Wednesday, December 12, 2012
The Internet retailer said the collection would begin in time for next year's holiday shopping season.
Checking out at Amazon.com will be a little pricier starting next November. The Internet retailer will start collecting Massachusetts state tax for next year's holiday shopping season. Gov. Deval Patrick's office announced the deal Tuesday, stating the company would be adding jobs to Massachusetts in the next few years. Amazon.com and Patrick said they would work together to support a federal bill allowing individual states to collect sales tax in states where they have no physical location. The co-owner of one well-known Boston area business that has been hit hard by Amazon's tax-free run is is celebrating the decision. "For every brick and mortar retailer, this is a huge victory,” Dana Brigham of Brookline Booksmith told CBS Boston. "It …
Monday, November 26, 2012
The Internet giant has been exempt from collecting sales taxes in Massachusetts but some say that changed when it bought a North Reading company this year.
The Patrick Administration is arguing that after Amazon, the huge online retailer, bought a Massachusetts company this year it is no longer exempt from collecting the state's 6.25 percent sales tax as soon as the 2013 holiday season. Under federal law, online retailers are not required to collect state sales taxes if they do not have a physical presence in the state, such as an office building or a store, the Boston Globe reported. But Amazon bought North Reading company Kiva Systems this year, and is recruiting engineers for a Cambridge office, according to the Globe report. This, Patrick says, means it needs to start collecting the state sales tax in Massachusetts. Amazon has faced similar pressure from other states and collects sales …
Monday, September 24, 2012
Mayors who are part of a state coalition argue giant online retailers are being allowed to avoid collecting millions in state sales tax, and that's unfair to local businesses that do collect, especially as the holiday shopping season approaches.
It's only fair -- that's the argument from advocates behind an effort to get giant online retailers, such as Amazon.com or Overstock.com, to collect the 6.25 percent state sales tax on purchases by Massachusetts customers. The Massachusetts Main Street Fairness Coalition (MMSFC), an organization made up of retailers, local elected officials, labor unions, trade and business associations and individuals, says these online retailers are exploiting a legal loophole that allows them to not charge sales taxes unless they have a physical presence in that particular state. It's a "huge advantage" local brick-and-mortar businesses -- the "lifeblood" of cities and towns -- can't compete with, the coalition argues. The coalition is led by Salem …
Andrew Johnson, CPA
7:14 pm on Wednesday, December 19, 2012
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