Amazon.com is an online retailer striving to achieve low prices, quick delivery, and a secure environment for customers to shop in. This company has not charged sales tax since it opened in 1994 and wants to take a stand to keep it that way! (Althought Amazon.com does have to add sales tax to states where they have actual retail operations).
Amazon feels that not charging a sales tax is a way to be one step above their competing retailers. In nine states legislatures have passed a new legislation banning online retailers from charging sales tax. As stated on www.wsj.com " Credit Suisse recently estimated that if Amazon were forced to collect sales taxes in all states, it would lose as much as $653 million in sales this year, or 1.4% out of an estimated $45.5 billion in revenue".
To play devils advocate- www.wsj.com stated "State and local governments nationwide this year will lose $10.1 billion to $11.3 billion in sales taxes not collected by Web retailers, estimated University of Tennessee researchers in a 2009 report." These laws will eventually have to be sorted out because the "state-by-state" laws are very complicated and seem to frustrate customers and business owners.
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