Texas and Amazon: Another Nexus Battle!

Posted by accountingweb on Nov 1 2010 1654 printer friendly

If you do a google search for "Texas and Amazon" you will find several articles about the $269 million dollar sales tax assessment Texas is litigating with Amazon. Check out TechFlash's Article.

Here's the excerpt from Amazon's 10-Q filing:In September 2010, the State of Texas issued an assessment of $269 million for uncollected sales taxes for the period from December 2005 to December 2009, including interest and penalties. The State of Texas is alleging that we should have collected sales taxes on applicable sales transactions during those years. We believe that the State of Texas did not provide a sufficient basis for its assessment and that the assessment is without merit. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.

Apparently, Amazon operates a distribution center in Texas, but the distribution center is owned by a subsidiary and not the Amazon entity that sells goods online. Therefore, Amazon has argued that the online company does not have nexus in Texas. Texas seems to disagree.

Amazon has been under attack for the past few years with New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island and their "Amazon.com nexus" laws. In addition, other states like Colorado have tried to make their compliance requirements so burdensome that out of state "non-collecting retailers" will voluntarily collect sales tax on their sales.

Stay tuned for the continuing saga.

For more info on Amazon's "trials and tribulations," check out another article by TechFlash.

Also, check out my other posts on Nexus.

View the discussion thread.

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State and Local Tax 360˚

My name is Brian Strahle and I hope you find this blog informative and useful. I am a multistate tax consultant and I serve clients across the U.S. from my office in Washington D.C. For more info, visit my website: www.leveragestateandlocaltax.com

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