Arizona retailers are asking Gov. Jan Brewer to start negotiations with the nation’s largest online retailer to get them to start collecting state and local sales taxes.
Michelle Ahlmer, executive director of the Arizona Retailers Association, said Wednesday there is no reason that Amazon, which has warehouses in Arizona to ship products to Arizona customers, should be excused from having to collect the same taxes as local merchants.
Ahlmer acknowledged that the state law governing who is subject to the levy may need to be clarified. And she noted such a measure awaits action by the House Appropriations Committee.
But Ahlmer said all that could be helped along if Brewer were to do what her Virginia counterpart did: Negotiate a deal with Amazon to agree to support a change in law — and, more to the point, start collecting the taxes.
Brewer, however, said she’s not interested in such talks, at least not now. Anyway, she said, the state Department of Revenue already is trying to collect some money from Amazon, under existing laws.
“I don’t think at this particular time that it’s important that I’m involved,” she said. “I think that they need to sit down at the table. They need to work with the Department of Revenue.”
That refers to Amazon’s admission, in statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that Arizona tax officials have issued a $53 million assessment for unpaid taxes from March 1, 2006, through the end of 2010.
But Ahlmer said that is no guarantee the state will ever collect the levy absent an agreement. And the company, in that SEC filing, called the assessment “without merit,” saying it intends to defend itself vigorously.
Ahlmer said the whole problem could be resolved quite simply if Brewer follows the lead in Virginia and elsewhere and gets Amazon to cooperate rather than contest the law.
“In Virginia and in these other states, the key component has been the governor,” said Ahlmer, who initiated the meetings with Amazon.
“It is essential in Arizona that we have that same kind of leadership that should bring us all in a room,” Ahlmer continued. “We can hammer out an agreement like’s been done in other states that would give certainty to the retail community, the online retail community and the state of Arizona moving forward.”
One key has been that effort to alter the law.
Federal courts bar states from requiring retailers with no legal “nexus” to that state from having to collect sales taxes.
What that has been interpreted to mean are companies with a retail outlet in the state. That also includes the online affiliates of these firms, like Bestbuy.com, because of their retail stores.
Amazon has argued that its warehouses — what it calls “fulfillment centers” — do not meet that definition because people cannot walk in to buy something off the shelf.
A change being pushed by Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, and others would expand the legal definition of that legal nexus to specifically include warehouses. So far, though, the company’s lobbyists have kept that proposal and watered-down version by Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Mesa, from being approved.
Ahlmer said Brewer’s involvement could blunt that opposition.
The governor, however, was in no rush to step in.
“We have time,” she said. “It’s not urgent, it’s not something that needs to be addressed right now.”
But Gayle Shanks, one of the owners of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, does not share that lack of urgency.
She said the current arrangement means an ongoing loss of dollars for her store, which pays taxes. And Shanks said it’s also not fair.
“So people should be allowed to come into my bookstore, look at all the books, look at my staff’s recommendations, write it all down, these are the ones I want, and the state of Arizona says, ‘OK, we’re not going to make you pay sales tax on Amazon but we are at Changing Hands,’” Shanks said.
“So you go up to that counter with that $10 book and you pay $10.93,” she continued. “Or you write down the name of that book that I recommended and you go on Amazon, and it’s the same $10 but you don’t have to pay 93 cents.”
daveofthedesert posted at 8:17 am on Thu, Apr 5, 2012.
Sorry Gayle, I still have to pay shipping from Amazon. That means I pay more. Amazon is just just a easier place to shop and I don't burn up $10 worth of gas going to a bookstore.
mesateacher posted at 12:59 pm on Thu, Apr 5, 2012.
Since the US economic system relies on taxation to generate funds for the government to operate, as a country we have got to get handle on this. It is ultimately detrimental to all of us to allow a huge operation like Amazon to sell stuff and not collect the taxes. If we all bought everything out of state and on line and the state got no revenues (nor the cities) where would that leave us? If we are going to continue to support this system, then sales taxes need to be paid/collected according to the laws in each state. If I spend $100 in a local Best Buy or from Amazon, either way I should have to pay the tax. Great Britain has the same problem with Amazon. Amazon UK operates there, but the official HQ is in Belgium (or maybe Netherlands?) and the UK gets NO taxes. This messed up capitalism is because of stupid laws that were passed to help out friends of legislators everywhere. It needs to stop. States must be able to collect appropriate sales tax. If we don't do this, we'll lose more and more local stores, and sales tax income will drop -- and government services along with it.
daveofthedesert posted at 7:20 pm on Thu, Apr 5, 2012.
Tax the da#n churches and do away with non-profits that pay their ceo's triple figures.
GOVCRIMESLAYER posted at 7:53 pm on Thu, Apr 5, 2012.
VIOLENT WORLD PSYCHIATRY-PSYCHOLOGY REVEALED(mindless mkultra crimes performed by police and psychiatrists/psychologists)
USE OF MKULTRA + HUNGER GAMES TODAY....Use of psychology/psychiatry for mass population or ethnic cleansing as well as crimes to which we witness daily on behalf of Zionism/communism/liberalism.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpqc0u_part-80 EXACTLY HOW ETHNIC CLEANSING IS TAKING PLACE AGAINST NON SLAVS(German etc) THROUGHOUT EASTERN EUROPE SINCE WWII + REAL 911 REVEALED !!!
TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIAN COMMUNIST APPARATCHIK ALIKE GANGSTER AND TRAITOR DAVID DUKE OR 70 YEARS OLD US GOVERNMENT OBAMA(TERRORIST) NEWS
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpkfh7_part-78
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpmelt_part-79
Related to WHITES ARE NOT WELCOME IN AMERICA ANY LONGER !!! http://www.youtube.com/user/BostjanAvsec or rather http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xleq3o OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE RECORDED LIVE IN 2009 !!! EXILING WHITES(US citizens) WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE AND IMPORTING NON WHITES IMMIGRATION REQUIREMENTS FREE !!! WHY TO ACCEPT LIABILITIES FOR CRIMES COMMITTED WHEN WE CAN SIMPLY ASSASSINATE OUR VICTIMS(YOU) THANKS TO HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS AND FREE PRESS/MEDIA(most severe CENSORSHIP OF GENOCIDE in entire history of human kind) !! NOT HUMAN RIGHTS COURTS, BUT ORGANIZERS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST WHITES AND SPONSORS OF BOGUS "MULTICULTURALISM" $$$ CLAIMS AT EXPENSE OF PERSECUTED WHITES(while minorities are awarded for and instructed by governments in bogus human rights claims, whites are simply killed if not perverted in multiculturalism garbage) !!!
For fast updates use http://www.facebook.com/people/Loki-Nagrind/100001962176474
REMINDER...MY YOUTUBE ACCOUNT WAS HIJACKED(March 07th, 2012) BY US GOVERNMENT WHILE PRIMARY E-MAIL AS WELL AS BLOGS WERE ALL SHUT DOWN FOR THE SAKE OF CENSORSHIP REGARDING GENOCIDE AGAINST ME PERSONALLY THAT INVOLVED ABDUCTIONS / MK-ULTRA BRAINWASHING / FORCED BRAIN ELECTRODE - CHIP IMPLANTS / HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION / BLACKLISTING / FORCEFUL UNEMPLOYMENT AND ASSASSINATIONS !!! ALL AGAINST WHITE(under "NAZI" lie) CIVILIAN POPULATION TODAY IN 2011/2012 ACROSS THE EUROPE AND NORTHERN AMERICA !!!
+(plus)
IF THEY BRAINWASH YOU WITH LIES ON HOW ELECTING OBAMA WOULD HELP TEA PARTY(there is already over one hundred million of so called minorities in US alone while you are everything, but treated as humans), PLEASE ASK YOURSELF WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ONCE OBAMA IS AGAIN SELF-ELECTED(see video 77) & SINCE NEW LAW IS TAKING GUNS FROM YOU ALREADY TODAY(stop the violent world of psychiatry or lies - NOW OR DIE) !!!
soricobob posted at 5:05 am on Fri, Apr 6, 2012.
Governor Brewer negotiate, and not order someone to do something? You're kidding!