News -> INDReporter FRI, MAY 27 10:49AM by Heather Miller

‘Amazon’ tax bill pending in House

As lawmakers continue to debate loads of tax legislation this session to cope with the state’s massive budget shortfalls, one bill aiming to expand online sales tax collections in the state, a.k.a. the Amazon bill, has quietly made it through a House committee.

A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined that companies are only forced to collect state sales taxes if they have a physical site in the state. It’s this high court decision that’s given popular mega Web stores like Amazon and Overstock an edge over other retailers by not having to collect sales taxes.

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy reports that Louisiana, faced with a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, is joining a slew of other states in trying to come up with a way to collect sales taxes from the online giants by tying them to their in-state “affiliates,” or Web companies that profit from advertising or linking to another retailer’s merchandise.

House Bill 641 by state Rep. Rosalind Jones, D-Monroe, would force online retailers like Amazon to collect online sales taxes if their affiliates have physical ties to Louisiana:
HB 641’s objective is to open new revenue streams, close the budget deficit, and create a level playing field between brick-and-mortar and online retailers.
The Pelican Post says similar laws have been approved in New York, Texas, Rhode Island, and Illinois, but have done little to increase revenue for the states.

According to a report from The New York Times, Amazon is fighting back on the new laws popping up across the country, even shuttering a warehouse owned by its subsidiary to avoid paying a $269 million tax bill sent from the state of Texas.

Jones’ bill is awaiting a full House vote, though it was not yet on the calendar as of Friday morning.

Read more on the online sales tax issue here and here.

Comments (4)add
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written by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , May 27, 2011 - 12:28 pm
The legislature would be more productive if it promoted people to buy locally instead of online rather than trying to push for taxes on products or employees in Louisiana.
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written by BoFred , May 29, 2011 - 06:55 am
If the legislature would concentrate on companies in La that should pay taxes, corporate welfare, or the manner in which wealthy landowners skate by property taxes by claiming it as farmland, La could collect millions of dollars there.
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written by HRobertson , May 29, 2011 - 03:10 pm
While i agree with the motivation behind this legislation, in Colorado it caused Amazon to drop it's local 'affiliates'. So net result....zero.

This is a national issue and has to addressed by Congress. And should be. As a local seller I lose to the internet all the time. And shipping costs don't level the playing field. Many companies ship for free now.
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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , May 31, 2011 - 09:26 pm
The way it is headed, soon there will not be any taxes paid, for saoon the middle class " Who Are the 99 % tax payers, will be absorbed into the lower poverty level and only 1 percent of the lower upper middle class will pay the 1 % of the taxes, and then all the Politicians on the take, and the Mellons, the Rocketfellers, The Soros, The Asturds, The Pasturds, and the Heldturds will hve to pick their own cotton, Eh ? And when hobama sells out The New World Order, to the 5 above, who is going to pick all daT "EGYPTIAN MUSLIM COTTON?
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