California Taxing Internet! COMPANIES BAIL!

[lasomeday]

Now is the time for Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Enid, etc to send their chamber and state representatives to Cali to attract businesses! They are bailing left and right!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/06/29...-in-d-c/60903/

Other states contacted this company, but not Oklahoma!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/06/07...o-texas/60071/

Another Cali Company moving jobs to Texas!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/03/28...o-texas/56751/

and another to Texas.....

See the trend! Where are the ones moving to Oklahoma! Now is the time!

[Roadhawg]

California is NOT taxing the internet... they passed legislation requiring online retailers to collect sales taxes.

[OKCTalker]

The OKC Chamber has been recruiting in California for years, and most agressively this year (I had dinner w/ head earlier this month). California has lost almost 100 companies to emmigration in just the first six months of this year.

[OKCTalker]

Well, THAT didn't work so well, now did it?

Amazon cuts ties with California partners
Reuters
4:35 PM CDT, June 30, 2011

Amazon.com has cut ties with more than 10,000 online sales affiliates and will not start collecting California sales tax Friday, a spokeswoman for the online retailer said.

"This legislation is counterproductive and will not cause our retail business to collect sales tax for the state," spokeswoman Mary Osako said in an email to Reuters Thursday.

Amazon cut ties with the California partners Wednesday, said Osako, who did not offer additional details.

The move from the online retailer came shortly after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law requiring out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on sales made through affiliates in California.

The company cut ties with affiliates in Illinois, Arkansas and Connecticut earlier this year after those states passed similar laws.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the change would reap an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government tax revenue.

Amazon shares closed up 0.2 percent at $204.49 on Nasdaq.

Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune

[redrunner]

Let's not be oblivious to the Oklahoma Legislature's desire to collect sales tax from online retailers as exhibited in HB 2359. As well as the fear campaign on TV ads asking you to voluntarily report your online and out of state purchases on your state tax return.

[venture]

Let's not be oblivious to the Oklahoma Legislature's desire to collect sales tax from online retailers as exhibited in HB 2359. As well as the fear campaign on TV ads asking you to voluntarily report your online and out of state purchases on your state tax return.

This.

How many forget that part of the tax return every year where it asks how much sales tax you need to report/pay for Internet purchases? Oklahoma really isn't too far behind California from doing the exact same. So why send reps from the local Chambers? The companies are going to get put in the same position (almost) they are in California.

[adaniel]

This.

How many forget that part of the tax return every year where it asks how much sales tax you need to report/pay for Internet purchases? Oklahoma really isn't too far behind California from doing the exact same. So why send reps from the local Chambers? The companies are going to get put in the same position (almost) they are in California.

+1

Did "pro-business" Texas recently run off Amazon as well?

http://www.bizmology.com/2011/02/11/...as-over-taxes/

[jmarkross]

California...is DEAD, regardless of how long Moonbeam self-flagellates himself at night to try to change things in true Jesuit tradition...

[progressiveboy]

Now is the time for Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Enid, etc to send their chamber and state representatives to Cali to attract businesses! They are bailing left and right!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/06/29...-in-d-c/60903/

Other states contacted this company, but not Oklahoma!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/06/07...o-texas/60071/

Another Cali Company moving jobs to Texas!

http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/03/28...o-texas/56751/

and another to Texas.....

See the trend! Where are the ones moving to Oklahoma! Now is the time!

I do not see many jobs moving from CA to OK besides Boeing. Texas just has a much better business climate.

[ljbab728]

I do not see many jobs moving from CA to OK besides Boeing. Texas just has a much better business climate.

Well that settles that then. We just won't bother trying anymore. LOL

[Thunder]

Off topic, but I just want to mention the topic name. It's funny, but not as funny as "Patent Awarded, Everyone Sued" when referring to Apple bullying other companies...lawsuits flying back 'n forth. lol Anyway...

I don't think taxes should be done online... I recently made a purchase on Walmart.com and it was taxed, so I emailed a complaint and the response was that Walmart has a physical location within the state, so tax was required. :-(

[ljbab728]

Off topic, but I just want to mention the topic name. It's funny, but not as funny as "Patent Awarded, Everyone Sued" when referring to Apple bullying other companies...lawsuits flying back 'n forth. lol Anyway...

I don't think taxes should be done online... I recently made a purchase on Walmart.com and it was taxed, so I emailed a complaint and the response was that Walmart has a physical location within the state, so tax was required. :-(

Why do you think you shouldn't pay taxes for online purchases? Whether you're walking into a business or sitting in your home when making a purchase shouldn't matter.

[Thunder]

Why do you think you shouldn't pay taxes for online purchases? Whether you're walking into a business or sitting in your home when making a purchase shouldn't matter.

It destroys another reason for shopping online. :-(

[ljbab728]

It destroys another reason for shopping online. :-(

Life is rough, Thunder.

[rcjunkie]

It destroys another reason for shopping online. :-(

But keeps your taxes local, isn't it great to have streets to drive on, water from the faucet, Police & Fire protection, etc; etc;

[Roadhawg]

It destroys another reason for shopping online. :-(

How much tax did you have to pay? Do you charge tax at your store?

[Thunder]

How much tax did you have to pay? Do you charge tax at your store?

It was at least 10 bux something. I don't terrify my customers.

[jmarkross]

Taxes provide for fire and police protection, infrastructure and the like. Do California police and fire provide anything to Amazon.com? It is unconstitutional.

Tax corporate jet owners.

[OKCTalker]

Listen up, knuckleheads.

A tax is owed to the state of Oklahoma on all purchases, either a SALES TAX or a USE TAX.

Oklahoma has collected USE TAXES for at least a decade, and they differ from SALES TAXES only by who collects and pays it, and it begins with a 1992 US Supreme Court ruling which clarified that SALES TAXES aren't owed to the state unless the company had a physical presence in that state. Otherwise a USE TAX is owed.

Ex: Someone from OKC orders the same book from BN.com and Amazon.com. BN.com adds SALES TAX because they have a physical presence through their bricks-and-mortar stores, so they collect, report and pay the tax. But not so on the order through Amazon.com which has no physical presence. The USE TAX must be reported and paid by the individual buyer of the book. Of course in the real world, most people don't report and pay the USE TAX.

California is now trying to do an end-run around citizens not reporting and paying USE TAX on Amazon.com by claiming that Amazon's 10,000 independent sales reps constitute a physical presence. Amazon disagreed and dissolved their agreements with their California reps, many of whom are very large distributors who sell for lots of other companies, some of whom are now threatening to move out of state.

There are a lot of sides to this issue, which will eventually be determined by the US Supreme Court which will be asked to determine what constitutes a "physical presence" post-1992.

And one simple request of jmarkross - Please define "corporate jet" for us for purposes of soaking the rich.

[windowphobe]

Oklahoma has collected USE TAXES for at least a decade...

The tax was enacted in 1937, though one could argue that they didn't go to a whole lot of trouble to collect it.

[BBatesokc]

"Tax Included" is nothing new for flea markets and retailers of the sort. Of course, neither is not reporting the taxes on these small, often cash only, businesses. I buy all the time at Pawn Shops for tools and such and they always lower the price to an even number and tell me that the price is "out the door" (aka, tax included).

[Roadhawg]

"Tax Included" is nothing new for flea markets and retailers of the sort. Of course, neither is not reporting the taxes on these small, often cash only, businesses. I buy all the time at Pawn Shops for tools and such and they always lower the price to an even number and tell me that the price is "out the door" (aka, tax included).

Good point.... just seems odd, at least to me, to see people complain about having to pay sales tax when they probably don't report the sales tax they take in...

[Thunder]

Good point.... just seems odd, at least to me, to see people complain about having to pay sales tax when they probably don't report the sales tax they take in...

*facepalms* People just love to wrongly assume these days.

[Questor]

Here's the difference: if I go to Texas and I phsyically buy something in person, and their tax rate is the same or greater than ours, then the tax I pay goes entirely to Texas, not Oklahoma. What Oklahoma and other states want to do is require the selling entity, which resides in another state, to collect Oklahoma tax and turn all of it over to Oklahoma. I'm sorry, but that doesn't seem fair to me. I would love for this to backfire on all the states by eventually everyone just allowing the online retailers to charge taxes at the rate their resident state does, and then hand that tax over to their local state. Why should Oklahoma be able to horn in on the better business climate and profits of businesses operating in other states? Maybe if that was the law we would spend less time trying to figure out how to slice and dice someones purchases and more time on improving the business climate here and drawing businesses into this state. Instead I see virtually nothing like that going on at the state level.