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Amazon decides to back Internet Sales Tax

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MidgarBlowedUp said:
TIME's Moneyland explains the fairness issue: allowing online retailers to skip sales tax built an advantage into their pricing over that of other retailers.

Bullshit for three reasons.

1. Online retailers must charge you for shipping or eat the cost if it is free.
2. Places like best buy charge FAR more per item BEFORE tax than many online retailers
3. Buying at a Brick & Mortar store means I have fewer choices usually the lesser of two shitty ones.

Nothing wrong with the tax I guess, but I still won't buy from your B&M store if you sell shit products for double the price.
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They're not saying that B&M stores would have the advantage if both were taxed equally, they're saying that not taxing online sales gives online retailers even more advantage than they already have.
 
I swear, some of you all are drama queens. I loved it while it lasted too, but how long did you really expect to get away with it?

You will shop at Amazon as long as they are the best price, tax or not.
 
silentspork said:
I swear, some of you all are drama queens. I loved it while it lasted too, but how long did you really expect to get away with it?

You will shop at Amazon as long as they are the best price, tax or not.
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No, because you have to pay for shipping (if you have Prime, you pay for Prime now anyway), and they are usually only the best price at a few cents to a few dollars, at the expense of not getting your product immediately and not having the luxury of returning it without paying for return shipping, as well as having to trust in the product arriving to you intact.
 
Drkirby said:
It will gives some states more revenue, and a lot of them are hurting a lot.
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Yup. Here in IL, we're screwed. The state is often behind in making payments to its school districts. I remember last year, the one in which I live was back-owed something like 14 million from the state for much of the year. Sucks.
 
After thinking about this for a while, this doesn't bother me too much. The reasons why I shop at Amazon is because they have the biggest selection of books available, and after the closure of Borders there is no way to get books within a 40 mile radius from where I live. Borders was way overpriced, compared to what you get on Amazon. Of course, this only applies to books, so the tax will have an impact on things like videogames and big ticket items like game consoles and TVs.

Overall, I'll continue buying books from Amazon, but not much else.
 
The Lamp said:
No, because you have to pay for shipping (if you have Prime, you pay for Prime now anyway), and they are usually only the best price at a few cents to a few dollars, at the expense of not getting your product immediately and not having the luxury of returning it without paying for return shipping, as well as having to trust in the product arriving to you intact.
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I agree with most of your points, but I've never had to pay to return an item to Amazon. They always email me a prepaid label.
 
Hey man, as long as release day shipping is a buck and they keep prices cheaper than competitors and they keep rolling in that sweet, sweet amazon credit, that's cool in my book.
 
rainking187 said:
I agree with most of your points, but I've never had to pay to return an item to Amazon. They always email me a prepaid label.
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What? ;_; I have Prime and they deduct the label from my refund. I need to figure out what you're doing.
 
Balls. Well, they're still more convenient than hunting down some apathetic old lady at Walmart to get her to unlock a case.
 
The Lamp said:
What? ;_; I have Prime and they deduct the label from my refund. I need to figure out what you're doing.
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Hmm, maybe it's because when I return items to Amazon it's usually for a replacement copy because the original item arrived damaged. I don't remember returning anything for a straight up refund.
 
I'm okay with this. Most times when I see an item on Amazon, it is invariably cheaper or the same price than any item I can find in other stores, except Wal-Mart. If I find an item in a store that is the same price as one online, I don't mind paying the tax to get it right then and there.
 
rohlfinator said:
They're not saying that B&M stores would have the advantage if both were taxed equally, they're saying that not taxing online sales gives online retailers even more advantage than they already have.
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The thing is, this tax has absolutely nothing to do with helping out the Brick and Mortar stores and everything to do with pulling taxes back into the state that is losing out on them from people purchasing online. Which is ok with me I guess. Dumb Ass NC finally got that lottery a while back.
 
MidgarBlowedUp said:
The thing is, this tax has absolutely nothing to do with helping out the Brick and Mortar stores and everything to do with pulling taxes back into the state that is losing out on them from people purchasing online. Which is ok with me I guess. Dumb Ass NC finally got that lottery a while back.
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Yeah, pretty much. It will have the side effect of helping B&M stores slightly, but the main goal is to collect the taxes that most people were essentially dodging by shopping online.
 
The Lamp said:
What? ;_; I have Prime and they deduct the label from my refund. I need to figure out what you're doing.
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I have Prime too and I have both exchanged and returned items. There has only been one time where I had to pay for a return and they credited my card back after they received it. For everything else, in the return process it automatically generates a UPS label for me to print out.
 
rainking187 said:
Hmm, maybe it's because when I return items to Amazon it's usually for a replacement copy because the original item arrived damaged. I don't remember returning anything for a straight up refund.
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If you choose the wrong things when you select the reason, you will be charged for shipping.
 
Marty Chinn said:
I agree, but to be fair, CA troubles are a result of two bubbles bursting which resulted in a lot of revenue being lost to pay for programs that it once could pay for.
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California's problems are due to horrible thumb-up-ass governance for at least the past thirty years, far predating the tech bubble.

thirty said:
so when does this tax begin for California?
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California doesn't qualify to collect under the law in the OP unless they change their state sales tax laws, it's in the article in the OP.
 
Well I'm in NY so I currently already pay taxes from amazon purchases, but really Amazon is so convenient and most of the time cheaper already that it's no problem for me.
 
They just went through a big spat with California to delay a law that would require them to charge sales tax. This is an odd move (sort of)... Once they finally start charging California residents taxes, I'm going to broaden my purchases to other venues more often.
 
dunno if mentioned already, but amazon has been doing this for a long while in EU for a long while already, i've paid swedish vat on purchases made on amazon.co.uk since forever.
 
Milabrega said:
Can't raise the capital gains tax, can't raise the estate tax, can't raise income tax on the top 1% of earners, can't let the bush tax cuts expire but a regressive sales tax being expanded to online sales during a time with a depressed economy due to a lack of demand and consumer spending, bipartisan support. Fuck Congress.
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You do understand that the capital gains tax was increased across the board by 5-10%. I would still want top earners to pay more, but it's absolutely a step in the right direction.

Bush also had the estate tax repealed. Obama brought it back.

You do remember that 98% of Americans are receiving a tax cut this year, right?

Consumer spending was down in Oct, but up in July, August, and September.

So quit being part of angry, entitled, uniformed America. You clearly have no understanding of what is going on.
 
IsntChrisL said:
They just went through a big spat with California to delay a law that would require them to charge sales tax. This is an odd move (sort of)... Once they finally start charging California residents taxes, I'm going to broaden my purchases to other venues more often.
Click to expand...

because it was aimed at them. This is all web storefronts.
 
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