Amazon Sales Tax in Texas

a red state levying more taxes on it's consumers?

no surprise here...
 
California is as blue as it gets, and has some of the highest taxation compared to any state in the union.
(The truth is both democrats and republicans will tax the crap out of you, it's all just political rhetoric.)
 
UnknownSouljer said:
California is as blue as it gets, and has some of the highest taxation compared to any state in the union.
(The truth is both democrats and republicans will tax the crap out of you, it's all just political rhetoric.)
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True dat. I live in Cali and Amazon is one of the few places online you can go and not be taxed. It sucks because all of those Newegg deals end up not so great when you factor in sales tax.
 
I don't understand why online retailers don't try to all hole up in in Wyoming.
 
mtbush said:
a red state levying more taxes on it's consumers?

no surprise here...
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How is it "more taxes"? Even if the online retailer doesn't charge taxes, you are SUPPOSED to individually when you file your yearly taxes. If you haven't been, then technically you've been breaking the law. No sense in bitching about being held accountable for something that you should've been doing all along.
 
Wyoming is a beautiful state! I have no idea why people want to huddle in congested, unfriendly and dirty cities rather than enjoy spacious, quaint and clean towns.
 
I did discover that Amazon does not collect sales tax for orders that are "fulfilled by Amazon", but are sold by other stores. I kind of figured that sales by other vendors on Amazon would not result in sales tax, but to find out the Prime eligible "Fulfilled by Amazon" orders are also not resulting in sales tax is a small victory.
 
Eulogy said:
How is it "more taxes"? Even if the online retailer doesn't charge taxes, you are SUPPOSED to individually when you file your yearly taxes. If you haven't been, then technically you've been breaking the law. No sense in bitching about being held accountable for something that you should've been doing all along.
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What law exactly are you referring to?
Or do you just comply with everything the IRS says to you?

Heres a good one, where is the law that says you must pay taxes? I'll wait....
 
LeviathanZERO said:
What law exactly are you referring to?
Or do you just comply with everything the IRS says to you?

Heres a good one, where is the law that says you must pay taxes? I'll wait....
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Well, I'm not one to keep you waiting.
Most of the federal income tax laws are codified in Title 26 of the U.S. Code. You can read it at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/ or at http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title26…
The sections that apply to most people are 1, 61, 62, 63, 3402, 6001, 6011, 6012 and several others. Title 26 is known as prima facie law or evidence of the actual laws passed by Congress.

To read the actual laws passed by Congress, you have to look in the U.S. Statutes at Large. For the most part, these are not available online. However, you can find them at many Federal Depository Libraries(FDL) and many law libraries. You can find an FDL in your state at http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.j…

Our current tax laws get their structure from the Internal Revenue Act of 1954 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The 1954 act can be found in Volume 68A starting on page 3 in the U.S. Statutes at Large. The 1986 act can be found in Volume 100 starting on page 2085. Both laws were passed by Congress and signed into law by a President. Various acts of Congress have modified those two laws throughout the years.

The 16th amendment was properly ratified and no court has ever accepted the argument that it wasn't. Additionally, once the amendment was ratified, none of the states listed as ratifying complained that they didn't really ratify it.
 
Eulogy said:
Well, I'm not one to keep you waiting.
Most of the federal income tax laws are codified in Title 26 of the U.S. Code. You can read it at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/ or at http://www.access.gpo.gov/uscode/title26…
The sections that apply to most people are 1, 61, 62, 63, 3402, 6001, 6011, 6012 and several others. Title 26 is known as prima facie law or evidence of the actual laws passed by Congress.

To read the actual laws passed by Congress, you have to look in the U.S. Statutes at Large. For the most part, these are not available online. However, you can find them at many Federal Depository Libraries(FDL) and many law libraries. You can find an FDL in your state at http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.j…

Our current tax laws get their structure from the Internal Revenue Act of 1954 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The 1954 act can be found in Volume 68A starting on page 3 in the U.S. Statutes at Large. The 1986 act can be found in Volume 100 starting on page 2085. Both laws were passed by Congress and signed into law by a President. Various acts of Congress have modified those two laws throughout the years.

The 16th amendment was properly ratified and no court has ever accepted the argument that it wasn't. Additionally, once the amendment was ratified, none of the states listed as ratifying complained that they didn't really ratify it.
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Well, very informative. I wasn't expecting a discussion, so I don't disappoint you, I'll just admit it was a rhetorical question meant to make you think if we should be OK that our gov constantly taxes everything imaginable, including things like this, all the while any business(Sol proprietorship or otherwise) in Texas can purchase anything tax-free.

The gov gets plenty from everything we are already taxed on. There is no need to create more taxes. The solution to THAT problem is to STOP spending money on useless junk and programs. When you max out your credit card, you don't get another line of credit, you straight up cant buy anymore. Why should the gov get a pass with OUR money?
 
LeviathanZERO said:
Well, very informative. I wasn't expecting a discussion, so I don't disappoint you, I'll just admit it was a rhetorical question meant to make you think if we should be OK that our gov constantly taxes everything imaginable, including things like this, all the while any business(Sol proprietorship or otherwise) in Texas can purchase anything tax-free.

The gov gets plenty from everything we are already taxed on. There is no need to create more taxes. The solution to THAT problem is to STOP spending money on useless junk and programs. When you max out your credit card, you don't get another line of credit, you straight up cant buy anymore. Why should the gov get a pass with OUR money?
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I don't disagree with most of what you have said. However, this is not a "new" tax by any means at all, and one that individuals have been held accountable on for decades. I honestly don't like it any more than you (or anyone else), but it IS the rule of the land, and in avoiding it in any fashion, you're breaking that law. If Amazon et. al. did not collect state sales taxes on your purchases, and your state (and/or municipality) have that tax in place, then you as an individual were required to declare that annually on your own. The only "change" here is that now people are no longer able to get away with breaking the law as easily.
 
The Government is using the excuse to tax Amazon, and level the playing field, so that brick and mortar stores can stay competitive....okay I can see that, sure....but why can't the government enforce newegg, or tigerdirect, or every damn online retailer for that matter? IMO that would certainly level the playing field, and I personally wouldn't have a problem with that, in paying taxes

Btw I live in Cali...and Amazon will be charging sales tax to us in September of this year...I'm certainly not looking forward to it...that means Newegg and Amazon, my fav e-tailers will become tax infested....and I don't tread near tiger direct, as their prices are generally high anyway, and their service sucks...I know for newegg, all states besides Cali & New Jersey, will be tax free...come on now! Why can't everybody be taxed and level the damn playing field? All these other guys are excluded, makes it unfair
 
Eulogy said:
How is it "more taxes"? Even if the online retailer doesn't charge taxes, you are SUPPOSED to individually when you file your yearly taxes. If you haven't been, then technically you've been breaking the law. No sense in bitching about being held accountable for something that you should've been doing all along.
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Exactly. If the internet retailer does not charge state sales tax at the time of purchase, you are required to report all your untaxed purchases on your state return.
 
aubsxc said:
Exactly. If the internet retailer does not charge state sales tax at the time of purchase, you are required to report all your untaxed purchases on your state return.
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As much as I hate taxes this is correct.
 
I've already been starting to purchase more electronic items (that I would normally buy at Amazon) at Fry's with their price matching option. It's an excellent option if you have a Fry's near you... just pay a few extra bucks in gas, but you get the item the same day.
 
aubsxc said:
Exactly. If the internet retailer does not charge state sales tax at the time of purchase, you are required to report all your untaxed purchases on your state return.
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What were you supposed to do if your state did not have a return, eg Texas?
 
Bosom said:
What were you supposed to do if your state did not have a return, eg Texas?
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If your state does not charge sales tax on goods purchased in the state then you presumably don't have to report any purchases from out of state. I don't know, you would have to check with the Texas govt.
 
Eulogy said:
How is it "more taxes"? Even if the online retailer doesn't charge taxes, you are SUPPOSED to individually when you file your yearly taxes.
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Sure thing Ned Flanders. Besides, Texas has never had a state tax return to file.
 
aubsxc said:
If your state does not charge sales tax on goods purchased in the state then you presumably don't have to report any purchases from out of state. I don't know, you would have to check with the Texas govt.
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Ducman69 said:
Sure thing Ned Flanders. Besides, Texas has never had a state tax return to file.
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I suggest both of you, if you're truly concerned about being in-line (which, for some reason, I doubt) check with local tax code or a tax expert to see what you should be doing then. I don't reside in Texas, and I don't feel like looking up the code there just to have you argue it away anyway. You *still* don't have a leg to stand on when complaining about Amazon now collecting the necessary tax in your state of residence.
 
Eulogy said:
You *still* don't have a leg to stand on when complaining about Amazon now collecting the necessary tax in your state of residence.
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Regardless of any technicalities of the law, no one was being arrested or audited for not paying tax on amazon pruchases.

So paying no tax before, paying tax now, this is not rocket science. At some level most people have a basic comprehension that they don't like paying more for the same things and would complain about any such change.
 
And on that note, I will continue to purchase items at reputable sellers that have the lowest to-my-door price.

With Amazon having increased its AmazonPrime membership fee a little while back, and having abolished the free AmazonMom Prime equivelent, with now likely a 8.25% price increase on their goods, I predict that I will be shopping a lot less on Amazon and won't be alone in that.

The question will be how big of a hit this combination will hit them, and one thing we've learned from NewEgg and Netflix is that no one cares how great you were six months ago, all that matters is the "right now".
 
Well yes, this does in fact suck. High dollar items will require a tax. It's all because, Amazon re-opened a distribution warehouse in Dallas a few months ago. Amazon had to make a deal with the Texas State comptroller and the agreement was to collect tax in TX.

Supposedly it was going into effect in June which we all know didn't happen. I'm glad I grabbed my EVGA gtx 670 when I did or I would have shelled out at least $35 to the man.

On the bright side, we are employing Texas citizens, which isn't a bad thing.
 
You guys need to go read your Constitution. It is illegal for a state to tax goods from another state. This is a state matter, not a federal one. So, when Amazon wanted to put a warehouse in Texas, it is now doing business in the state, and therefore the state can now levy a tax on those goods. This goes back to before the Internet where most catalog sales did not have a sales tax imposed.

Also, I believe it is the state component of the tax, and not the county/city tax, so it may be like 6%, not the full 8.25%.

Keith
 
Eulogy said:
I suggest both of you, if you're truly concerned about being in-line (which, for some reason, I doubt) check with local tax code or a tax expert to see what you should be doing then. I don't reside in Texas, and I don't feel like looking up the code there just to have you argue it away anyway. You *still* don't have a leg to stand on when complaining about Amazon now collecting the necessary tax in your state of residence.
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I don't live in Texas, so I don't know about Texas. However, if Texas does not charge sales tax for retail purchases made within the state (which I think is what someone said), I think one could reasonably presume that Texas does not have a requirement for its residents to pay taxes on purchases made outside the state. Again, I am not familiar with the tax code in Texas, which is why I say presumably.

I live in South Carolina where the state requires residents to declare the full value of all purchases made through the internet where state taxes were not collected at the time of sale, and pay taxes on this value. Therefore, I keep track of my said internet purchases and declare this value on my state return each year. I'm not sure what it was about my statements that caused doubt in your mind; maybe you could clarify?
 
ito4u said:
On the bright side, we are employing Texas citizens, which isn't a bad thing.
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If these are low-skill manual labor jobs, its probably mostly Mexican citizens with visas (and a few without). Most of the warehouses around here, only the supervisors speak English.
 
Ducman69 said:
If these are low-skill manual labor jobs, its probably mostly Mexican citizens with visas (and a few without). Most of the warehouses around here, only the supervisors speak English.
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I can't say as I don't work for Amazon. I would hope they are employing legal Texan workers. I'm sure the comptroller would have ensured that contractually if they allowed Amazon to distribute from here.
 
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