Amazon finally steps up on sales tax

Just placed my first Amazon order of 2017 and confirmed that they now add state and local sales tax to orders from where I live.
About time.

They took advantage of a loophole on mail orders.
Bricks and mortar retailers here were 7.5% more expensive from sales tax alone, putting them at a competitive disadvantage even if they could price match.

Old retired coots on fixed incomes (like me) thought they were getting a bargain, while whining about high taxes and poor service.
And conveniently "forgetting" to "voluntarily" declare and pay the sales tax due when filing a state income tax return.

In a sparsely-populated state, hundreds of millions of dollars had to be made up from other sources.
Better late than never...

http://journalstar.com/news/opinion...cle_000bd420-68f9-5ac5-92a0-1d7ba8431208.html

Hey, in New Joisey they just dropped our state sales tax from 7% to 6.875%. Whoop-de-doo! :banana:

My immediate family live in Louisiana, and they have been very lucky over the past few years not having to pay sales tax on amazon orders there while I have had to do so here in TN, but now there luck has finally run out, and we are all on the same playing field!

Not sales tax, but when I was purchasing music for my business, I would have to count it all up at the end of the year, and pay Pennsylvania Fair Use tax, for purchases made out of state...despite my suspicion that as much of the stuff as they could ship me, had come from the Fulfillment Center just down the road! Thanks, state legislature.

You guys are so lucky at those rates.
We have a thing called VAT here - supposedly on luxury goods but in reality on almost everything at 20%

Yep, heard about that...without VAT, you could afford, lessee...a whole 'nother channel!

neil wilkes said:

You guys are so lucky at those rates.
We have a thing called VAT here - supposedly on luxury goods but in reality on almost everything at 20%

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Yes, and when we get stuff from Amazon UK shipped here to the US, they deduct the VAT. Often the price of the product is lower too, so we do well despite the extra shipping cost.

ar surround said:

Yes, and when we get stuff from Amazon UK shipped here to the US, they deduct the VAT. Often the price of the product is lower too, so we do well despite the extra shipping cost.

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Unfortunately, however, in the past few years AmazonUS' prices on music, most especially hi res music, is hardly a bargain anymore.....with the exception of Amazon third party vendors and I've been paying sales tax for the past five or six years which makes shopping at DeepDiscount and ImportCDs a better deal for me, at least (NO sales tax....7 3/4%).

For blu ray video discs, however, Amazon is usually WAY cheaper than both ImportCD and Deep Discount.....probably because Amazon is competing with Best Buy and Target who usually don't carry hi res music.

4-earredwonder said:

Unfortunately, however, in the past few years AmazonUS' prices on music, most especially hi res music, is hardly a bargain anymore.....with the exception of Amazon third party vendors and I've been paying sales tax for the past five or six years which makes shopping at DeepDiscount and ImportCDs a better deal for me, at least (NO sales tax....7 3/4%).

For blu ray video discs, however, Amazon is usually WAY cheaper than both ImportCD and Deep Discount.....probably because Amazon is competing with Best Buy and Target who usually don't carry hi res music.

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You are exactly right, and I've found the same to be true. In the end, you really just need to compare prices and never assume Amazon is the cheapest.