ALERT: Alabama’s ‘Amazon Tax’ set to go into effect....*^&%$#!

[dixiegrrrrl]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Beginning November 1, Alabamians will be paying 8 percent extra anytime they make a purchase on Amazon, thanks to the state’s new online sales tax. The tax was signed into law in October of 2015, and forces online companies to collect, report and distribute the money back to Montgomery.

Melissa Warnke, a spokesperson for the Alabama Retail Association, told WSFA that “Amazon, for a long time, has been for paying online sales tax. They have been on the same side of all of the brick-and-mortar businesses that have been fighting for e-fairness.”

Alabama consumers will now be paying more at 52 different online retailers that all have to collect the state’s 8 percent.

http://yellowhammernews.com/politics-2/alabama-amazon-tax/?utm_source=boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160605&[email protected]&bt_ts=1470940890984

Living in a rural part of Alabama, I use amazon a lot.

I wonder if this effects the independent book sellers who sell via Amazon?

Might be can get those cheap book prices by just going to the seller's stores.

[Indpndnt]

1. It should only affect the prices on products sold by Amazon.

Not those sold on Amazon by other sellers. If you have Prime, even if an independent seller has their items fulfilled by Amazon, there should be no sales tax (provided the seller isn't also in Alabama).

When the change comes about, toss a few items into your cart and test the differences to find the best deals.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. Most likely, it also affects the bank account of Gov. Bentley (R) of Alabama

As medical doctor, who pays no taxes, the Republican governor of Alabama boasts that he did not accept the salary given to other Alabama governors. Why did he invest so much money and time in becoming governor?

[PSPS]

2. And it's high time too.

Those sales taxes are used to fund the infrastructure that online shoppers rely on to receive what they ordered. Without this, brick-and-mortar stores are subsidizing Jeff Bezos.

[juxtaposed]

4. Don't tax amazon nor the buyer. brick & mortar effect the local infrastructure and should be

taxed.

[PSPS]

6. Those Amazon packages don't just materialize on your doorstep, you know.

[juxtaposed]

7. in a year or so they will. drones at my door step

[Sherman A1]

13. The drones have to be based at some location

and their range is rather limited. Yes, online purchases do require the use of some infrastructure within your state and local area. As to whether they should pay taxes for the use of same is worthy of debate, but they do not jus magically arrive at anyone's doorstep or mailbox.

[Skittles]

8. fyi

most of the time, 'effect' is a noun

use AFFECT as a verb

that's how I remember

[juxtaposed]

9. . fyi no one cares

[auntpurl]

14. I do.

Skittles just nicely tried to help you improve your written English. You were rude in return.

I care both about standards of writing and standards of civility.

[Demonaut]

21. +1

[villager]

26. +2

[demigoddess]

55. +1 more

hate bad language skills.

[pintobean]

16. I do, too.

It's hard to remember the things you learned 40 years ago, if you don't use it. She wasn't snobby about it. She was trying to be helpful.

[MineralMan]

23. Oh, actually, some people do care.

Apparently, you're not one of those. It was good advice. When we put things in writing, we are being judged by everyone who reads what we wrote.

It's a good thing to try to write correctly. Really it is.

[nolabels]

42. Yea, but on the other side, for which i also agree........

Telling it like it is in a visceral and most succinct form helps to move the conversation along

[Maru Kitteh]

56. Brevity is aimless without precision. Inaccurate language use

hinders and delays communication.

[yallerdawg]

27. Isn't it much appreciated to have these...

internet blogger schoolmarms correcting our writing? Just another benefit?

For having the audacity of putting out our opinion?

I hope they never discover "twitter."

They'd suffer massive coronaries and aneurysms!

[Maru Kitteh]

57. Skittles' polite attempt to help someone improve their communication skills exemplifies the best

instincts of a polite and helpful community. DU is not a formal writing exercise, but neither is it Twitter, and I believe most people understand that. The worth of our ideas are assigned value, in part, by our ability to express them.

We have seen decades of anti-intellectual sentiment from the right. I despair of seeing this same sentiment here in your post and hope it will not become the norm of DU. I would rather see DU continue to support and help each other, as Skittles attempted to do, and I hope we will continue to hold our expression to higher standards than those on the right.

[yallerdawg]

58. I couldn't value Skittle's comment...

because of the horrible punctuation and failure to properly capitalize.

I thought it was just an attempt to hijack a thread about adding internet sales tax in my home state of Alabama - people thinkin' maybe we don't know how to spell and talk right and such.

Now, what did you say about the internet sales tax?

[Skittles]

37. well it's obvious YOU don't

but I can assure you many people do care

[mythology]

62. And some people care about punctuation and proper capitalization.

But apparently you don't care about that or how hypocritical it makes you look. I can likewise assure you that people care about those things as well.

The difference between us is that I'm aware enough to realize being officious isn't a good thing.

[Crabby Appleton]

39. I care. nt

[PasadenaTrudy]

22. I need to remember this too!

I still have to think too hard sometimes to remember which is which

[Quackers]

24. Cool

I got there, their, and they're down but I still mess up on affect and effect.

[MineralMan]

32. Yes. The poster should "effect" a change in that post.

I couldn't resist using "effect" correctly as a verb. Of course, you are correct, but "effect" can be used as a verb, but not as used in that post.

[yeoman6987]

10. Maryland and Florida have it too

It's spreading to all the states eventually.

[WillowTree]

40. And Illinois.

[Igel]

17. The logic fails.

If I buy something from, say, a music supply company that's in the mid-West and has no presence in Texas at all, they don't pay sales tax.

I get stuff from time to time from overseas. And envelopes full of stuff from my insurance company, mother's fiduciary, etc.

Yet their products arrive with the mail or by UPS/Fedex or some hybrid. They're businesses and in the conduct of their business they use local infrastructure.

They use the infrastructure no less than Amazon does. Yet there's no motivated reason for retailers without a physical presence in my state or for those who just use the mail/Fedex/UPS to deliver envelopes. In fact, there's no way to prevent such "freeloaders" from getting a "subsidy" from Harris County, Texas.

In fact, it doesn't matter if I get anything or not. The infrastructure is equally degraded as the USPS mailtruck goes down the street 6 days a week. I guess we need to charge the USPS an infrastructure tax.

But the biggest degradation of the infrastructure is provided by some fairly small businesses. Down the road a mile or so are some open-pit sand and gravel quarries. Light industry also lies that way. There are a couple of trans-shipping companies. The road was replaced just 4 years ago, and it's already going towards being gravel as dozens of 10- and 20-ton dump trucks, flatbed semis hauling finished products or raw materials, big rigs with single-product cargoes heading in and trucks with mixed cargoes coming out. They just pay property tax, income tax (I assume), and road-use tax for their trucks. But that doesn't cover the damage they do to what's really not a main commercial thoroughfare.

Meh, just consider it a way of providing financial stimulus to the car mechanics.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. Yeah, I noticed that in Ohio awhile back too.

I got the most incredible deal on a wool coat hand-made by Sherpas in Nepal that I didn't mind. I almost felt guilty about it. For some reason, the XL size was super-cheap while the other sizes cost a small fortune (with good reason).

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. If that tax is the same as the local sales tax, then

no problem. But if it's higher, that sucks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. 8% tax for state, more for counties in the state.

We have some of the highest taxes on food and other items in the country.
Plus the counties add their tax.
Right now I pay 9.5% tax on groceries, clothes, etc. in our county.

Thus internet shopping was a large savings.

And bentley wants to raise gasoline taxes again.

[yallerdawg]

19. I just got charged 10% sales tax...

on an HSN 'smartphone' purchase.

Montgomery tax rate is 10%.

On the other hand, our tax rate on gas is an obsolete fixed amount of .16/gal set in 1992. This is a huge portion of our local Alabama roads and bridges revenue source, especially at the county level.

[TheBlackAdder]

33. Is Alabama more of a consumption (use) tax state? One that penalizes the poor more, by % income.

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. yep.

Taxes food, other consumption, except drug prescriptions, for some reason.
And this is the one week they do not charge tax on clothes for school, so most folks are flocking the few clothing stores we have in this town.

[csziggy]

15. If you don't need new books try Thirftbooks.com

They have a wide selection of used books, often shipping is free, and I've gotten great service from them.

From the books I have gotten it seems some of their stock came from booksellers who went out of business. Thriftbooks has distribution centers across the country and when possible they will offer to ship from the location closest to you to save energy.

http://www.thriftbooks.com/

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. I buy from them.

They use Amazon, as do a lot of other low price bookstores,
I normally buy my books for a penny plus 3.99 shipping, from booksellers on Amazon, cause Amazon lists all the sellers and prices for one book, it is easy and fast to order one, one stop shopping.
In fact, last night finished a great book and went to Amazon and bought 3 more by the same author, 2 were 4.00, from Thrift books,
but when I went to Thrift books web page, they were only showing one copy, for 8.00.

So I am interested to see if the independent sellers on Amazon have to collect the tax.

[Adrahil]

18. Indiana doe sthis too.

Hasn't affected my use of Amazon.

Sales taxes are regressive... i'm not crazy about them, but since they form a core element of State revenue, I don't object too much to it.

[Mariana]

20. You're supposed to be paying a use tax

on your out-of-state purchases that are brought into Alabama.

https://revenue.alabama.gov/salestax/cutax

[TheBlackAdder]

31. Same in NJ. I get all my Internet purchases, itemize them and add them to my tax return.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

49. Do you do that for Amazon too?

According to this site (not sure how accurate it is) Amazon is already collecting sales tax for NJ.

http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2015/06/sales-tax_free_purchases_on_am.php#.V7RQB1UrLnA

[TheBlackAdder]

50. I check each purchase invoice to see if state taxes were levied, provide itemized list to accountant

.


I compile a list of all purchases, the dates, items, amounts, and whether taxes were paid. I don't buy many things from Amazon, since they are akin to the Wal*Mart of the Internet, using taxpayer funding and a poor employee record. So, I treat each purchase as a separate inquiry.


Then, I forward off that list to my accountant, included with my tax packet. This way, it makes life easier for us both.


All the research is done ahead of time.


.

[Hoyt]

53. They collect sales tax when I make purchases, and "your" map confirms it. Personally, I don't think

it is fair to escape sales tax by buying from another state. Admittedly I've done it, but it puts locals at a disadvantage and affects tax funds for education, roads, etc., in states.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

64. I would prefer if Amazon collected money from all states that request it.

It doesn't seem right that they are getting away with not collecting it for Maine.

[QC]

25. Well, they're having to fix up the guv's beachfront love nest.

Quality remodeling isn't cheap.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. Neither are his lawyers. n/t

[QC]

35. True, and then there's the House speaker's legal fees as well.

Corruption is expensive.

[TheBlackAdder]

30. I'm on the fence on this. Amazon is akin to the Wal*Mart of the Internet, effing suppliers & workers

[Angel Martin]

65. so how does giving Amazon a tax-free advantage

help that situation ?

[KT2000]

34. Washington staters have paid for years

Also - Amazon keeps buying other businesses and they are taxed by Washington too. I buy fabric from Georgia but since Amazon bought the company, I pay Washington state, county, & city sales taxes.

I would buy locally but one national company runs most of the fabric stores and they ran out most of the other fabric stores. The only selection is online.

I think it is fair to tax - states and other government entities have built their budgets using sales taxes and we cannot pull the rug out from under government agencies as more purchasing is being done online now.

[avebury]

36. You have to consider what a state's sales tax rate is (including

city and county sales tax when applicable) when understanding why many people choose to shop on line versus brick and mortar stores.

Consider Oklahoma. Even though sales tax revenues continue to fall below projections they want us to vote to increase our sales tax by another1%. Our sales tax rate is already sky high to begin with and, if this state question passes, we will have the highest sales tax rate in the country. As it is, people are spending less money in Oklahoma and they think that will change for the better by increasing the sales tax?

[Egnever]

41. Oklahoma has some big problems right now no?

I could swear I read a few weeks ago that the state building was badly in need of repair and they can't afford to fix it?

[avebury]

44. But Mary doesn't just want to fix the capitol. She also wants

a 4 column archway, reflecting pool, get rid of existing parking for the archway and pool and build a new parking garage.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/state-capitol-repairs-to-cost-twice-what-was-allocated-archway/article_a72f9fae-48eb-5ca3-bcc5-e1f0e6161149.html

Oklahoma always has big problems, starting with our State Legislature, Governor and Attorney General.

You would not believe the time and resources that our state legislature spends on bat-shit crazy or unconstitutional laws (which our Attorney General then defends in court for the predictable loss). Of course our AG claims that these court fights don't cost the tax payers anything ( ). Evidently someone needs to explain math, budgets and economics to the guy.

Then you look at education spending in this state. First they did away with liquor by the glass to fund education - didn't work. We got the lottery to help education - didn't work. Now, David Boren, President of the University of Oklahoma wants to increase the sales tax for education (of which the universities will gain a chunk of it). Will it work? I doubt it. Things will not improve with education spending until they learn to spend their budget wisely and the Department of Education and Teachers Union stir the people up to make sure that never happens. For the population of this state there are way way too many school districts which means that huge chunks of education dollars are spent on administrative costs instead of the classroom.

It will be interesting to see if the State Question passes because I know I won't vote for it. The teachers and the classroom in K-12 need help but there is no way I can vote for any education related state questions until real reform occurs.

[Egnever]

45. Education always seems to be the first to be cut.

Here in Vegas we had a a public referendum that said when doing the budget education had to get the first carve out. Thinking that that would stress the importance the public placed on education the legislature would fund it appropriately since it was designated as first priority. Did not change a thing. They just shorted it first....Then we passed a tax just for education and earmarked those dollars specifically for Education...The legislature just used that money to fund the education budget they wanted and used the money that was displaced elsewhere.

Such BS as the voters have clearly spoken that education is one of the most important things to them yet it still gets the short end of the stick..

Sorry to hear that OK is having so many problems I went to high school there I will always have a soft spot for OK but the religious right holds far too much power there for there to be much of a different outcome I suppose. It would be great if the state started to wake up to reality, OK has a lot of good going for it such a shame to watch it go down in flames.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

43. Is 8% the regular sales tax rate in Alabama?

That's kind of high for sales tax.

[dixiegrrrrl]

47. That is the STATE tax rate.....then counties and cties add their own to it.

Anything I buy in my county is 9.5% tax.

So you can see that internet sales can save quite a bit of money, esp. if you get free shipping.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

48. Wow that is high.

General sales tax rate in Maine is 5.5% for most things you buy. Basic foods like fruits, veggies, bread, unprepared meat are not taxed. Prescription drugs are also not taxed. Over the counter medicines are taxed. Food that's not basic food group type food, like twinkies or soda, are taxed. Anything you can buy at store, but you can't eat is taxed. If you get a prepared meal at a restaurant, that has 8% tax. Lodging is 9% tax (this mostly effects tourists). Sales tax on cars is 5.5%, but you have to pay this tax annually (not a one time purchase fee). That fee goes down as the value of your car goes down because they tax the value of the car based on make, model, and age. We are supposed to pay tax on our state tax return for online purchases, but I don't think most people do and it is kind of hard for the state to figure out what you purchased online that you owe them taxes for. Probably only big ticket purchases and business related online stuff get reported. Most people are not going to track the little random purchases they made online so they can pay the state taxes on it when they file state tax return because that is a total pain in the ass. I would prefer it if they just got the online retailers to collect the tax on the state's behalf the same way it is done in a physical store. I guess Maine wanted Amazon to collect sale tax for them, but Amazon refused because I guess they can get away with it being they aren't based in Maine or something (not sure). Amazon thinks not collecting sales tax in Maine makes them more competitive there, but they collect sales taxes in other states. I don't know why this is. I think Maine is still looking for a way to compel Amazon to collect sale tax for them.

There's no county taxes in Maine. In Maine, counties don't count for much. There are some government services organized by counties, that's about it. I lived in Florida for a bit and I thought it was a little strange how things were done. Counties seem to have a lot more power there. Each county had their own sales tax. School districts were organized by county and I didn't like this. I felt it made their school districts too large.

[dixiegrrrrl]

51. The key to Ala. tax system is racism.

In most places, schools are funded via property taxes, but in Ala. it comes from the General Fund, a portion called Educational taxes.
What really happens is most desegregated schools are underfunded and lots of white schools are privately funded by parents fees.
So the property tax is kept low.

Even better, we ( and Fla, and Texas and a few more Southern states) have what is called a homestead tax law.
Anyone who is blind, disabled or over 65 pays ZERO property taxes on their primary residence including land around it.
We have our house on one acre of land, and we bought a half acre on the other side of the driveway, which is not connected to our house property directly.
Doesn't matter, tax assessor says none of it is taxable. If it were taxable, we would pay something like 300.00 a year for everything.

The property tax actually works in favor in of everyone, cause in the South, families have owned their land for generations.
Many many cases of people being land rich and cash poor. Anybody can make a passable living if they have land to grow food, and hunting is good, as it is here.


Ala. has income tax, btw.

The South is a great place to retire cause of low taxes on home ownership, no taxes on Soc. Sec. income, so there is mostly just sales taxes.

[tammywammy]

61. The general state sales tax rate is 4%

The other 5.5% is from other taxing jurisdictions (city, county, etc)

[dixiegrrrrl]

63. Thank you for that info....

I had the Amazon 8% in my mind.

[tammywammy]

46. I pay sales tax to Amazon in Texas

I'm perfectly okay with it. Sales tax in my city is what help funds streets, parks, and other city initiatives. I use Amazon for convenience. The sales tax rate is 8% city & state combined.

[metalbot]

59. Amazon has a physical presence in Texas

and is therefore subject to tax. I don't think Texas has a vendor enforced "internet sales tax" (though I could be wrong).

[SheriffBob]

52. But it's a repub controlled state

I thought they were against taxes. Oh yeah, i forgot, only for the rich.

[demigoddess]

54. I pay sales tax when I buy from Amazon. Usually about 10%, I don't mind

because I am buying things that stores don't carry. Even grocery stores. They allowed them to carry liquor so they cut the food stuff that they think is not popular enough. so I buy it from amazon. LOVE AMAZON

[mahina]

60. Is it that they weren't charging (and paying) your local tax before, and now they are?

Here's hoping they actually pay what they collect. Who could check?