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[OM] US Taxes - and Amazon [was posting about tyres]

Subject: [OM] US Taxes - and Amazon [was posting about tyres]
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2016 13:11:12 -0700
On 7/9/2016 12:01 PM, John Hudson wrote:
.... a "warehouse inventory tax...."

What is that?

The US is a wild place for taxes, with various states and local gov't entities levying various sorts and rates of income, sales and asset taxes. Here in CA, the sales tax rate varies by Zip Code.

Property taxes are the most common, almost ubiquitous, form of asset taxes*. Taxes on the value of vehicles and boats are also pretty common, although not always named as such when collected together with registration fees. Taxes on the value of inventories are also levied in some places.

States and localities may produce the same sort of revenues using different mixes of taxation. There can be considerable distortion of retail sales patterns at borders. Maine has a sales tax, New Hampshire does not; hence the large cluster of "outlet" stores and malls in what would otherwise be quiet little Conway, NH.

Oregon has no sales tax, while its four neighbors have them, so retailers near the borders do lots of business from across the borders. The Janzen Beach Mall, on an Oregon island in the Columbia river, between Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA, with convenient on and off ramps from I5, exists and thrives from the tax difference.

I was only pointing out that locating in Nevada means no tax on inventories and no need to collect sales tax on sales into CA. Amazon was taking advantage of this for many years. CA argued (with my local state legislator a leader of the charge) that the many, many Amazon Marketplace vendors in CA amounted to a business presence in the state, so Amazon should be collecting CA sales tax. After a long and hard fought battle, Amazon asked for a year moratorium, and would then start collecting the tax for CA without litigation. They used that year to completely reinvent their logistics, offering faster free delivery, one day on many Prime orders. Now, they are offering two hour delivery of some food and household supplies.

I ordered some bits and pieces of camera/electronics stuff at 1:30 yesterday morning. The guaranteed delivery was tomorrow for one item, Thursday for the rest. All arrived together a few minutes ago, 35 hours after the order. According to Carol, delivered by an attractive woman who announced herself as "Amazon", as she approached our open front door. I missed that, so no pic, and thus it may not have actually happened. ;-)

Whatever else Amazon may be, they certainly are masters of logistics.

Delivery To Moose

* Also almost unbelievably inconsistent in means of setting values and in rates. And highly inconsistent in application in many jurisdictions, where politics, influence and just plain bribes distort the apparent laws. I know this first hand from a project I directed many years ago. I was simply amazed.

--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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