcnically, for every online purchase where the seller does not charge sales tax, the customer is supposed to keep track of what the sales tax would have been and then send their state government a check for that amount at tax time. no one does this, and it's a HUGE loss to state governments all across the country. i am glad for californians that they can get out of this for now, as it's unfair for them to pay taxes on amazon when no one else does, but really in the future these taxes should be collected. it would just be a really unpopular stance to try and get that going.
 
So non Amazon sellers that have items fulfilled by Amazon are tax free still?
 
ekuest said:
i am glad for californians that they can get out of this for now, as it's unfair for them to pay taxes on amazon when no one else does...
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Amazon collects sales tax in some other states (Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington). And this doesn't get Californians totally off the hook, as only "Roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of the items that Amazon offers to ship are "fulfilled by" products."
 
Lethal said:
Amazon collects sales tax in some other states (Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington). And this doesn't get Californians totally off the hook, as only "Roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of the items that Amazon offers to ship are "fulfilled by" products."
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true, i paid when i lived in washington. im just saying that instead of some states paying taxes for purchases from some retailers and some not (not just amazon, but everywhere online) i think everyone should pay tax on every purchase, and tax rates should be decreased.
 
It's up to the actual seller to pay taxes or collect from buyer. Amazon is no different than EBay in this situation. This is like expecting the shopping center owner to collect/pay taxes for a store it leases too.
 
ekuest said:
i am glad for californians that they can get out of this for now, as it's unfair for them to pay taxes on amazon when no one else does, but really in the future these taxes should be collected. it would just be a really unpopular stance to try and get that going.
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I'm curious why is this unfair? Other states do pay taxes, not all of them, but some. Is it unfair for states that collect no sales tax? Why should california collect it! is it unfair for states that don't have any income tax collection?
 
ekuest said:
really, that "nexus" law should be done away with. tehcnically, for every online purchase where the seller does not charge sales tax, the customer is supposed to keep track of what the sales tax would have been and then send their state government a check for that amount at tax time. no one does this, and it's a HUGE loss to state governments all across the country. i am glad for californians that they can get out of this for now, as it's unfair for them to pay taxes on amazon when no one else does, but really in the future these taxes should be collected. it would just be a really unpopular stance to try and get that going.
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Yes people are supposed to pay any owed sales tax with their tax returns, but not all people have taxable income, so that is impossible since some are just not allowed to file.
 
Hmm, this must be why even though I understood Amazon was to start charging Texas tax back in July, my last recent order was NOT charged tax.

I was wondering about that. Very interesting.

Great, guess now we have to start hunting for "fulfilled by amazon" products, preferring them to others? LOL.
 
ekuest said:
really, that "nexus" law should be done away with. tehcnically, for every online purchase where the seller does not charge sales tax, the customer is supposed to keep track of what the sales tax would have been and then send their state government a check for that amount at tax time. no one does this, and it's a HUGE loss to state governments all across the country. i am glad for californians that they can get out of this for now, as it's unfair for them to pay taxes on amazon when no one else does, but really in the future these taxes should be collected. it would just be a really unpopular stance to try and get that going.
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Yes, because really the problem in America is the government doesn't take enough of our money.

And I'm sure closing this loophole that amounts to a rounding error would fix our fundamentally broken political system of trillions of dollar deficits right away, too! Oh wait, it actually wouldn't make any difference at all.
 
Shark974 said:
Yes, because really the problem in America is the government doesn't take enough of our money.

And I'm sure closing this loophole that amounts to a rounding error would fix our fundamentally broken political system of trillions of dollar deficits right away, too! Oh wait, it actually wouldn't make any difference at all.
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I would have edited this into my last post if it were possible, but just wanted to say +1
There is so much mindlessness in this thread and it's disturbing. I guess this is the result of ~20,000 hours of public indoctrination errr school.
 
Shark974 said:
Yes, because really the problem in America is the government doesn't take enough of our money.

And I'm sure closing this loophole that amounts to a rounding error would fix our fundamentally broken political system of trillions of dollar deficits right away, too! Oh wait, it actually wouldn't make any difference at all.
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Especially in Calfornia!!
 
Hrm... this might convince me to keep my prime membership (which expires tomorrow haha).

If any of you "for tax" people think that I'll see one cent of benefit from the increased revanue the state will be charging me you're crazy.

And Dreaz, sometimes dodging taxes is a very very good thing. My 7000+ person company got declared a foreign trade zone (we pay much less import/export duties now) and got a lower tax rate (~12%) at the beginning of summer last year. Since then we've hired over 1000 new people.
 
Hrm... this might convince me to keep my prime membership (which expires tomorrow haha).

If any of you "for tax" people think that I'll see one cent of benefit from the increased revanue the state will be charging me you're crazy.

And Dreaz, sometimes dodging taxes is a very very good thing. My 7000+ person company got declared a foreign trade zone (we pay much less import/export duties now) and got a lower tax rate (~12% IIRC) at the beginning of summer last year. Since then the company's been able to hire over 1000 new people.
 
Business idea for someone in Nevada; let a hypothetical California resident (certainly not me), pay you N% of an items cost on Amazon to do something* so the hypothetical California resident can buy the item from you shipped and fulfilled by amazon.

Where N is strictly less than California sales tax.

* That something could be buy the item, take delivery, then send it to Amazon fulfillment. Extra profit for you if you can make that happen in less steps.
 
Surprise surprise.

19/20 responses in this thread are of the attitude that the government should be able to provide services for free.

You guys are free to move out. There are plenty of tax free 3rd world countries that would love migrants.
 
ounumen said:
This makes me very happy. I shall exploit this at the firts oppurtunity.
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But it only works on stuff "fulfilled by Amazon". Sadly, these are 3rd party sellers. Which means you may or may not get the good customer service, quick ship times, and good prices.
 
Staples said:
Surprise surprise.

19/20 responses in this thread are of the attitude that the government should be able to provide services for free.

You guys are free to move out. There are plenty of tax free 3rd world countries that would love migrants.
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+ 1
 
Wait I remember my sister getting taxed for a poster she purchased on amazon for an order that was fulfilled by amazon. Oh well nothing is certain but death and taxes :s
 
Staples said:
Surprise surprise.

19/20 responses in this thread are of the attitude that the government should be able to provide services for free.

You guys are free to move out. There are plenty of tax free 3rd world countries that would love migrants.
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Surprise surprise, your post is of the attitude that the government should take all income period for whatever "services" and perks they please.

You are free to move out. There are plenty of high-tax, totalitarian 3rd world countries that would love migrants.


Yeah, I can take things to unreasonable extremes too. :rolleyes:

I'm sure you're such a good example and pay use tax on everything you buy on FS/T/ebay/craigslist...
 
MissJ84 said:
/fixed :)
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You should check out Somalia. When you get rid of the government you end up with local warlords controlling everything and fighting with each other. I'm not sure that's really preferable to a government (even one as corrupt and incompetent as ours).
 
What, do you guys think everything would be better with additional tax revenue? WRONG. Government would just piss it all away.
 
Dreaz said:
Oh look, another large corporation dodging taxes. Surprise.
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Dreaz said:
Thank you for agreeing with me that this is tax dodging.
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Point is, who's doing the tax dodging? Sales tax is levied against consumers, not corporations. Amazon pays a separate corporate tax for their own income. Have you shopped at Amazon? Then you have dodged taxes, not Amazon. Amazon (and every other internet business) has helped the consumer dodge sales tax for years through [up until now] legal methods. They are still following the law for now until California closes the legal loophole.
 
Staples said:
Surprise surprise.

19/20 responses in this thread are of the attitude that the government should be able to provide services for free.

You guys are free to move out. There are plenty of tax free 3rd world countries that would love migrants.
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What about all the "services" America is providing to those third world countries. And by services I mean anything from providing food aid, to funding drug cartels, to orchestrating coups, to blowing the absolute shit out of :cool:
 
I'm all for CA sales tax imposed on CA transactions (saying that as a CA resident who uses Amazon frequently). You're legally obligated to report sales tax on items you purchase that didn't impose sales tax at the time of purchase. This just makes sure the money actually gets paid (as we know very well, how many people actually report un-paid sales tax on their tax returns...?)
 
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