Amazon.com vs The State of. California

That's why when I got an email from the mall management asking me to vote for this proposition I told them to fuck off. I hate shopping malls, Amazon makes it affordable for me to avoid the super marked up prices.

Alaskans don't pay taxes, so the state needs to make it up somehow.

The Federal Legislature gets to regulate interstate commerce. California can kiss its case goodbye.

Amazon is certainly welcome to try to make that argument in Federal Court. They probably already are in New York which passed this kind of law some time ago.

They will have to prove they don't have a Nexus of operations. And California might argue that the relevant federal case law needs to be overturned. Circumstances have changed since it was decided.

They should certainly tell their congressional representatives to get off their asses and do their job though. It'd be very easy to set up a system for tax collection across the states.

edited 7th Jul '11 3:08:08 PM by blueharp

@Barkey; You ever had a $5 Bud-lite? They'd have you think it's liquid fuckin gold.

Well, why should Amazon pay no taxes when another store has to? Shouldn't they have to pay their fair share?

Why should they pay if they don't have a physical store?

Because they're still selling there? It's about sales tax, not property tax.

edited 8th Jul '11 9:25:11 AM by Medinoc

FWIW, they also do their best to get property tax exemptions.

They own property to...

Oh right. Storage.

/beingsilly

I'm not sure if they actually own the storage facilities or if somebody else does until point of sale.

Amazon uses far less public services than a brick and mortar store, namely that they don't need people to guard their store or use utilities for them.

Their warehouses do use resources, I know, I've seen where they had the sewer lines put in, and traffic lanes, and other stuff. I'm sure they also have security to worry about as well.

Exact details of shell ownership and leases does not change that.

edited 8th Jul '11 12:05:00 PM by blueharp

Sometimes I think the California state government needs to shut up.

Really, they go after pointless stuff like video game censor ship. Aren't there bigger problems to deal with?

And they pay property taxes on them.

Tax revenue is different from video games. How many hundreds of millions of dollars have to be involved before you think they should care?

Actually, no, they try to get exemptions for that too. Which may be reasonable, it is something to negotiate to attract them there as an incentive.

But really, sales taxes are paid by the customers, who presumably do benefit from the state's spending.

If they don't, then they really need better representation.

edited 8th Jul '11 12:30:46 PM by blueharp