Amazon.com fighting States over Sales Tax (Lost in Cyberspace)

Ever since Amazon was started in 1994, they have not charged sales tax in most states. They also want to keep it that way too. 

Amazon Warehouse

The Wall Street Journal  explains in this article, that Amazon does pay sales tax in at least 10 states where the states have passed online sales tax laws (North Carolina is one of them). As you can see in the Interactive Map that many states have lost from $10-25 billion dollars in local and state taxes not being collected. That number is only growing as studies have shown from the article. Amazon continues to cause more slaes tax loss in states as Amazon keeps getting bigger and bigger. 

Further in the article it explains that its sales tax policies are critical in its performance as a company. Although Amazon credits its low prices, fast delivery and trusted site, its sales tax policies add a competitive advantage to physical stores that are forced to charge the tax. 

In my opinion, I don't think that Amazon should be legally forced to charge a sales tax unless that specific state's government has a clause included in it. It is just smart business. Amazon found a way to gain a competitive advantage over any physical store. Amazon has found a loophole and has capitalized on this and has made a lot of money off of this misfortune of all physical stores.

Amazon also does promote a national sales tax to even the playing field for all online stores but previous attempts to get this law passed have failed. They are working to help close the gap in this e-commerce industry. 

This battle will only continue in the future and time will only tell to see how this issue will be resolved. As of now, Amazon will continue to capitalize on this competitive advantage they have created.