Quote:
Originally Posted by frahse
I beg to differ Skip Wyona.
Amazon pays to ship directly to the customer. That is a higher expense than the so called brick and mortar stores pay for their bulk shipping in big tricks and on railways. You have to factor that cost into their overhead.
Yes state and local governments don't get their sales tax, but the citizens of those states and local governments get lower costs and thus are better able to support these state and local governments.
Amazon doesn't get a free ride. They provide the citizens good products at a low cost, and with incredible efficiency.
If you want to look at free rides, look at such artifices as not charging sales tax above $300 on an automobile sale. Look at giving tax breaks on first and 2nd mortgages. Look at farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, homesteader exemptions, etc., etc., and so on forever.
What we have is politics in action where "people" decide what is fair, but there are groups of other people that disagree.
|
We can agree to disagree I guess. Shipping cost comparisons can not be made without data. I do not have any. Do you? In any case, books are not delivered by truck or rail to bookstores but by mail or UPS like everyone else.
Neither do I claim that Amazon does not provide good products at low cost or high efficiency. I agree. I am a frequent user of Amazon.
Neither is it fair to compare sales tax to other forms of taxation that you might have issues with.
The internet sales tax exemption is a result of a Supreme Court decision, Quill Vs North Dakota, that exempted catalog sales from sales tax in states where they have no physical presence. It was applied to online businesses as well when internet business was small. No one can claim that internet business is small anymore.
So I am stating: Isn't it time to reexamine these basic assumptions? My concern is that every action one makes often as unintended consequences. What might the consequences be for giving Amazon a massive tax break?