Cengage Advantage Books: Foundations of the Legal Environment of Business 3rd Edition by Marianne Jennings

Exercise 14

Amazon.com closed its Irvine, Texas center because of a dispute with the Texas state comptroller over $269 million that the controller says Amazon owes to the state in sales taxes for goods shipped to Texas residents. With state budget deficits boiling over and under and every which way into the media, the revenue pot from online purchases remains largely untapped due to questions about the ability of states to tax companies based on the question of those companies' "presence" in a state. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that the amount of uncollected taxes on online and catalog sales totals $8.6 billion. Collecting those taxes by states all depends on the meaning of "physical presence" in each state. Texas state controller Susan Combs says that the physical presence of a warehouse is enough of a physical presence to require Amazon.com to pay taxes on sales to Texas residents. Evaluate both the position of the Texas comptroller as well as Amazon on these state tax issues.