Amazon to start collecting sales tax in Florida on May 1

 
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Nüvi 255WT with nüMaps Lifetime North America born on 602117815 / Nüvi 3597LMTHD born on 805972514 / I love Friday’s except when I’m on holidays ~ canuk

Kansas

Amazon has had a distribution center in Coffeeville, Kansas for a number of years so we have had been paying sales tax here for a while. With Amazon's intent to add more distribution centers the internet sales tax question may become semi-mute for them due to the larger physical footprint in more states.

Not So Bad

Considering Florida does not have an income tax, this is not as big a problem as here in New York State where we have the highest state income tax, local sales taxes at 8.625% and property taxes on a $360K home in the $12K range (and climbing). Of course in our case, we are paying more and getting less as the money is all going to ever higher pension obligations and higher salaries for fewer employees. If allowed to continue, I suspect you will have 100,000+ retirees in my county being paid what they were when they worked (and getting free medical) and one full-time employee earning $156 million. All I know is the current years taxes will always look like a bargain the following year.

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.

I very much doubt this will

I very much doubt this will affect their sales to Florida. The savings using Amazon is still cheaper in most cases.

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an94

Thats's the problem...

Government has no incentive to spend or save money wisely. When they spend to much they just raise taxes or put in a few more seed or RLC cameras.
Sadly, now with individuals and corporations allowed to spend whatever they want things will continue to get worse. Glad I won't be around for the straw that breaks the camels back.

Amazon is collecting Tax on Texas

Yes, it is still cheaper to buy form Amazon most of the time even with the sales tax.

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

P. R. o. M.

The People's Republic of Maryland is not far behind.

Same here

Amazon started collecting sales tax in Wisconsin a few months back. They announced they were going to open a distribution center in Kenosha and shortly after that they started collecting sales tax even though I don't think it's operational yet.

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Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

I agree......

in many case, Amazon still offers the lowest prices regardless of sales tax, at least for less expensive items.

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RKF (Brookeville, MD) Garmin Nuvi 660, 360 & Street Pilot

It's spreading ...

The reality is that people are already supposed to pay the "use tax" on those purchases, so the real change is that the burden of collection and reporting is onto an entity that the gov can audit more easily ... not only are they wasteful, it looks like they're lazy too!

CC

In most states...

..if they have a physical office in the state, then they must collect taxes for that state.

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With God, all things are possible. ——State motto of the Great State of Ohio

Oh, Well...

There goes my additional advantage. sad

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Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold

harder in some states than others

CookieCutter wrote:

The reality is that people are already supposed to pay the "use tax" on those purchases

While I think that is the law pretty much everywhere that has a sales tax, the practicalities vary. My daughter reported that the Ohio income tax return had a line for this right on the main form. Checking while writing this post, I find that for Tax Year 2013 form IT 1040, it was line 19 "Unpaid Ohio use tax".

By contrast, here in New Mexico I failed to find any information on how to file use tax for an individual (as distinct from a business) during nearly an hour of searching about their web sites, tax instructions, and various independent resources. I gave up. I imagine the fraction of New Mexicans who actually pay their use tax due on internet purchases is vanishingly small.

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personal GPS user since 1992

Use Tax

when filing income tax returns this year, there was a question on Turbo Tax about any purchases thru the internet (amazon and ebay were examples) where my state sales tax was not paid.
I answered "No".
My presumption was there would be use tax added to my state income tax (or subtracted from any refund) had I answered "Yes".

Third party sellers

I assume this also applies to other states. In California, sales tax is not collected by Amazon for third party sellers.

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Steve - 2 Nuvi 3597

This too will pass

This too will pass

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nuvi 250 --> 1250T --> 265T Lost my 1250T

please dont...

Please dont come to Wisconsin with your taxes, we have enough!

Illinois Sales Tax confession on 1040IL

So, do you Illinois residents keep track of online purchases and answer "Yes" on the 1040IL? I figure if the gov't wants it, let them keep track of the purchases.

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Zumo 550 & Zumo 665 My alarm clock is sunshine on chrome.

Florida Tax

an94 wrote:

I very much doubt this will affect their sales to Florida. The savings using Amazon is still cheaper in most cases.

Your probably right. Living in Florida it still sucks. sad

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BMW Nav V Montana 650 Zumo 660 Garmin 78S Garmin 76CSX

not the only game in town

I'll continue giving them my business as long as the price is right, many other sites on the net with free sipment that don't charge state tax.

Most of my RC toys I now get directly from China, no Tax and no shipping just got to live with the wait, I’ve gotten shipments in little as a week and others as long as a 5 weeks.

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Garmin 38 - Magellan Gold - Garmin Yellow eTrex - Nuvi 260 - Nuvi 2460LMT - Google Nexus 7 - Toyota Entune NAV

Amazon started collection

Amazon started collection sales tax in Georgia about 3-4 months ago. I still buy lots from Amazon but Amazon doesn't necessarily have a better price anymore.

I moved from Illinois (no

I moved from Illinois (no Amazon tax) to Georgia (Amazon tax).

I still buy lots from Amazon but Amazon doesn't necessarily have the best price anymore.

Newegg

flaco wrote:

I'll continue giving them my business as long as the price is right, many other sites on the net with free sipment that don't charge state tax.

Most of my RC toys I now get directly from China, no Tax and no shipping just got to live with the wait, I’ve gotten shipments in little as a week and others as long as a 5 weeks.

If you haven't already check Newegg's prices when you are looking for something. I just bought a router and it came a penny short of free shipping on Amazon. I bought the same router from Newegg for the same price with no sales tax and three day shipping for 99 cents. The five to seven day shipping would have been free.

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Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

Welcome to the Club

they've been collecting in PA for a while now too.

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"You can't get there from here"

Amazon Sales Tax

They are in the process of building a distribution center in Baltimore, so as soon as it's open for business, we have to start paying sales Tax for Amazon purchases in Maryland.

Don’t know if it is true,

Don’t know if it is true, but I heard that Amazon was opposed to paying state sales tax but could not get support from other big retailers. Companies like Best Buy thought if Amazon had to pay tax, they would have a better competitive position. Amazon’s response is to build distribution centers “everywhere”. If Amazon can deliver “tomorrow”, why bother driving to Best Buy today. Sounds like Amazon will still come out on top.

Virginia

I've been playing tax recently for purchases on Amazon in Virginia too.

The same thing happens to me

The same thing happens to me when I buy and ship from Costco, but to get around it, I have it shipped to me at my mothers address which Costco does not charge a tax because there are no Costco's in her state, then I have her ship it to me.

I have been Amazon client

I have been Amazon client for years and like the free shipping service they offer and no taxes. If this change I will start buying from different website.

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I do not want any ticket

Correct

Because the TX government sued Amazon, and Amazon settled by agreeing to "voluntarily" collect taxes. The actual "legality" of all this is still debatable, since Amazon has no physical presence here. Some lawyers are arguing this should be Congress' turf (interstate commerce); some argue different theories. I hate tax, so I tend to doze off during the debates among my colleagues.

The free ride is starting to come to an end.

I am surprised that it lasted as long as it did. I live in Iowa and I can't believe the brick and morter people have been as quiet as they have been.

Most times the tax is less than the shipping

gerrydrake wrote:

The same thing happens to me when I buy and ship from Costco, but to get around it, I have it shipped to me at my mothers address which Costco does not charge a tax because there are no Costco's in her state, then I have her ship it to me.

Does your mom have to pay money to ship packages to you? The tax on most items, unless very expensive is a lot less than it would take to ship it.

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

Amazon in Texas

trclac wrote:

Because the TX government sued Amazon, and Amazon settled by agreeing to "voluntarily" collect taxes. The actual "legality" of all this is still debatable, since Amazon has no physical presence here. Some lawyers are arguing this should be Congress' turf (interstate commerce); some argue different theories. I hate tax, so I tend to doze off during the debates among my colleagues.

There are Amazon fulfillment centers in Coppell, Haslet and Schertz Texas.

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

Good to know ...

I guess ...

Thanks for the clarification. But I do know about the TX lawsuit and settlement, which led to Amazon collecting taxes initially.

Digital Purchases

The next battle for local taxes will be for the sale of digital purchases such as Android and IOS apps, e-books, music and video downloads. Many state tax laws have yet to catch up with the latest technology.

starting to go downhill

I ordered from amazon for over a decade, but no longer do. Their prices are often not the lowest (I hate to do advertising for others but let's take a Sony Camcorder we bought last Oct.--paid $30 cheaper than amazon no tax/free shipping authorized eTailer, and then there was a price drop of another $40 Black Friday. Called and got a $40 credit to my credit card. So, net, $70 cheaper than amazon. I'm sure amazon would say this is a special case because they have an algorithm for them to hover at x above the competition.

Their free prime never made any sense--we "tried" it 3X and were able to get many small items UPS 2nd day.

But the real kicker is that they are farming out their distribution to 3rd parties, so they can no longer keep everything in house. The drones and all that sound good, as do the real $1 mil. robots that they have in service.

Collecting tax in all 50 states is the right thing to do. I didn't like it when mine was next, and then where I work (was having stuff shipped there) was next after that. Now I am ok with the taxes as I don't use them anymore. smile

For me, paying the tax is

For me, paying the tax is better than going to the mall.

rather it cheaper

zeaflal wrote:

If Amazon can deliver “tomorrow”, why bother driving to Best Buy today. Sounds like Amazon will still come out on top.

I'd still prefer to wait and get it cheaper, although I might change my mind if I could get my order in 30 minutes or less delivered by UAV:
http://www.amazon.com/b?node=8037720011

I remember

JohnFarruca wrote:

For me, paying the tax is better than going to the mall.

Before Amazon I remember going all over town to find what I was looking for. That is enough to wait a week or more for a delivery. Although, I find Amazon usually gets it to me earlier than that.

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Mary, Nuvi 2450, Garmin Viago, Honda Navigation, Nuvi 750 (gave to son)

It works better for Amazon

They can move their distribution centers closer to the target markets and cut their delivery costs.
They used to ship to California from Nevada, now they have two fulfillment centers in CA. We pick up the tax and Amazon saves on distribution costs (i.e. more profits). Amazon loves this arrangement.

@mgarledge

I still prefer to see what I'm buying in store. After all I may buy it form Internet, but at least I know what I'm buying. Because if you buying from picture it may be not cheaper after all. Many of my friends are buying stuff from web, then once it arrives they are disappointed and are sending it back. And there is no free shipping if you are sending item back.

I see, that Internet buyers are often new "discount coupons" types. Remember those people with stack of "10 cents off" coupons in hand, driving 50 miles to get this 10 cents less than their local store? Now many people are not counting return shipping as cost of transaction and often spend more sending items back and forth than they would spend going to retailer.

Maybe they changed ....

grzesja wrote:

I still prefer to see what I'm buying in store. After all I may buy it form Internet, but at least I know what I'm buying. Because if you buying from picture it may be not cheaper after all. Many of my friends are buying stuff from web, then once it arrives they are disappointed and are sending it back. And there is no free shipping if you are sending item back.

I see, that Internet buyers are often new "discount coupons" types. Remember those people with stack of "10 cents off" coupons in hand, driving 50 miles to get this 10 cents less than their local store? Now many people are not counting return shipping as cost of transaction and often spend more sending items back and forth than they would spend going to retailer.

I've never had a problem with Amazon and returning something I didn't want once I had it in my hand. Fill out a return form, print out the free return label, account credited in full once they got it back, no questions asked. Maybe they don't do that anymore? I don't know, I haven't had to return something in quite a while.

By the way, a great place for those "10 cent" coupons is retailmenot.com, I have found a lot of internet stores have coupons listed on that site.

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. 2 Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S, Nuvi 2689, 2 Nuvi 2460, Zumo 550, Zumo 450, Uniden R3 radar detector with GPS built in, includes RLC info. Uconnect 430N Garmin based, built into my Jeep. .

Buying local

Some retailers will match Amazon etc prices for items that Amazon has in stock. It's worth a try. What all the retailers keep whining about is the tax disparity, but when Amazon has prices that are significantly lower than at the local level, even if I were to pay taxes the price would still be lower. Why should I waste my time driving around to pay more when Amazon will deliver it to my door for less money?

New York Use Tax Line

CookieCutter wrote:

My daughter reported that the Ohio income tax return had a line for this right on the main form. Checking while writing this post, I find that for Tax Year 2013 form IT 1040, it was line 19 "Unpaid Ohio use tax".

New York State was the first, I believe, to add that line to income tax forms starting about 10 years ago. It was supposed to be a temporary line item but has become a permanent fixture.

In New York, you MUST enter something on that line. You must not leave it blank otherwise your form will be rejected or subject to audit. Your choices boil down to "0", the actual value based upon the tax rate on all your out-of-state purchases or a value calculated from your income. For example, a person with a taxable income of around $45K can use the calculated value and pay $35 as their use tax. For my county, that would equal around $406 in online purchases.

It has been reported that most people put "0".

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.

Again New York

EV Driver wrote:

The next battle for local taxes will be for the sale of digital purchases such as Android and IOS apps, e-books, music and video downloads. Many state tax laws have yet to catch up with the latest technology.

Not New York. All of my iTunes purchases are taxed. Oddly enough, I bought a blood pressure instrument at Walmart the other day and it was not taxed. Medical equipment, drugs, etc. are NOT taxable in New York. Go figure...

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I support the right to keep and arm bears.