Zone Gadget

Amazon Will Charge a Sales Tax New York Residents

Starting June 1, Amazon will charge a sales tax to shoppers who live in New York, even though the retailer maintains no physical operations in the Empire State.

Starting in the 2003 tax year, the state of New York added a new line on its income tax forms specifically for untaxed out-of-state purchases, and last year, the state collected $45.2 million in sales taxes that way. But states know they stand a better chance of getting all the money they're due if they require retailers to collect it, and in the case of New York, the state expects to get as much as an extra $47 million a year from Amazon and others.

The state of Texas, applying some more conventional legal reasoning, is looking closer at an Amazon distribution center in Irving that could quality as sufficient physical presence in the state to pick up some extra money. But with the economy continuing to slow, other states will surely be watching what happens in New York. If the courts uphold New York's line of thinking, the rest of the Union could be headed in this direction.

[money.cnn]