Amazon Tax will put mom and pop e-commerce shops out of business, enrich union leaders

What Democrats don’t get is that the Amazon Tax will destroy mom and pop shops and small business jobs in Colorado and across the country.

It won’t bring business to Colorado retailers, but it will hurt their online businesses.

Amost every brick and mortar store also has a web site that sells out of state.

If every state follows Colorado’s lead, the cost of the software and staff needed to comply with the Amazon tax will be prohibitive for most small mom and pop shops. To comply with states’ sales tax laws, online merchants have to buy services that track not just states’ sales taxes, but also sales taxes imposed by municipalities and counties. Then they have to buy and maintain software that makes sure that they collect taxes from customers and remit those taxes to the states and their municipalities. It’s very complicated and time-consuming to comply with such laws. So millions of mom and pop shops will just shut down their internet businesses because the cost of complying with the Amazon Tax will be prohibitive.

The winners will be Amazon and other big companies that can afford the software and staff required to comply with the Amazon Taxes.

Under Obama, of course, unions want to pass card check laws that would make it easier for unions to organize Amazon and other big online merchants. So the Amazon tax would enrich union leaders.

The Amazon Tax would increase sales tax revenues for the states until it wouldn’t. For as small businesses dropped their e-commerce businesses because they couldn’t afford to comply with the Amazon tax, their incomes would fall, reducing states’ income tax revenues. They would lay people off. That would cost more income taxes and increase unemployment benefits costs.

What we have here are power-greedy, tax and spend Democrats putting their political interests ahead of the interests of millions of mom and pop shops and other small businesses. Democrats always have been anti-small business because they hate people who take risks, make money and make them look weak, stupid and dependent.

The Amazon Tax just punctuates the anti-small business instincts of the left.

LINKS:

Amazon Tax laws signal business unfriendliness and will worsen short-term budget problems. Joseph Henchman, Tax Foundation special report.

Colorado Senate Majority Leader John Morse goes all Shakespearian on Amazon.com. By J. L. James.

Amazon fallout for Colorado Dems. By Ben DeGrow.

Stop the ‘Amazon tax’! Ari Armstrong.

Online tax issue needs federal fix; Though frustrating, Amazon’s decision to drop state affiliates wasn’t surprising and shows a need for much broader solutions. Denver Post editorial.

Colo. Governor Bill Ritter Shows DA Roots: Treats Amazon Like Criminal Defendant for Affiliate Move. Ex-Pat Ex-Lawyer.

1. Don, you’re spot on with the anti-business instincts. As I’m not usually able to get on stories as quickly as you pros, I often write more mocking pieces, as I did on my blog this morning.

   http://wp.me/pzqev-7y

   I think Ritter’s 25-year career as nothing but a criminal case prosecutor leaves him clueless about free market economics, and he treated Amazon like a criminal defendant.

   Ben Degrow turned me on to the unintentionally hilarious video that state Sen. loss-leader John Morse put out of himself in a rant, talking about his background as an ex-cop. I’d never seen this guy in action before—what a nut job. It helped explain quite a bit. The video is embedded in my post, and everyone should watch it. His opponent, Owen Hill, should post this video on his website.

   Posted by Laura Victoria  on  03/10/2010  at  11:01 AM

2. Laura,

   Nice blog. I like your dui analogy. Amazon fired its Colorado affiliates so that it wouldn’t any kind of physical presence in the state. That’s just like the drunk who catches a cab so he doesn’t break dui laws. I considered expanding our publishing biz by using sales reps in various markets. Once I scoped out the cost of complying with 8,000 sales tax laws, which I would have had to do if I had established sales people in those states,  I dropped the plan. If you can’t make money obeying the law, do something else that’s legal and will let you make money.

   Posted by Donald Johnson  on  03/10/2010  at  08:41 PM

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