Nation's Cities - September 5, 2011

2 NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY
September 5, 2011

COLUMNIST
Amazon, Taxes — And Us

by Neal Peirce
Is Amazon.com “America’s
No. 1 Tax Evader,” undercut-
ting the vital interests of states
and localities as they try to meet
the needs of their people in
recession-wracked times?

The net fiscal loss to the states of national retailers’ non-
payment of sales taxes is roughly $11 billion a year,
according to a University of Tennessee report. (Other
estimates run up to twice as much.)
sition to collecting states’ taxes).
Skeptics may wonder wheth-
er Amazon’s conversion is sin-
cere. Perhaps the firm believes it
could improve its efficiency by
being able to site its distribution
plants near markets in big sales
tax states. But the Wall Street
Journal article provided quotes
from founder/CEO Jeff Bezos
showing that avoiding state
taxes was critical to his strategy
for Amazon from the start.
Plus, Bezos knows that
approval of the Fairness Act —
especially in today’s Congress
with its powerful anti-tax fac-
tions — is a very long shot.
The current sponsors are all
Democrats, even though many
Republican state legislators are
strong supporters. Prospects
would be brightened if Sen.
Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) a past
supporter, decides to endorse
the new measure and line up
Republican support.

Plus, the tax costs to states
are enormous. California’s
Board of Equalization esti-
mates, for example, that unpaid
taxes by national retailers in the
Golden State amount to almost
$1.2 billion — roughly the size
of the state’s cuts to higher
education.
Which leads one to wonder:
When — when — will Amazon
(and all of us for that matter)
start thinking of our society’s
future, not so overwhelming-
ly our corporate or personal
advantage?
Neal Peirce’s e-mail address is
nrp@citistates.com.
© 2011, The Washington
Post Writers Group
The opinions expressed in this
column are not necessarily those of
the National League of Cities or
Nation’s Cities Weekly.
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Nation’s Cities Weekly
Volume 34, Number 33 | ISSN 0164-5935 | September 5, 2011