Amazon Heads Up

[Winston]

And that ain't all. Amazon is associated with 'TRS Recovery Services' which is an organized crime extortion ring.

Beware!

--Winston

[Paul K. Dickman]

This has always been the law for Illinois sales tax. A company with some physical presence in the state is responsible for collecting the tax on Illinois retail sales. Amazon dodged around it by using "affiliates". Amazon didn't collect, but technically, any Illinois affiliate shipping to an address inside the state was required to collect it.

There is also a "use tax" in Illinois. It has been in effect since '55. In effect if you buy items from out of state for use in Illinois, the purchaser is supposed remit the tax. (you get credit for sales taxes paid to other states). Reporting this has been on the honor system, and as a result nobody ever does it.

Amazon could have probably stayed ahead of the curve by only connecting interstate buyers and sellers. But it would not have lasted forever. The bottom line is that you owe tax on all purchased items used in Illinois. They have not chased after mail order and internet sales because the paperwork would be a nightmare.

The computer revolution is changing that.

Paul K. Dickman

[Lee Michaels]

"CW" wrote

That is because Amazon is physically located in Washington state. Their headquarters and some warehouses are here. They took over the big, old public health hospital on Beacon Hill in Seattle for their headquarters. Much of their shipping for the book business used to be here too. Until they hired a guy from California.

He pointed out that they were in an earthquake zone. And as per cooperate earthquake rules, you never have more than a third of your corporate business function in an earthquake zone. So they started backing everything up in several locations and making plans for moving people if a big earthquake happened. And they started establishing warehouses and shipping centers elsewhere. It was a big deal because, wherever they built, they would have collect sales tax on local sales.

And they did. But they draw the line on a referral sale. I wonder how much money is being lost by the state who insist on doing this. They know that they can't charge tax to folks outside of the state. The do collect taxes on the various businesses in the state no matter who they sell to. And they now are losing that tax.

Apparently they are upset that they don't get to double tax the sale.

[CW]

That sounds totally democtrat.

Right. Get used to paying that tax. It will be permanent.

They're going to continue to do crap like this until a tipping point is reached. Once it is reached (they aren't far from it now), a new criminal enterprise will appear: Tobacco smuggling. Not only are they no longer going to be able to collect tax on it, it is going to be quite expensive as law enforcement have then got something else to deal with. I don't smoke myself but when it gets to that point, I will buy one case of cigarettes a month (maybe more depending on price) to support the black market.

[Califbill]

That sounds totally democtrat.

Right. Get used to paying that tax. It will be permanent.

They're going to continue to do crap like this until a tipping point is reached. Once it is reached (they aren't far from it now), a new criminal enterprise will appear: Tobacco smuggling. Not only are they no longer going to be able to collect tax on it, it is going to be quite expensive as law enforcement have then got something else to deal with. I don't smoke myself but when it gets to that point, I will buy one case of cigarettes a month (maybe more depending on price) to support the black market.

Reply: Is already happening in NYC. Their extra tax made the price of a pack $13-15. There are still as many cigarettes being sold, but the tax receipts are down.

[Lobby Dosser]

They have to, their HQ is there.

[CW]

encourage people to quit. Anybody with half a brain knew better. I think cigarettes is just the tip of the iceberg. Shit's about to hit the fan and the politicians are getting scared. Go smugglers!

[sam]

s

[ChairMan]

In news: [e-mail], sam spewed forth:

if everybody quits, do you think the gvnmt will cut the billions they recieve in taxes from their budgets or just find someone or something else to tax? be careful what you wish for

[ChairMan]

In news:l_udnV3bweGb9brQnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail], Edward Hennessey spewed forth:

not to mention that if you buy something and the price drops within a few days they won't honor a credit like so many others do.

Post-Order Price Match Policy

With the exception of TVs, we do not offer post-order price matching when an item's price drops after you buy it. Our prices regularly change, and the price you paid when your order shipped was the lowest price we were able to offer at the time. We consistently offer competitive prices on everything we carry because we know low prices are very important to our customers.

[Bill]

That's not the point of course. After that, they will go after alcohol, lottery tickets, video games...

Bill

[Edward Hennessey]

SP:

My wonderment gives. If it is not intrusive or unwanted, could you do me the favor of explaining the origin and meaning of your full handle? Not since going to court with one Pratsersak Vathavornchotni

--a moniker than eventuated as intelligible--has a name captured so much unknown in its composition.

Regards and "Dum spiro, spero",

Edward Hennessey

[CW]

How long after that will it be before the people declare open season on politicians?

[Markem]

The tax bill has pass the Illinois house, has yet to pass in our Senate. If it does, the governer will sign it as it was his baby.

Mark

[Markem]

Black market already exist in Illinois, "Da Outfit" in Chicago has been making money that way for the past 20 years.

Mark

[John Grossbohlin]

Kind of jumping in the middle here... orders from Buy.com and Amazon.com have incurred New York state and local sales tax for a number of years now... My order volume from them dropped as it took away the price advantage. Other out of state companies have taken up the slack...

[HeyBub]

My, there's lots of brands (now). Just go to Sam's (or wherever) and ask. Start with the cheapest and work up.

Here are a couple of examples:

Clipper

(these are $16/carton on this web site but I pay $11 at Sams) you're a smoker, I recommend you invest less than $20 and experiment. If the new brand is palatable, you'll save $2,000 a year. If you just can't stand them, you're out a double sawbuck. Twenty dollars to possibly save $2000 sounds like a reasonable gamble.

It's a better deal than switching to CFLs!

[Paul K. Dickman]

It ain't just the mob.

K. Dickman

[sam]

The political pendulum has swung back and forth long before you and I were born, and it will swing back and forth long after you and I are dead, regardless of how much we fret about it.

Either way, smoking is really bad for you.

s

[Stormin Mormon]

The legislators and other liberals are power mad, gone wild. Smugglers are capitalists of the purest nature. In this case, I side with the smugglers. Though I don't smoke, and am allergic to tobacco.