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Originally Posted by anamardoll
Threatening, "if you make us abide by the rules, we'll take our ball home" is going to get a lot of "well, bye!"
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Amazon isn't breaking the rules.
Quill v North Dakota established that if you're selling via mail over state lines, you only need to collect sales tax if you have an office in that state. States are gasping for revenues, and are now interpreting that ruling as broadly as possible in order to collect more tax revenues. This tactic may strike you as a company shirking its responsibilities, or as staying competitive, or acting spoiled. Either way, it
is within the rules for Amazon to close its distribution center in Texas and, on that basis, avoid any requirements to collect taxes from its TX customers.
It's also worth noting that this won't be money taken directly out of Amazon's pockets. It's the citizens of Texas who will pay, because Amazon will collect the sales taxes at time of purchase and then send them on to the State.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by anamardoll
What is Texas supposed to do? Offer tax waivers to EVERY business who threatens to take their ball and go home? Or just offer the waivers to the really BIG businesses who threaten to take their ball and go home.
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As you may have noticed, every elected official is scrambling to say that they are "promoting job growth."
The reality is that short of hiring people at public expense,
there isn't much government can do to create jobs. One of the few things it can do is offer are tax incentives, with the hope it'll actually attract business to hire and/or to work in a specific region.
Basically, either Texas can demand tax revenues and Amazon will remove the basis for that claim; or they can offer Amazon a tax holiday, retain the right to collect sales taxes from other businesses that have offices in the state, and get a guarantee of a few jobs out of it.
And yes, big businesses pull this kind of stunt all the time. I'm not aware of any magic formula that will result in companies moving into a state, voluntarily paying higher taxes, voluntarily raising the prices their customers pay, and having this not tick off the conservatives who hate taxes. If there is one, PM me so I can steal the idea from you and make a mint off of it.
