Amazon Begins Collecting Mass. Sales Tax
Amazon today was scheduled to begin collecting sales taxes from its Massachusetts customers' online purchases, part of an accord reached last year with the Patrick administration that could bring in millions of dollars to the commonwealth’s coffers and help level the field for the retail industry.
The world’s largest online retailer reached an agreement with the administration last December, after small businesses had pressured Gov. Deval Patrick.
Congress continues to weigh proposals to level the taxation playing field between brick and mortar stores and sellers who use the Internet as their marketplace. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue estimates sales taxes from goods sold by Amazon in Massachusetts – at the rate of 6.25 percent - will generate $36.7 million during fiscal 2014.
As part of the deal, Amazon said it would support Massachusetts’ effort to promote a federal solution to the issue of online retailers collecting sales tax on purchases from individual states. Amazon now collects sales taxes in 16 states.
Under federal law, online retailers don’t have to collect and remit sales taxes from customers to states where the company does not have a physical presence. Amazon purchased a robotics company in North Reading earlier last year and opened a research office in Cambridge, establishing what some officials suggested was the "brick and mortar" nexus necessary for the state to force Amazon to collect the taxes from online shoppers. – State House News Service
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Experts See Rising Tax Collections, Continued Economic Growth in Mass.
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