In a cash strap economy, the State of Texas slapped Amazon.com Inc with a $269 million for uncollected sales tax. In a statement R.J. DeSilva, a spokesperson for the Texas Comptroller’s office, said that Amazon was audited for sales tax, and sent a bill in August.
Amazon issued a statement in their SEC filling along the lines of “We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter,” and the State of Texas “did not provide a sufficient basis for its assessment” and said it was without merit. Amazon is currently in legal battles in North Carolina, New York and Colorado over efforts by those states to collect sales tax from the company.
The issue arised from the fact that Amazon maintains a fulfillment center in Irving, Tx via an affiliate relationship, not a subsidiary. The company defended its lack of sales tax collection by saying Amazon doesn’t actually own the distribution center. It’s owned by a subsidiary, Amazon.com KYDC LLC, which is technically based in Kentucky. Assigning the distribution center to a different holding company, by Amazon’s logic, means it doesn’t have nexus there — and that’s why it feels it’s off the hook.
That amount included interest and penalties for four years from the period of December 2005 to December 2009.
Along that line, how many jobs will Texas lose if they would to move that facility North to Kansas or Oklahoma? Direct wages to indirect impact such as UPS shipping, etc.
Visit Amazon.com
The year saw a few big acquisitions of online properties with the latest being Amazon buying Woot.com. Woot is a deal based website that focuses on discontinued, past season, refurbished, or slow moving items that manufacturers/distributors are looking to get off their books.
I was first exposed to Woot when somebody either sent me a link or posted a link to a Samsung washer which was 40% off retail. The catch 22 with that was the fact that those washers had a program issue but it never left the factory floor before it was reprogrammed and corrected. Same thing like the Camry recall where they reprogram the brain of the unit. Only difference with the washer are, those units are brand new and good luck trying to get the washer 100mph down Route 66.
Woot should not see any changes in the staff or operations per their blog posting. Nothing was announced when it came to the value that Amazon paid for Woot.
Recently Buy.com got acquired by Rakuten of Japan, parent company of Linkshare USA. Prior to that, Amazon acquired Zappos.com.
My guess on some big company to be acquired – NewEgg.com
North Carolina’s Department of Revenue had ordered the online retailer to provide full details on nearly 50 million purchases made by state residents between 2003 and 2010. NC is looking to collect taxes from NC residents that did not pay tax for that item that they purchased off Amazon.
Amazon.com filed a lawsuit stating that the lawsuit says the demand violates the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon’s customers. Amazon has no offices or warehouses in North Carolina, it’s not required to collect.
Last year, Amazon discontinued its affiliate program in North Carolina, which provides referrers with a small slice of the transaction, after the state legislature enacted a new law that would have used that program to force the company to collect sales taxes.
A North Carolina legislator said at the time that the state would be able to force online retailers to collect even retroactive taxes; tax officials have reportedly sent letters to online retailers in the last few months saying they’re required to pa
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