[sokoloff]

There's an argument that Bezos is forgoing short-term profits by re-investing those into growing the business (expanding into AWS, marketplaces, Zappos, Kindle, streaming media, etc, etc) and into aggressively competing on price to not leave much excess oxygen in the room for competitors.

That's very different from the potential profit profile if Amazon were seeking to maximize near-term profit as opposed to maximizing near-term growth, with the expectation that that maximizes long-term profit.

[rafcavallaro]

If Amazon loses it's tax exempt status in all jurisdictions it may well also lose profitability - the long term plan of cornering an unprofitable market is still unprofitable.

[sokoloff]

Amazon has no tax exempt status.

It merely has no obligation in most jurisdictions to collect sales tax on behalf of the local taxing jurisdiction. Those purchases aren't tax-exempt; it's just that it's the buyer's problem to comply, not Amazon's problem to comply. That many buyers "forget" to comply does not make them exempt. (And Amazon is not exempt, rather they never had an obligation in the first place.)

[rafcavallaro]

This could easily change if laws are passed requiring a online retailers like a Amazon to collect such taxes. The absence of such a requirement now gives Amazon a de facto tax exempt status.