Results tagged “amazon”

Interesting: Amazon is offering same-day delivery for certain items—and for an additional fee (Amazon Prime members would pay $6; non-Prime members would pay $15)—in NYC and six other cities. The Bits blog reminds us of the olden days of Kozmo.com and Urbanfetch: "Of course, those earlier players did not have sustainable business models: Urbanfetch and Kozmo were saddled with huge delivery costs (paying a fleet of bike messengers) that they tried to offset with higher-margin products (DVD players and video-game consoles), but it didn’t work—most people just ordered a pint of Cherry Garcia and a pack of Marlboros."

Last May, Amazon.com sued NY State over Governor Paterson's new law requiring out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax from consumers in New York State. NY requires residents to pay tax on out-of-state purchases for which sales tax wasn’t collected, but the argument is over who should collect it—and the new law would make Amazon responsible. Yesterday, State Supreme Court Judge Ellen Bransten dismissed Amazon's lawsuit, as well as one from Overstock.com, finding, "The neutral statute simply obligates out-of-state sellers to shoulder their fair share of the tax collection burden when using New Yorkers to earn profit from other New Yorkers." This could be headed to the Court of Appeals, should the online retailers wish to pursue it. And Paterson offered other tax ideas last month.

Last week Governor Paterson signed off on a new tax law requiring out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax from consumers in New York State. Like other states, New York requires residents to pay tax on out-of-state purchases for which sales tax wasn’t collected. The big argument is over who’s responsible for collecting; the new law puts that onus vendors like Amazon, which is now fighting the bill in State Supreme Court.

New Yorkers are supposed to be honest at tax time and indicate how much they've purchased from online retailers--like Amazon.com--that don't charge NY State sales tax. Now the NY State tax department wants online retailers to charge sales tax, or else be subject to audits going "back as far" as tax officials want.