Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm a little puzzled by this. Why should Amazon care whether or not they collect sales tax? They obviously have the systems in place to collect it, so what's the problem?
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It's a big competitive price advantage for Amazon. If I go into a Best Buy to buy a televesion, I have to pay sales tax. If I order it from Amazon, depending on where I live, I don't. Savings to me can be a couple of hundred dollars (I pay 8.75%).
Similarly, every time I go into Barnes & Noble or order from B&N online, I need to pay the sales tax, but not if I order (again, depe3nding on where I live) from Amazon.
The consequence is that Amazon always has a lower price even if the selling price is exactly the same as a competitors.
FWIW, when a store collects sales tax, the store also gets to keep a percentage of it to defray overhead and costs. So it isn't a matter of out of pocket expense as much as it is the competitive advantage Amazon gets.