States need the revenue, sales taxes are their main resource, and Amazon has put a lot of brick and mortar stores out of business. And yes, I shop at Amazon and will continue to do so.

turned and Amazon started to cut into their sales, they went on a national campaign to tax Internet sales. Once online ecommerce is neutralized, we'll be stuck with Walmart.

Can lure me into WalMart. WalMart is now using their Chinese junk as loss leaders for high end items. 3 weeks ago my son was in the market for a new 60" flat screen t.v. While chatting on the phone with him I went on line looking for product reviews and prices....We found a 60" at Best Buy for $1,000. A few days later he went to Best Buy, purchased it and made delivery arrangements...after ascertaining he could cancel the order. Then off to Costco and the WalMart...nothing at Costco interested him, but at WalMart he found the exact same television for $100. more.

I do most of my shopping on line because I drive an 8-year-old gas guzzling SUV...it gets 8 miles to the gallon, now that I'm retired I really don't like to put $40 a week into the tank. While I always check the Amazon site, what I want is not always available there...(the newest models of a product are frequently not available on Amazon). I find I don't mind paying the sales tax when it is collected. I think it is a false comparison to say Amazon with sales tax = WalMart. But I could be wrong.

& I dont really know how I feel about the subject. Your link, however, is dead.

I like the low prices, ... on the other hand, my state needs the bread.

The way the law works is that only retailers with "affiliate marketers" in GA will have to add tax. The way Amazon and other retailers have dealt with this is by terminating their relationships with affiliates in states with the sales tax. There are 6,000+ affiliate marketers in Georgia.

from potpiegirl.com:

In the middle of that brawl, the ones hurt the most, will be the Georgia Affiliates – like me and who knows how many other thousands of other Georgia Amazon Associates.

How much do Georgia affiliates make? I’ve read a number of $483 million dollars generated by Georgia affiliates – and TAXED by the State of Georgia.

That’s less income tax money for Georgia – and that much less money circulating and being spent in the State of Georgia.

So the “solution” looks more like this:

Georgia causes Amazon to fire me.

I don’t have that revenue stream anymore.

I make less money each year.

I pay LESS INCOME TAX to the State of Georgia.

I spend LESS money here in the State of Georgia (meaning less tax revenue generated by me).

Read more: http://www.potpiegirl.com/2012/08/affiliate-nexus-tax-law-coming-to-georgia/

Of course the answer would be for all states to begin taxing Amazon purchases....which will happen eventually....

45 of the 50 states have a sales tax. Do you really think Amazon is going to dump their affiliates in every state except Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon? Does that really strike you as a viable business model?

I know Cali just reached a compromise with Amazon after 10,000 affiliates lost their incomes for several moths. Amazon is for a federal tax solution for online retailers. But Amazon isn't the only retailer who has been dropping affiliates. Also, Illinois saw their tax revenue go down after passing the very same law. I wasn't aware of this when I made the OP.

There's absolutely no logical reason to exempt the internet from sales tax. And I completely disagree with your analysis that it's regressive; I get to go on-line and order sales-tax-free from Drugstore.com, for example, while my poorer neighbors who may not have a computer or a credit card have to go down the road to CVS and pay sales tax. E-tail has been a way for the middle class -- not the poor -- to opt out of consumer taxation, and that's just wrong; no Democrat should be supporting that.

and money is only achieved from taxes as we democrats know

I would rather streets are paved, bridges repaired, schools have money and people buying online are getting freebies.

and there is less and less in person shopping for items (and if you go to a book store, you pay sales tax).

Probably the deficit could be cut with all this extra money

The labor practices of e-tailers like Amazon tend to be absolutely horrendous. If buying from them now means that more money gets put into state coffers, maybe that will translate into a more secure safety net for the very workers e-tailers exploit.

Here's an awesome Mother Jones expose of conditions in warehouses used by e-tailers; long but worth the read: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

Bottom line: on-line "bargains" come from stiffing the government and exploiting the working poor. They're a Republican wet dream.

However, it's necessary. As many others have pointed out state and local governments depend on sales taxes to function. As more and more commerce has moved online those revenue streams have begun to dry up, forcing cutbacks that are hurting not only the employees of state and local governments but the citizens. Georgia is in a hell of a mess right now (granted, much of it is self inflicted by our GOP government cutting taxes for big business) and that tax revenue is critical so the state can continue provide services that are needed.

As far as the premise that taxing online sales is regressive, I see a tiny sliver of validity to that argument. However, the fact that online sales are getting taxed isn't the problem, we've always had a sales tax and buying stuff online was merely a temporary way to avoid that. What's regressive is when sales taxes are increased while income taxes, property taxes, and business taxes are cut, with the net result being a shift of the tax burden from the more well off to those who are less fortunate.