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by sosuke 4147 days ago
Oh no I sure hope not, the tax will be back and that is enough to move me to other sites in several cases.

Edit: To clarify, no sales tax was one of the first things Amazon and other online retailers had on their side. They could sell things cheaper, even by a little, and the rest would be made up by not having to pay sales tax. If they have a presence in a state though they have to collect sales tax. If you buy a lot from Amazon it is kind of like taking a 8.5% pay cut in buying power. If you remember back in 1997-8 there were several bills popping up around it. My Google-fu is failing me, but this is a real issue. Amazon even discontinued the associates programs in some states to avoid taxes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax

4 comments

IIRC, aren't you supposed to calculate your owed taxes for your state and then pay when you filed? Of course not many people do this, and the IRS (or state equivalent) has no hope of enforcing this.
In some states, "use tax" is due on goods or services bought out of the state and used in the state. I don't know how widespread it is, but I don't think there's a blanket law that applies over all the US.
In Louisiana, they don't let you register your out of state car unless you pay use tax on it.
Amazon already collects sales tax in 24 states as per your link.
Most states where they have warehouses they pay taxes in now (which is many many states now).
Paying taxes is a civic duty.