Amazon Pushes for Online Sales Tax Standards

Smaller online retailers believe Amazon is using sales tax standards to crush smaller competitors

Amazon asked Congress to set federal standards for states' online sales tax collection in a House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week.

Amazon spent a lot of time battling the collection of online sales taxes over the past couple of years. If forced to collect sales tax in a particular state, Amazon would simply pack its bags and move on to another state. This happened in states such as Illinois, California and Texas.

Amazon got away with avoiding sales tax collection because of a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that excuses Amazon and other remote sellers from having to collect taxes in states that do not have the company's employees or warehouses operating within their borders. However, Amazon said it would comply with sales tax collection of online goods if there was federal regulation instead of different states with different rules.

Now, Amazon is pushing Congress to set standards more than ever. Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president for global public policy, attended a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday to address the issue of federal standards for collecting state sales taxes online.

Some lawmakers are onboard with Amazon's request, such as Representative John Conyers (D-MI), who sides with brick-and-mortar retailers regarding online retailers' "unfair advantage."

John Otto, an accountant and state representative from Texas, is also onboard with the idea and addressed the concerns of Republican panel members regarding whether the sales tax collection would be viewed as a tax increase.

"This is not a new tax we're collecting," said Otto. "It's a tax we've been unable to collect."

Not everyone is cheering for Amazon's position on taxes, though. Smaller online retailers like Overstock.com believe Amazon is jumping onboard the tax wagon now because it's a chance to hurt smaller competitors. Amazon is so huge now that it can handle being taxed while smaller e-tailers like Overstock could largely be affected by such taxes.

But Misener doesn't see it that way. He said the sales tax collection wouldn’t be as burdensome as the smaller e-tailer's think.
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