Amazon and North Carolina

I was reading an article on ZD net the other day--that's the website for the Ziff Davis publishing house--about how Amazon is currently fighting the state of North Carolina over the state's desire to access Amazon's database of customer's and their purchases.
Amazon has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s Department of Revenue to prevent the state from getting the names of every resident that bought anything from the retailer since 2003. The ramifications could be huge.

As you may recall, Amazon has been dueling with a few states over taxation issues. States, which are struggling to balance bloated budgets, are mulling over taxing out-of-state Internet retailers.

Since I live in NC I take a large interest in this fight. Should Amazon lose, any resident of NC that bought anything from Amazon in the past 8 years could be forced to pay state sales tax on their purchases, if they hadn't already done so.

That can add up to big bucks for some people. Take the typical family with 2.3 kids, just their Xmas bill alone at Amazon could be over $500 times 8 years and you have $4,000. Add in a few birthdays and such and you're quickly up to $5,000. So this family can be presented with a bill from North Carolina for $350. Ouch!

Scary days are upon us.

Comments

Anonymous said…
yeouch! Here's hoping Amazon wins this one!
4:13 PM
kenju said…
Luckily, I haven't bought anything on the computer in over 5 years!
11:25 PM
srp said…
Here is hoping Amazon wins. I don't think our government, federal or state, uses the money we give them wisely... so why let them take more?
10:08 PM
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