It is an unfavorable day for Amazon.com after the U.S Supreme Court rejected its case appeal on the Internet sales tax filed by the New York state.
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Supreme court doesn’t want to go in between the extensive argument about the collection of Internet sales tax between Amazon and New York State, so it rejected the former’s appeal.
Amazon.com and other online shops allegedly violated a 2008 law requiring them to include sales tax to all items sold online. However, the giant online retailer defended that the New York state law is a violation of the national constitution guiding interstate commerce.
Amazon.com argued that online stores are only compelled to collect sales taxes for sold items in the states where they have a physical store – and it doesn’t have one in the Empire State.
However, in a counter statement, Paterson and the law’s supporters said that a lot of independent resellers operate in the New York through the use of Amazon’s website to advertise and sell their products. Since, the online store gets a fraction of the sales cost, the store, technically, has a presence in the state.
The State of New York won in the case in 2009 but it didn’t stop Amazon from fighting for their company’s “rights.”
It then led the company to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, the highest court rejected Amazon.com's petition with no explanation thus making the decision final. It is now collecting Internet sales taxes from 16 states in compliance with the court’s decision.
Now, Amazon.com is collaborating with other online retailers in designing a simple tax structure that would permit e-commerce to collect sales taxes at the same rate in every state. It has also supported the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) that would create a new tax law meant for online commerce.
