<story><title>Amazon Sellers Brood as States Come Calling for Taxes</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/technology/amazon-sales-tax.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>c2h5oh</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a clusterfuck of epic proportions.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s say you use Amazon Fulfilment (FBA):&lt;p&gt;1. Does just storing goods in a state establish tax nexus in that state? Most states claim it does, but it hasn&amp;#x27;t been tested in court.&lt;p&gt;2. Assuming it does, Amazon keeps moving your goods between warehouses - how do you keep track which states do you have nexus in and need to have a business license in?&lt;p&gt;3. Assuming you figured it out, in some places you need to register per county, not per state (I believe it was 10+ registrations in one state, can&amp;#x27;t remember which). With all the locations with Amazon warehouses you&amp;#x27;re looking at 25+ licences. Possibly 40+.&lt;p&gt;4. Let&amp;#x27;s say you&amp;#x27;re willing to handle the 40+ business licences you&amp;#x27;re supposedly required to hold, you have to file 40+ tax returns with different deadlines, make 40 payments and keep track of law changes. Also you have to pay to get a business license and often you have to pay to keep it active every year.&lt;p&gt;5. Add being a foreign seller (let&amp;#x27;s say Canadian):&lt;p&gt;- out of all the states with Amazon warehouses only 2 will accept a non-us business address when registering for a business license. The others either don&amp;#x27;t allow you to select a country, require you to select a US state or only accept The One True Zipcode Format.&lt;p&gt;- taxes you remit using ACH will also routinely explode due to a non-US address on your US bank account.&lt;p&gt;- sure, you can file a paper registration (usually at 3+ times the registration fee), unless the state only accepts a XFA PDF form that generates a scannable code. One DOR representative told me the only way I&amp;#x27;m getting a licence in that case is if I show up in person.&lt;p&gt;- government issued photo id is sometimes required. Guess which government often is the only one that exists ;-)&lt;p&gt;By comparison in EU you collect VAT per destination country, remit it to your local tax office indicating where it should go and forget about the whole thing.</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon Sellers Brood as States Come Calling for Taxes</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/technology/amazon-sales-tax.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>maaaats</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;(...) from the millions of independent merchants who sell products through Amazon’s website&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;It may make Amazon of lot of money, but it has become increasingly frustrating to try to buy products through Amazon. Get thousands of hits on a search. Mostly the same crap through a thousand dropshippers. Used to shop through Amazon because it was consistent and easy. Now it&amp;#x27;s like shopping on Ebay.</text></comment>