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According to a news article on cleveland.com, starting Monday June 1st, Amazon began collecting sales tax from Ohio consumers.
Ohio retailers and retail associations have spent years trying to persuade Congress to pass laws requiring online retailers to collect and remit the same state sales taxes that brick-and-mortar stores are required to.
"What great news for Ohio," said Gordon Gough, president and chief executive of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, which represents more than 6,400 members. His group is applauding the fact that not only is Amazon making a substantial commitment to the state by creating 1,000 jobs here, but "they're going to come to Ohio and play by the same rules as all the other retailers."
According to Gough "Ohio will become the 25th state where the online retailer collects sales tax." The article goes on to say that "In exchange, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority gave Amazon an exemption on sales taxes for equipment purchases at the data centers and a payroll tax credit for new jobs, according to Bloomberg News. The incentives are valued at about $81 million over 15 years."
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2015, @11:56PM
Amazon knew they'd have to start paying sales tax eventually, but they put it off as long as possible - and they're still putting it off in half of the United States according to TFA - so they could drive more big competitors (Borders, Circuit City, etc) out of business, and recycle the extra profits into AWS and other product and service lines.
Don't let Amazon get away with not paying sales tax. They are not doing anybody a favor by doing business in your state, any more than Wal-Mart was in the '70s and '80s when they came in to metropolitan areas across the country and drove out half of the mom and pop businesses on main street.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @12:07AM
Wal-Mart did do many Americans a favour in coming to metropolitan areas across the country and providing some competition for mom and pop businesses. Anyone who grew up before the appearance of big box stores can tell you how much of a pain in the ass it was to shop for a large and varied set of items on Main Street USA. You had to go through one shop after another to find what you needed. Those shops had higher prices because, as small niche businesses, they couldn't take advantage of economy of scale. Plus, in those small shops the sales clerks often wanted to chit-chat instead of letting you just get in, get your stuff, and get out.
Wal-Mart may have fucked small-town America by being so bent on profit that they intentionally slashed employee wages and shifted the burden to state welfare assistance programs, but the choice and convenience they and similar stores brought to Americans was a good thing.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @12:42AM
You might prefer the shopping experience of going to Wal-Mart and filling your shopping cart, but they've hurt a lot of towns located within a few miiles of their supercenters, usually 30 to 50 miles away from a big city. Many of the town centers now have a couple big box stores (including Wal-Mart, maybe a Home Depot), a nail salon, a check cashing store, and not much else. Thanks, Sam.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 08 2015, @03:35AM
I grew up long before Wal-Mart came along. I know first hand that it was difficult to find things sometimes. But, I NEVER resented paying the prices necessary to get the goodies I needed. It was part of business. Yeah, I KNEW that the guy a couple states away knew of a place where he could buy the same goodies at near wholesale prices, but I wasn't a couple states away. Nor did I have direct access to the suppliers. Not for groceries, not for hardware, not for gadgets, not for anything. But - all the rest of the country was in the same position that I was. Unless you maintained your own Rolodex filled with contacts, you shopped locally, and you paid the markup that kept Mom and Pop in business.
On the up side - you could see, touch, feel, and otherwise evaluate the item you were purchasing before you bought it. Mom and Pop didn't generally offer cheap Chinese shit for sale, because they knew you wouldn't come back.
No, Walmart did us no favors. Walmart can die a horrible death, and each of it's owners can do the same, and I won't miss them one bit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 08 2015, @11:39AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 08 2015, @01:49PM
Spoken like a fool. Cheap shit is cheap shit, and it's never worth paying hard earned cash for it. Never. Better to pay the extra dollar or ten for quality, and when you no longer need that quality item, you still have something to barter for the things that you DO need. Cheap Chinese shit does nothing better than to fill landfills.
The last generation has failed this generation by failing to teach what quality is.
(Score: 1) by Oakenshield on Monday June 08 2015, @01:36PM
I grew up pre-WalMart as well. I never understood the hate. It's just a retail store. If you don't like it, don't shop there. It seems it like it's the whole SUV debate again. The haters don't want to avoid WalMart, they want to stop others shopping there.
Your statement is a logical fallacy. If it were fact, WalMart could have never survived or thrived offering (presumably) "Chinese shit." Although, I seem to recall that back in the 70s we used to call it cheap Japanese shit and in the 80s, cheap Taiwanese shit. And it was available in your mom-and-pop stores.
You will be pleased to note that WalMart seems to be dying an organic death. Their arguably single greatest advantage was unsurpassed inventory control systems. WalMart now frequently has holes on their shelves. Their employees are staggeringly apathetic toward the customer and they do not appear to have the massive pricing advantage over the competition anymore. Their new store growth has subsided. Existing stores are terribly understaffed. You can rest easy now.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by damnbunni on Monday June 08 2015, @04:22AM
It doesn't matter if Amazon collects sales tax or not.
Local businesses seem to think that Amazon not having to collect sales tax is the only reason people shop there. So when Amazon opened a warehouse in my state, and started collecting tax, there were hosannahs and hallelujahs from local businesses, since now without that 'unfair competition', all their customers would come back and they'd be rolling in dough.
Guess what? It didn't happen.
Amazon still has vastly better prices.
Amazon delivers, usually with in a day or two for a reasonable fee, or free if you don't mind waiting a bit.
And most importantly: Amazon has selection. They have a wide variety of whatever it is people need. Not the one or two models the local retail store might have. Or the dozen models a big-box store might carry, for a popular item like a DVD player. Hundreds of models.
That's why Amazon is taking sales from local businesses. The only time I go to a local store is if I need something Right Now. It's not that I wasn't shopping local stores because they charged tax; I wasn't shopping local stores because their selection sucks, their prices are higher, and it's a lot less convenient to go there than order something online.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday June 08 2015, @08:18AM
This is even worse. Amazon agreed to collect sales tax only if they themselves were exempt from paying it...
It's just getting worse and worse. Big corporations all going "oh, we'll help the gov't enforce the rules, but we don't have follow those same rules. we'll only follow the ones we want to."