On top of the ridiculous sales tax bill have you seen the Babysitter bill? http://www.theunion.com/ARTICLE/20110830/BREAKINGNEWS/110839... It is a bill being considered that says that if you hire a babysitter, you've got to provide breaks every 2 hours (which means you've got to hire another babysitter), plus pay for workman's compensation and keep track of taxes.
I agree that it's a stupid bill, but don't be so sensational. The bill only applies to babysitters over 18, which are typically professional care givers (i.e., nannies).
That's not a hidden threat; that's been an open threat for ages. Amazon has a history of pulling out operations in states that try to pass similar laws and they said they'd do the same in California. This offer was an attempt to avoid that.
It's a whole lot more than the zero California will earn from the ecommerce tax. California still has no authority to enforce a sales tax outside its borders. Amazon now has no physical presence in California. So far the only effect of the tax is to lose jobs in California.
Oh come on. This isn't blackmail, it's offering an exchange that's win-win. California wants - actually, badly NEEDS - jobs; Amazon wants to avoid or at least delay the sales tax. They have every ethical and legal right to make the proposal.
If I'm selling burgers for $5, and you give me $5 for one because you're hungry, am I "blackmailing" you to get your cash?
Perhaps I'm missing something? If so, please point it out.
It was just a few weeks ago I was watching Steve Jobs give his pitch for Apple's new campus in California -- at one point Jobs broke out the idea that the benefit to the state was Apple paying their taxes. In other words the way a company is a good corporate citizen is by increasing the tax base. What's sad here is that Jobs was talking about payroll tax, not even sales tax. The right thing for Amazon to do is to collect that tax instead of cheating the kids of California. Also special deals for big companies (be it Amazon or Walmart) are always unfair to small companies that don't get the same breaks. If you're going to give a sales tax holiday to anyone it should be startup companies in California that can use the boost.
Interesting that you think it's Amazon that is cheating the kids in CA and not the politicians (or other huge lobby siphoning money from the CA tax payers).
With that said, state sales tax has always been about collecting tax if the business has a presence in the state. This works for Amazon all the way down to the mom and pop that sells across the internet to people in another state.
Most (all?) states have a line item on their tax forms where the tax payer can write in a value on items they purchased out of state and need to pay taxes on. I'm guessing very few people fill that line in. It touches on another problem that no one wants to pay taxes (they always want someone else to pay), yet they want more and more services from the government.
In a state like CA which manages to be on the brink of bankruptcy despite pulling in the largest amount of tax revenue in the US, I think the solution is cutting spending, not throwing more money down the drain.
[+] [-] crxpandion|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zackbelow|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zackbelow|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jinushaun|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] wccrawford|14 years ago|reply
They're obviously able to choose where the jobs go, or this offer wouldn't make sense at all.
[+] [-] masterzora|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snorkel|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] warmfuzzykitten|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guywithabike|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] redsymbol|14 years ago|reply
If I'm selling burgers for $5, and you give me $5 for one because you're hungry, am I "blackmailing" you to get your cash?
Perhaps I'm missing something? If so, please point it out.
[+] [-] solson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hexis|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thisuser|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] temphn|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelpinto|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matwood|14 years ago|reply
With that said, state sales tax has always been about collecting tax if the business has a presence in the state. This works for Amazon all the way down to the mom and pop that sells across the internet to people in another state.
Most (all?) states have a line item on their tax forms where the tax payer can write in a value on items they purchased out of state and need to pay taxes on. I'm guessing very few people fill that line in. It touches on another problem that no one wants to pay taxes (they always want someone else to pay), yet they want more and more services from the government.
[+] [-] jinushaun|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|14 years ago|reply