Amazon Agrees To Collect State Tax In California

Senate vote shows support for bill allowing states to collect sales taxes for online purchases WASHINGTON (AP) — States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday.

That Congress has had aspirations on collecting sales tax on online purchases, which comprise an increasingly bigger portion of all retail sales in the US, in the past is nothing new. However, following last night's passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act in the Senate with a cloture-busting 74 votes for (and 20 against), the US may be very close to finally adopting a uniform standard taxing all online transactions, regardless of physical jurisdiction or any other geographic boundaries.

Via Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog, In another brilliant move aimed at destroying the few table scraps of economic freedom which remain in the Land of the Free, a bipartisan group of esteemed lawmakers in the United States Congress has introduced the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013.

(Reuters) - Sales tax from Internet commerce, a prize pursued for years by U.S. state governments, is starting to arrive in California and a few other states, providing millions of dollars in new revenue, though not as much as a benchmark study once forecast.

If this bill passes, lots of you will be sad to see taxes showing up on your Amazon invoices.

(frankieleon)

Last month I wrote about Amazon.com‘s hasty exit from Texas when presented with a bill for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes (

In order to raise a fairly trivial amount of revenue, California is considering requiring any online retailer with an affiliate organization in the state to charge its residents sales taxes.  Unfortunately, the response to such moves by other states has not actually resulted in the sales tax being charged; it has resulted in the affiliates relationships being shut down, causing a net loss in tax revenue (since Amazon affiliates have to pay taxes on their income).