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The South Carolina House of Representatives yesterday rejected a bill which would have granted amazon.com an exemption from collecting SC sales tax on purchases from SC residents. In response, amazon.com has stopped construction of a new distribution center near Columbia which would have created more than 1200 jobs.
http://www.thestate.com/2011/04/28/1795776/amazon-packing-after-house-vote.html (The State newspaper, Columbia)
Amazon.com, like most online retailers, does not currently collect SC sales tax because it does not have a "business presence" in the state. The new distribution center would have changed this, hence their desire for a exemption from collecting SC sales tax.
The opposition claimed that the sales tax collection exemption gives amazon.com (and other online retailers) an unfair price advantage over local retailers who do have to collect sales tax. I tend to agree with this; however, granting the exemption would not have changed the status quo. People in SC are going to order stuff from amazon.com regardless of whether it gets shipped from Columbia or from, say, Lexington, Kentucky, which is where most of the stuff I order seems to come from. The only difference between building the center here (with the exemption) and not building it, is the 1200+ jobs, as far as the state is concerned.
http://www.thestate.com/2011/04/28/1795776/amazon-packing-after-house-vote.html (The State newspaper, Columbia)
Amazon.com, like most online retailers, does not currently collect SC sales tax because it does not have a "business presence" in the state. The new distribution center would have changed this, hence their desire for a exemption from collecting SC sales tax.
The opposition claimed that the sales tax collection exemption gives amazon.com (and other online retailers) an unfair price advantage over local retailers who do have to collect sales tax. I tend to agree with this; however, granting the exemption would not have changed the status quo. People in SC are going to order stuff from amazon.com regardless of whether it gets shipped from Columbia or from, say, Lexington, Kentucky, which is where most of the stuff I order seems to come from. The only difference between building the center here (with the exemption) and not building it, is the 1200+ jobs, as far as the state is concerned.
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