Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Amazon now collects sales tax in NC; retailers applaud

Amazon has now joined all other North Carolina retailers in collecting sales tax from their customers -- a move applauded by the N.C. Retail Merchants Association, a nonprofit trade organization with more than 25,000 member stores.  

"We aren’t against e-commerce -- far from it," the NCRMA said in a statement. "Retail businesses of all sizes also sell online. But online-only sellers should no longer be given special treatment. ...This is a tax that all consumers owe to the state on every purchase."

The NCRMA and other business groups have argued for years that giving special treatment to online-online retailers wasn't fair to brick-and-mortar retailers, which hire locally and pay property and income taxes. 

The Department of Revenue estimated in 2012 that the state was losing as much as $214 million in online sales taxes each year because of the loophole. 

Bloomberg reported that a top economist for the General Assembly said Amazon's decision could bring the state $20 million to $30 million more annually, while cities and counties could get $10 million to $13 million more. 

Amazon now collects sales tax from a total of 20 states. It does not collect sales tax in South Carolina.

The U.S. Senate passed The Marketplace Fairness Act in 2013 with bipartisan support, and it now resides in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

Amazon says no sales tax will be charged when purchasing gift cards. 

"The time for action is now, and Amazon’s decision to collect sales tax in North Carolina is one step closer to closing this loophole once and for all," the NCRMA said. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So additional tax revenue for North Carolina, guess that means even more tax cuts for the wealthy and big business. As we continue to underpay teachers and other state employees. unless of course you are in the direct circle of Pat McCrory.

Ghoul said...

Just ordered from Amazon, paid no tax.

Oh, ad Anon 8:07, McCrory has proposed a paid raise for teachers, it was DEMOCRAT Bev Perdue that froze their pay. Well, she had to pay to rebuild her daddy's pier somehow.

Anonymous said...

great....give even more tax revenue,to the crooks in office.I'm sure they'll find something "useful"(sarcasm) to spend it on...

Anonymous said...

Oh, goody. Now that the state will get more revenue from Amazon, they can reduce the amount they're taking from our paychecks. Right?

Anonymous said...

I love the wording in this article....applauding and valued. This will hurt online sales for Amazon, and it is not really "valuing" customers, as it is just another way to make hard working people pay more for the same products.

Expatriate Tax Services said...

Will the retailers impose tax fees too?