amazon sales tax

It's no surprise that brick-and-mortar retailers continue to complain about the advantage that Internet vendors have: Not needing to collect sales tax in states where they aren't physically present. However, for Amazon that advantage is even greater, as it has managed to beat the sales tax in...

Online retail giant Amazon.com has filed suit against the state of Texas, demanding it produce an audit that serves as the basis for its demand for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes. The state demanded the money in September, but has withheld the report from Amazon.

A district court has ruled that if North Carolina wants to collect sales taxes, it can ask Amazon for the information it needs, but no more. By asking for detailed info about residents' purchases, the court said the state went too far.

The tentacles of Amazon are long, and many states that are suffering tax income shortfalls are itching to squeeze some money out of their state residents' online purchases from the behemoth. The problem isn't with the law, most of the time, but with the collection, and Amazon is caught between the...