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Amazon.com sales tax in MA soon?

jimmywilson69

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I suspect the tax free internet is soon coming to an end.

For this year's PA taxes, you had to report, voluntarily, your internet/out of state taxes. If you did buy something out of state, you could take a credit for the tax paid there.

It's total crap... If you ask me.
 

wa-loaf

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Nick

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I do have to overall agree with jimmywilson, towns and states are short on budgets and they want to make money where they can, so I wouldn't be surprised to see sales tax across the internet soon. I do think there will be a point in time where we look back at the earlier part of the century and remember the "wild west" that was tax-free / (fairly) regulation-free Internet.

Hope not though!
 

Glenn

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Amazon pulled out of Connecticut last year when they started taxing them. These state governments are out of control with this crap. Live within your means.

*Edit
Nick, are you member of Amazon Prime? I just picked up a refurbed Kindle Fire (should be here next week. Weeee!) It comes with a free month of Prime. I have a buddy who swears by it; buys everything from Amazon now that 2nd day shipping is free with his Prime account.
 
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Geoff

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...and_congress_should_clarify_online_sales_tax/

Was thinking about how much I use Amazon... for almost everything, even cereal occasionally. I'm kind of mixed on this.I don't like paying more but I can understand local B&M frustration with online retailers skipping taxes.

When Amazon started reporting sales tax data for items shipped to Vermont, I stopped using them. The same would be true in Massachusetts. There are lot of other internet retailers out there.
 

wa-loaf

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Amazon pulled out of Connecticut last year when they started taxing them. These state governments are out of control with this crap. Live within your means.

*Edit
Nick, are you member of Amazon Prime? I just picked up a refurbed Kindle Fire (should be here next week. Weeee!) It comes with a free month of Prime. I have a buddy who swears by it; buys everything from Amazon now that 2nd day shipping is free with his Prime account.

I've got Prime. The free 2 day pays for itself ($79 year for Prime) with just a few orders. I do still shop around a fair amount and depending on the item it may be better for me to pay shipping somewhere else. I'd say 50% of my online purchases are through Amazon. It really pays off for small items where other places may have $50 or $100 minimums for free shipping.
 

Geoff

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I've got Prime. The free 2 day pays for itself ($79 year for Prime) with just a few orders. I do still shop around a fair amount and depending on the item it may be better for me to pay shipping somewhere else. I'd say 50% of my online purchases are through Amazon. It really pays off for small items where other places may have $50 or $100 minimums for free shipping.

I think about getting Prime just to get the free IP streaming video. Their library is small but they have things that Netflix doesn't.
 

deadheadskier

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In theory you should be paying use tax if you didn't pay sales tax...;-)

http://www.mass.gov/dor/individuals/taxpayer-help-and-resources/tax-guides/salesuse-tax-guide.html#questions

Got bit on that one many years ago with a furniture purchase in NH. MA DOR audited the NH store and found my address on a receipt.

Surprised the State of NH would even allow MA DOR to audit their stores. That's a major component in why there is no sales tax in NH; to lure shoppers from out of state.

Maine had a line item on their tax returns asking you to report purchases out of state. Screw that. What if I move out of state, are they going to give me a tax credit?
 

hammer

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Surprised the State of NH would even allow MA DOR to audit their stores. That's a major component in why there is no sales tax in NH; to lure shoppers from out of state.

Maine had a line item on their tax returns asking you to report purchases out of state. Screw that. What if I move out of state, are they going to give me a tax credit?
It was a small business so maybe they didn't feel they had an option. When I bought another item from them they just left the address off of the receipt.

The problem with the use tax is not in the amount (although that can be a bit) but that, in theory, anything I purchase in NH and take home with me to MA is taxable. I do so much shopping in NH there's no way could I keep track of that.
 

thetrailboss

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Good luck on this, Massachusetts. Amazon has taken states to courts on this issue and has won. The only way it will be taxed is if the feds implement a national sales tax and even then folks will try to get around it.
 

riverc0il

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Sucks. But from an overall perspective, something has to change. Many states built their fiscal economies of scale on pre-internet sales taxation. With the internet, you have fewer people paying local taxes despite a growth in population needing services. No such thing as a free lunch, and all that. People complain about states not being able to balance budgets yet they cling to their tax free internet and then complain when that goes away. Easy for me to toss these stones when I live in a non-glass house in NH. But there it is.

Trailboss might know more about this, but I think internet retailers have won these cases frequently because they are relying on laws that were in place pre-internet that had not envisioned an internet driven economy.

Working in retail with an online store, one issue I know as a manager is doing taxes by state would be very difficult for small businesses. I work for a national company with lawyers and techies staying abreast of taxation issues and making appropriate changes. It would be incredibly difficult for small businesses to handle 50 different tax codes and handle the logistics of both collection and distribution.

Hopefully something fair from the feds can get this thing working for everyone without hurting local small business. Only concern there is if people have gotten used to tax free online shopping, it will be a major economic pain to need to pay sales tax again. Could drag the so called recovery down again in places.
 

mlctvt

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It would be incredibly difficult for small businesses to handle 50 different tax codes and handle the logistics of both collection and distribution.

I've read that there are in fact over 30,000 different state and local tax jurisdictions in the USA. As soon internet sales are opened to state taxation all the local county and or town jurisdictions will also be looking for their money too. Imagine a small startup business trying to handle that many different tax jurisdictions!

Edit - Although there may be 30,000 plus jurisdictions only 7600 local jurisdictions plus 45 states collect sales taxes. Still a large number though.
 
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