Thursday, October 15, 2009

Same Day Delivery on Sales Tax

Amazon.com is rolling out same day delivery in select cities for orders placed between 1oam and 1pm (NYTimes) As B&N steps up its online and e-Reader activities, Amazon is not standing in place and looks to be offering this service to counter one of the primary benefits that the bricks and mortar bookseller retains. But Amazon has also been battling states over the collection of sales tax and has pulled operations out of states that have sought to require them to collect sales tax. One of those battleground states has been New York and the NY attorney general has been looking into this matter with respect to Amazon in particular. In reaction Amazon began closing their affiliate relationships in the state to mitigate any argument that they had nexus in the state requiring them to collect state tax. As an internet retailer, Amazon has never agreed that they should collect sales taxes if they don't have substantial operations in a particular state but as of August they appear to have been collecting sales tax in New York.

This announcement could have more implications than just same day delivery.

LATimes

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