Tell Mr. Spendy to cut costs instead of sticking it to consumers.

nooooooooooooo!

Nothing new. NYers have to pay tax on video game subscriptions too.

NY tax is crazy.

So this *just* pertains to goods purchased on Amazon? That doesn't seem very fair.

The one of the original premises of this nation is the avoidance of taxes. Why should it surprise anyone in state government that people will go out of their way to avoid paying taxes?

State governments should get used to cutting costs just like everyone else. Oregon, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Alaska seem to find ways around the sales tax problem.

Huh? NY Doesn't already have a state law that requires folks to pay state taxes on mail order/Internet items from out of state? I know NV does...

I have to pay tax on all my Amazon shipments (and Dell), but thats because the businesses has a presence in my state.

only if Amazon is based in NY should this happen, I pay sales tax on purchased to a company if theya re located in calif

you cant single out one company and make them collect the taxes. either make apply to every out of state sale or nothing. maybe you should go after the people who are cheating on their NY tax returns by not declaring their out of state purchases. they are the real criminals here.

I wonder if I'm the only person that actually pays USE TAX every year on my state tax return. I paid $40 this year.

@doormat: NY has a law that you are supposed to declare your internet purchases on your tax return.

I guess that's not workin' out so well.

these government people are so stupid. Either that or they just don't care, which is what I suspect.

CUT GOVERNMENT AND YOU WON'T HAVE THIS DEFICIT PROBLEM! Idiots!

how about cut costs instead? yes, it will hurt.

SD did some saber rattling about this. First they tried scaring the crap out of people by repeatedly announcing that they were going to crack down on individual people buying anything online and not paying taxes. Then they said they were going to make Amazon collect sales tax. The reality that it would never hold up in court to make one online retailer collect taxes and another not set in. Also the reality that there are millions of online retailers and they could never force them all to do their bidding. When it was mentioned that the entire state only has 750,000 people in it and we have fewer people than most cities it all kind of went away.

This'll end up like those knife catalogues.

"PRODUCT UNAVAILABLE IN CA, NY, MA, DC, etc etc etc"

Watch, it'll happen. Amazon'll just stop selling to NY.

Illinois just started trying to collect taxes on items purchased out of state, they are mainly want the cigarette monies, but the forms for figuring what you owe were sent out with this years tax forms. The onus is on the taxpayer to figure out what they purchased out of state and how much they owe the state for said purchases.
Gotta love the governor!

I have no problem with them requiring people to pay the tax they should be paying anyhow. Kudos to the Government.

never have I heard an official suggest SPENDING LESS. Policial jackasses anger up my skeleton like no other. Grr.

@zentec: This is actually a miss-truth that people ignorant of our history have handed down, as never ANYWHERE in any history of the Revolution was it about not paying taxes... EVER.

It was about taxation without representation.... the fact that the colonies where forced to pay taxes without a official say in parliament.

Never once did any of our forefathers EVER think the country could be ran without taxing people. One of the first things they did in fact was tax certain items to help pay back the cost of the war.

While I would never disagree that spending should be cut, since that more than anything is the problem with our economy atm, the idea that we where a nation formed on the idea of avoiding taxes is a complete lie.

The NY proposed law is on ANY vendor that sells more than $10,000 in goods to citizens of NY.

Amazon is the ONLY company making noise at this time about the proposed law.

NetFlix, per the NYT article, is in agreement with the law as NetFlix already collects appropriate sales and/or use taxes.

Use taxes are already on the books for every state that has a state sales tax. The Texas Tax Commission has an excellant FAQ about sales and use taxes

[www.window.state.tx.us]

Compliance with the use tax payments is considered quite low across the board except:

1) Certain groups of citizens, such as Mormans, who have a high voluntary payment history.

2) Certain citizens that find paying the use tax or voluntarily paying the out-of-state sales taxes useful as an itemized deduction on their personal income tax returns.

3) And high profile politicians and lawyers that have much at risk should they be caught not voluntarily paying the use taxes or out-of-state sales taxes.

@SpdRacer:

Thank you Illinois.

This has already been tried in the courts. It will eventually be found unconstitutional. You can't make an out of state entity collect your taxes for you.

Honestly, I've never thought of it being tax-free with Amazon. I use it out of convenience or better deals, not because they don't charge tax. Though VA sales tax is nowhere like NY's tax. It's because of California's high tax that when I vacation there I'm not going to buy any gifts there that I couldn't just get somewhere else, whether it's internet or my own state, as long as it didn't take a ton of effort.

@nez77:

My voluntarily use tax payment (prelim) should be about $12. Why so low? Because I buy local whenever possible or buy from vendors that collect sales taxes.

As if we weren't getting taxed enough. And where is this tax money going? I can't see it.

@nez77: Pretty much. :)

@SpdRacer: Illinois does this every few years, complete with SCARY LETTERS sent to your home about how if you don't pay your USE TAX, the scary Illinois Revenooers are gonna come gitya.

When I was in college, Illinois had a budget shortfall and went all batshit about the Use Tax for a while, to the point that they wanted college students out of state to determine whether clothes and textbooks they bought at school would get more use IN or OUT of state, and pay the tax accordingly. As if anybody could be bothered.

They'll get bored of it again before too long, and move back to Illinois's other perennial tax issue, disputing income tax trades with Wisconsin and Indiana (for people who live in one state and work in another so pay tax to the work state through automatic deduction but owe it to the home state ... sometimes they agree to super-elaborate formulas that figure it out so taxpayers don't have to do anything; other times they fight, cancel the agreements, and you get to file three extra tax forms if you work across the border.)

Illinois will only really go after you for use tax on things like boats and cars bought out of state, typically in IN or WI with the express purpose of cheating the sales tax.

@Falconfire: Every now and then, somebody posts something that actually makes me to do a double-take in disbelief that there's someone else out there on the 'net who didn't drink the government or economics kool-aid flavor of the day. Your comment is the latest rare example. Thanks and cheers.

Aren't car taxes paid when you register the vehicle? You shouldn't pay tax to a dealer if you buy out of state (unless you want to pay tax twice!).

You have to pay use tax to register your car in illinois, so its pretty had to avoid that tax.

@Geekybiker:

Actually many states can and do require sales taxes charged on purchases by public funded schools, colleges and universities whether those purchases are made in-state or out-of-state.

If the vendor refuses to collect the appropriate sales taxes, the institution has instructions to cease doing business with the vendor.

I live in Wahington State and Amazon collects sales tax on my purchases.

Sales tax is just that ... tax on things you buy.

By buying out-of-state and not paying sales tax, you are cheating your state out of income it has budgeted for and should legally have.

What makes those of you objecting to this think you are so special? Just askin! And please phrase you answers "I don't have to pay taxes because......."

@ConnertheCat:

The "I am taking the car out-of-state" is one of the oldest tax dodges around.

Some states compel sales taxes to be collected at the time of sale REGARDLESS of who is buying the car.

But because state laws vary, and some people will buy in one state and then drive the car into another state for registration, some states will tax any new vehicle at the time it is registered if the vehicle was not previously tagged in another state.

There are states that tax any car the first time it is registered in the state if the car was not purchased (and sales taxes paid) in that state. Usually those taxes are used to offset low tag rates.

@sled_dog:

Amazon has a physical nexus in Washington State. Hence the automatic collection of Washington State sales taxes. To the best of my knowledge Washington State is the only state that Amazon collects sales taxes.

Sales Taxes are considered a windfall tax by most states as, unlike property taxes, the state can not accurately project collections.

Some states may pre-allocate a portion of the Sales Taxes, assuming that the taxes collected would not drop by more than a specific % for the upcomming year. But when sales tax collections do not meet expectations those states will be up the proverbial creek.

@Falconfire:

Right On !

my ass is jumping the border to CT should this take place.

The only people put off by this law are people who dodge the law to begin with. You are supposed to pay the sales tax to your state govt. either way, it is just not charged by amazon. People don't and it is a burden on the state to attempt to force people to claim items they purchased online. NYS is taking the correct step towards receiving the required taxes from people whom would otherwise not pay them. Am I affected by this? No. Would I be disappointed if it did affect me? Of course, but all this is, is just the govt. catching up with technology. We can buy EVERYTHING online now, why should we not be taxed for them?

i love living in Oregon, no sales tax, beautiful nature and when you pull up to the gas station, there someone there to pump your gas for you.

My question is...why isn't sales tax paid to the state where the online vendor does business? If I went to California and shopped at the "Amazon Store" in person (imagine the size of that one!), I would definitely pay CA sales tax. That said, if their servers are in CA, I should still be paying CA sales tax and not my home state. Reason being that the point of sale is at their server where my payment information is collected and the transaction is recorded.

In the case that a corporation does business in multiple states, you would either pay your own state's tax if they do business in your state, otherwise you'd pay based on the state where their home base is - probably where they are headquartered.

The fact that it's "internet shopping" shouldn't matter - it's essentially the same as shopping in person and arranging for the store to ship the item back home for you, just as you might actually do when on vacation or such.

This would eliminate the "use tax" issue that NY is facing, as states can't (shouldn't?) require you to pay sales tax twice on the same item.

Everyone should really learn about how taxation works. You are legally required to pay the tax on ANY item, you purchase ANYWHERE, if you bring it back into the state you reside in.

This is NOT just a NY law. The reason NY gets attention is because a few years back they placed the line item on their state income tax forms. Most states still don't but that does not mean you are NOT required to pay the tax.

When you purchase from an Internet retailer, they are not required to COLLECT sales tax. You, as the purchaser, are REQUIRED to pay a USE tax on the item equivalent to the taxation rate of your area.

This is not up for debate, it's the law. Whether people or do it or not is an entirely different debate. Kind of like the speed limit.

In this case Spitzer is claiming that because Amazon uses affiliates inside the state of NY they are operating a business presence within the state and are therefore required to collect sales tax.

It's amazing how LITTLE people will do to understand a situation.

@Petrarch1603:

What pays for your free lunch?

Higher income taxes?

Higher property taxes?

Higher car tags?

Oregon is "nice" to give you no sales taxes. Where do they make up the $?

A vote for Ron Paul is a vote for a tax-free Amazon

@StevieD:
Oregon makes it up in property tax mainly.

And @ the state funded schools, etc. They are free to compel institutions inside their state to pay taxes however they want. That includes only dealing with people who will collect sales tax. However they still can't compel someone outside the jurisdiction to collect tax. IE if state U wants to buy from amazon, and amazon says "no, we won't collect tax" State U is out of luck. In theory they could write a law compelling residents only to deal with places that will collect tax as well. Enforcing such a law would probably be impossible. (much like collecting the use tax already due.)

New Yorkers have one of the highest tax burdens in the country and to see this coming from Albany really pisses me off.

@nez77: I paid my use tax one year and they just refunded it.

In MA, you can chose to do one of the following on your income tax:

Attempt to figure out all your tax free (i.e. bought in NH) or online purchases for the year and multiple by .05 (5% sales tax)

OR

Use your AGI and take the default value and claim that as your safehouse sales tax for the year.

I usually take #2. The one or two times I've actually tried to figure out #1, #2 was less anyhow.

MA has ALWAYS required the taxpayer to claim sales tax. Also, if you pay more than 5% while visiting another state, you can claim the difference as a credit, so it goes both ways.

Fear the audit if they catch you not taking the safety and they can prove you've made ONE Internet purchase (not difficult).

Virginia actually charges a sales tax on anything you didn't buy within the state. It's called a "common use tax". It was enacted in 1966 (yes, really) and it's spilled over to online purchases.

So you have to keep track of all your purchases, fill out a form, and pay the tax, on top of your state taxes...

This is SO STUPID.

Plus isn't this interference with interstate commerce?

I think this is an excellent idea. If you must tax (and we must), there is no fairer tax than sales tax, and internet companies are uniquely positioned to easily track and report sales by state. It would also be a boon to some local businesses that can't compete due to the additional cost of shopping locally due to sales tax.

It is illegal (a violation of the US Constitution) for States to tax purchases made in another state or commerce crossing state lines.

Clearly if a company selling on Amazon is based out of New York and Amazon is based out of New York, New York can not tax the sale.

Too many companies are voluntarily paying a 'tax' to the states right now. This needs to be stopped.

Here is Ca they have a 'use tax' where you are supposed to report all purchases make out of state so they can tax you on them. So if you move here from Arizona you have to pay a tax on all your possessions.
Totally illegal and no one pays it.

@nez77: Yes