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PSA: ohioans, amazon.com taxes start monday

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notposting said:
Supposedly we might get hit in Michigan this fall. However, I'm hoping that if we do, Amazon promptly opens a brand new distribution center (or two, one here in Metro Detroit, and one in Grand Rapids for rudeguy) and we can get into the AmazonFresh scene and drone shootdown delivery, etc etc.
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You will get hit with it (October 1, 2015)

Michigan passed legislation for "click through Nexus", meaning that they deem a nexus has been established when the seller (Amazon) received kick-backs from other entities that are established in the area (IE: ShopDiscover, Fatwallet, etc....)

http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/...kThrough+Nexus+And+Affiliate+Nexus+Provisions
 
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DaveStall said:
I don't believe that is the case in Ohio is it? The articles I read didn't say anything about that. I am aware of the state presence thing as I have seen that happen before.
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http://www.the-review.com/dix statehouse/2015/06/02/amazon-com-begins-collecting-sales-tax-in-ohio

The collections were announced last week during a press conference at the Statehouse, where Gov. John Kasich, JobsOhio Chief Investment Officer John Minor and Paul Misener, vice president of global public policy at Amazon.com, announced new data centers and fulfillment and related facilities to support the company's U.S. network.
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DaveStall said:
I would be willing to place a bet that this has simply laid the groundwork for the rest of the states to start doing the same thing. It's like the whole casino thing. Once one state broke ranks and got them, all states got them. Other governors will see that sweet tax money rolling in from Amazon and quickly get their own legislation passed.
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You're a bit late on that. They've been jumping on the tax wagon for quite a while. Amazon already collects sales tax from more than half of the states that have a sales tax.
 
allisolm said:
You're a bit late on that. They've been jumping on the tax wagon for quite a while. Amazon already collects sales tax from more than half of the states that have a sales tax.
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Yeah, I see that now. So basically, Ohio is the one following someone else's lead. Nothing new there.
 
edro said:
I guess the convenience, lower costs than B&M and Prime till make the 7% increase worth it.
I'll definitely be looking for non-tax collecting vendors in my future shopping ventures.
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Not always....

Earlier this month (Oct. 2014), Wells Fargo and online sales tracking firm 360pi unveiled their findings from a full-year analysis of the various online pricing habits of the world's largest e-commerce companies across over 100 commonly offered stock-keeping units.

Perhaps the biggest single bombshell was that Amazon.com has lost a sales edge in four important categories to the likes of Wal-Mart and Target. According to the report, both big-box retailers generally offered lower prices online than Amazon in the clothing and shoes, electronics, housewares, and health and cosmetics categories.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/money...not-the-king-of-cheap-online-prices/17439307/
 
If our Congress critters had any backbone and actually cared about small business and local business at all they would have legislated away this loophole at least a decade ago. Any argument that the new internet marketplace needed a special break disappeared by 2000.

Probably all, or nearly all, states have a line on their income tax return to report use tax but the fact of the matter is only a trivial amount of the actual use tax is reported and paid this way.
 
Thump553 said:
If our Congress critters had any backbone and actually cared about small business and local business at all they would have legislated away this loophole at least a decade ago. Any argument that the new internet marketplace needed a special break disappeared by 2000.

Probably all, or nearly all, states have a line on their income tax return to report use tax but the fact of the matter is only a trivial amount of the actual use tax is reported and paid this way.
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You can EASILY make an argument for the opposite.

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to keep up with sales tax rates for each jurisdiction that your small company is shipping to? No? It's fucking hard that's why. It's damn near impossible. And a lot of start-ups are done with internet sales these days.

Every time you ship a single package you have to worry about
1) State Jurisdictions
2) County Jurisdictions
3) Local/City Jurisdictions

....All of which are constantly changing the rates, etc..
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
You can EASILY make an argument for the opposite.

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to keep up with sales tax rates for each jurisdiction that your small company is shipping to? No? It's fucking hard that's why. It's damn near impossible. And a lot of start-ups are done with internet sales these days.

Every time you ship a single package you have to worry about
1) State Jurisdictions
2) County Jurisdictions
3) Local/City Jurisdictions

....All of which are constantly changing the rates, etc..
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Government maintained database?
Seems easy enough to me.
All localities report their tax changes to the database agency.
I'm sure the localities would be ok with a flat tax on all goods other than food, alcohol, tobacco that were mail ordered.


Of course, they can't maintain healthcare.gov...
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
You can EASILY make an argument for the opposite.

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to keep up with sales tax rates for each jurisdiction that your small company is shipping to? No? It's fucking hard that's why. It's damn near impossible. And a lot of start-ups are done with internet sales these days.

Every time you ship a single package you have to worry about
1) State Jurisdictions
2) County Jurisdictions
3) Local/City Jurisdictions

....All of which are constantly changing the rates, etc..
Click to expand...

That's SOOO much harder than establishing a brick and mortar store. Zoning, insurance, parking, etc. are sooo much easier than buying a piece of software to handle sales tax calculations.
 
Sonikku said:
Serves you right. In NY I've basically always paid sales tax on Amazon. Amazon should not be able to make a business model out of undercutting local stores through a tax loophole any how. If you shop at Amazon because you like their prices or you like their service/shipping over local stores, that's ok. But if you shop at Amazon in part because they don't have to charge tax while local stores do, that's not ok and a big contributing factor towards them going out of business.
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I think that had to do with Amazon having a physical presence in NY.
 
edro said:
Government maintained database?
Seems easy enough to me.
All localities report their tax changes to the database agency.
I'm sure the localities would be ok with a flat tax on all goods other than food, alcohol, tobacco that were mail ordered.


Of course, they can't maintain healthcare.gov...
Click to expand...

Hahahahahahaha oh boy, you think it's that simple. How cute.

There is approximately 10,000 total sales tax jurisdictions in the US. Given, most jurisdictions can change or add sales tax at any point in time.

Some jurisdictions are like our FED tax with a progressive system. Some are flat tax. Some are tax rates.

All of this depends, usually, on where you ship to. Did you ship within city limits? outside city limits?

Then you get into what did you sell. Is that item taxable in that jurisdiction? Certainly where I live most food is tax free, so you need to make sure you factor that in. Clothing? Sometimes depending on how much it's sold for.
 
Thump553 said:
That's SOOO much harder than establishing a brick and mortar store. Zoning, insurance, parking, etc. are sooo much easier than buying a piece of software to handle sales tax calculations.
Click to expand...

Most people don't have the money to make a brick & mortar store. They have to get loans, find some land, get a permit, get it built, etc.. etc..

Or.... you can start by selling out of your basement and send them off in packages. Which one sounds easier?
 
Yeah... I don't use Amazon that much, more ebay than anything and I'm just waiting for the feds to get their mitts into ebay. There was a petion some time ago I signed from ebay about that.

Time to eliminate the IRS and create a flat tax I say.
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
Hahahahahahaha oh boy, you think it's that simple. How cute.

There is approximately 10,000 total sales tax jurisdictions in the US. Given, most jurisdictions can change or add sales tax at any point in time.

Some jurisdictions are like our FED tax with a progressive system. Some are flat tax. Some are tax rates.

All of this depends, usually, on where you ship to. Did you ship within city limits? outside city limits?

Then you get into what did you sell. Is that item taxable in that jurisdiction? Certainly where I live most food is tax free, so you need to make sure you factor that in. Clothing? Sometimes depending on how much it's sold for.
Click to expand...
Large brick and mortar chains already have it figured it out (Costco, Best Buy, etc).
They probably already have a nationwide corporate database.

You think they leave it up to the cashier to figure out?
The store manager?
No.

That's because it's already being done.
 
edro said:
Large brick and mortar chains already have it figured it out (Costco, Best Buy, etc).
They probably already have a nationwide corporate database.

You think they leave it up to the cashier to figure out?
The store manager?
No.

That's because it's already being done.
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......Not quite bucko.

They use vendor software. I would know since I implement it for our clients :awe:


Also, my previous comment was in regards to a small business. One in which obviously doesn't have those types of software ERP solutions such as the ones the large retailers use
 
edro said:
This sucks.

So you discussed it with yourself and your mom?
No one else does.
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Eh, most of my coworkers do (that is, the subject has come up while most of us were there), and AFAIK all of the people in Ohio who I'd consider a "friend" does. Then again, none of us want to be prosecuted by the Dept of Tax, and most of work for the government, and could lose our jobs if found guilty of tax evasion.
 
Fritzo said:
I think that had to do with Amazon having a physical presence in NY.
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Amazon didn't have a physical presence in NY. The term 'nexus' has been ill-defined and NY passed legislation defining nexus basically saying that economic nexus also counts towards whether an entity must collect sales tax. For Amazon, it was their affiliates program, as they were paying people in NY to refer sales to Amazon.com.
 
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