Amazon has gotten too big for its britches. Should they start charging sales tax?

I am from Washington State and I used to be proud that Amazon was from my state. I never liked that I had to pay sales taxes on my purchases, but that is required if you live in a state where an online retailer has a "presence." (I think Amazon has a presence in about 5 states.) But their prices are often unbeatable, so the extra 7-8 percent still makes purchases attractive.

Well, now that I own a small start-up online retail store, I am no longer enamored with Amazon. If I search Google for one of the most popular products that I sell, I will find a number of "fake" websites with questionable content that link back to Amazon, almost every time. I'm rather sick of it.

Amazon has become the bully of the internet. They charge a lot to retailers who list on their site and competitive pricing means less profit for online stores that list there. But they make up for that by selling high volumes to cost-conscious consumers.

Amazon has pulled their operations and affiliations out of states that have gone after them for revenue. People have lost jobs due to their actions to shirk tax collection.

There is a growing movement among state governments to go after tax revenue for online sales. Technically, consumers are required to pay state sales tax on purchases made from out of state retailers. But it's too difficult to collect and the out of state businesses should not be burdened with this responsibility, without compensation. Some are calling for a system that would compensate for tax collection.

Most agree that any resolution needs to come at the federal level. It's probably just a matter of time until all online purchases will include state sales tax. As someone who will be affected by this change, I welcome it. It might hurt my business, but our state governments are facing budget deficits and decreasing revenue and sorely need the help. As long as tax collection is required across the board to all online retailers, and a system that will not be too burdensome on small online merchants is implemented, I think it's an idea whose time has come. Like it or not.

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