diberry - 3:23 pm on Jun 12, 2011 (gmt 0)

As I stated above, even extremely business friendly Republican TN may be turning and reneging on the deal they made with Amazon, trying to push through sales tax on the basis that Amazon is building fulfillment centers and providing jobs. So... which business friendly states should we be moving to?

I think in the end, the states will get their sales or use tax on Amazon purchases, and I really don't have a problem with that as a consumer. The problem is how the states are going about it, and I support Amazon's position in response, even though it'll hurt me if it goes through in my state.

Jeff Bezos supports the Main Street Fairness Act or something like it: [nationallawforum.com...]

That seems like a more fair way to go:

First, states voluntarily join the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement by adopting its provisions as state law and conforming to the tax administration procedures set for by the Agreement. Second, interstate retailers voluntarily register with the Project’s online system. Sellers only register once and are thenceforth obligated to collect and remit sales taxes to member states when they sell products to residents of those states. The Agreement reduces the administrative burden of tax compliance by focusing on two main goals: uniformity and simplification. The Agreement promotes uniformity in multistate sales tax collection at five levels: terminology, tax bases, registration, sourcing, and reporting. It simplifies sales tax collection and reporting by focusing on four areas: limited tax rates, seller liability for incorrectly reported exemptions, simplified tax forms, and electronic tax remittances. Additionally, it provides for sales tax software that, if used, would provide immunity to users from audits and corresponding liability.

That would make it less of a burden for smaller companies that may have brick stores AND online sales. If something like this passed and got used, there would be no reason for Amazon to avoid affiliating with any state. Nor would sales tax be a consideration for where it builds fulfillment centers and so on.