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  • The Amazon Tax on e-Commerce: Coming Soon to a State Near You [View article]
    eBay is an interesting question since their has been a fight about charging income tax on ebay for a long time now, long before the sales tax issue came up. More and more people have quit their jobs and have become sellers on ebay full time - all tax free.

    Technically, when Americans sell even their used goods at a garage sale, they are supposed to report the income to the IRS and pay their income taxes on these sales. No one really did. But with some individuals making six or even seven figures on ebay every year, the IRS has been paying more attention. They've been pressuring eBay to release information that would enable them to charge income tax on these sellers. Information which is readily accessible if eBay chose to cooperate (as opposed to a garage sale which the government would likely never know about). So far eBay has resisted for obvious reasons.


    On May 02 01:16 PM Option Maestro wrote:

    > Agreed 100%... Is the Ebay tax going to be on all goods or just "new"?
    > If it is just on new items, I believe the secondhand market will
    > thrive.
    May 03 08:02 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment
  • The Amazon Tax on e-Commerce: Coming Soon to a State Near You [View article]
    Excellent article and a good explanation of a complex situation. I wrote about this topic myself here:

    seekingalpha.com/artic...

    I'm very happy to read your update on the situation. Can you please explain why Amazon would be supporting the federal legislation that would require them to collect sales tax? It would put an extra burden on the company and at the same time, I believe it would drastically lower their sales.

    When only NY State imposed sales tax collections on Amazon, they went out of their way to sue, challenging the constitutionality of the new law. I fail to understand why they would support such a law on a national level. If that is accurate, it's a bad call. They'd be better off joining forces with eBay, Overstock and other powerhouse internet sellers to fight the legislation. Together they would be a formidable opponent.
    May 03 07:52 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment
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