Amazon gets to create a sales tax honey pot for South Carolina dept of revenue. The compromise requires they send an annual email statement out.. essentially a 1099 Tax bill to all buyers. Those that do not remit sales tax get caught up in a felony tax fraud scheme and strung up by the good old boys at the SC dept of revenue. What a joke...
Amazon deal gets approval: Job-generating tax-break plan on way to governor, who promised she won't veto it
By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press, Thursday, June 2, 2011
COLUMBIA ââ¬â South Carolina legislators gave final approval Wednesday to a deal bringing Amazon.com Inc. and its promise of 2,000 jobs to the state.
The House voted 90-14 to approve a compromise brokered last week in the Senate, sending the measure to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk. 'It's a great day for South Carolina and the unemployed people of the state,' Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, said after the vote. 'We welcome Amazon!'
Haley opposes the measure but has repeatedly said she won't veto it. The Republican governor has called it bad policy that's unfair to retailers that collect the tax. If not signed or vetoed, the bill would become law after five days. 'Nothing has changed' about her position, Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said after the vote.
The deal gives Amazon a five-year exemption from collecting sales taxes from South Carolina's online shoppers. In return, the online retailer must create the full-time jobs with health benefits and invest at least $125 million through the end of 2013. The deal the House approved last month allowed Amazon to drop to 1,000 jobs between 2014 and 2016, when Amazon must begin collecting the tax. But the Senate increased that to 1,500 jobs.
Amazon's plans to open a million-square-foot facility in Lexington County are expected to create thousands of spin-off jobs, including in shipping at the nearby airport and United Parcel Service hub. Amazon's plans will net the state more than $231 million in its first year and $1.7 billion over 10 years. That includes $67 million in annual payroll for Amazon workers making an average salary of $33,370, according to last week's cost-benefit analysis by the Commerce Department.
Opponents included tea party activists, the state's small business chamber, and national retail chains that backed an anti-Amazon advertising campaign. Like Haley, they argued the deal carves out an exemption that gives the Seattle-based company an unfair price advantage. Supporters argued the state loses nothing, since Amazon does not collect sales taxes now in South Carolina. If the deal was rejected, they argued, Amazon would still not collect the tax, while taking the jobs and investment elsewhere.
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice ruled that states can't require companies to collect the tax unless it has a physical presence in the state, such as a store. State law says shoppers are responsible for paying the state what they don't pay online, but few do.
Last week's late-night compromise in the Senate requires Amazon to include a clause in each purchase confirmation e-mail telling customers they could owe the sales tax to the state. The e-mail must include a link to the state Revenue Department. Amazon also must send customers a yearly tally of what they've spent, and specify they may owe the sales tax on their income tax returns. But that information will not be sent to the revenue agency, causing Haley to call the notification to shoppers meaningless.
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