November 10, 2011 08:40 AM UTC

Amazon going with the new flow?

• 10 Comments
• by: NeonNurse

(This might not be easy to make work in Colorado, but Amy Stephens can consider herself at least partway “refudiated” – promoted by Colorado Pols)

An interesting news item hit a bookseller mailing list I’m on.

“Today, on the floor of the U.S. Senate, a bipartisan group of legislators, led by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Tim Johnson (D-SD), introduced the Marketplace Fairness Act, legislation that would provide states with authorization to require remote sellers to collect and remit state sales tax. Joining as original co-sponsors of the bill are Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Jack Reed (D- RI), Bob Corker (R-TN), David Pryor (D-AR), Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).”

It is strongly supported by the American Bookseller Association, which is trying to drum up encouraging letters to senators from its members.

Here’s the part I think Pols will find most interesting: [bold added by me]

“Also coming out in support of the bill was Amazon.com.  In a statement issued today, Paul Misener, Amazon.com vice president, global public policy, stated: “Amazon strongly supports enactment of the Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill and will work with Congress, retailers, and the states to get this bipartisan legislation passed.”

“We are pleased to hear about Amazon’s support,” said Teicher. “Despite its long record of vigorously battling sales tax equity, we welcome Amazon to the fold. As the bill moves through the legislative process, we hope we can continue to count on Amazon’s support.” (Mee-ow!!) [italics also added by me]

ABA is asking its member booksellers to urge their Senators to support the Marketplace Fairness Act. To make their advocacy outreach easier, ABA has prepared a template letter that booksellers can adapt and e-mail or fax to their senators. To access the letter, booksellers should go to ABA’s E-Fairness Action Kit, scroll down to their state, and click on the link for “Letter Supporting the Marketplace Fairness Act.”

There is an article here http://arstechnica.com/tech-po… that has a concise explanation of the bill.

My theory is that Amazon has been stonewalling the tax thing partly because there was always a slim chance it would all just blow over. BUT (I suspect) they’ve also been making software preparations behind the scenes for some time, in order to be ready to hit the ground running.

Within the last, oh, couple weeks, a new item appeared in the page a seller uses to sell via Amazon, a category to check off what tax category an item falls under. (!) That bill could pass tomorrow and I am pretty sure Amazon will be able to seamlessly take up the task for not only its own products, but the thousands of sellers who sell through their site. I think being able to say they are good to go, tax-wise, will make them even more attractive to nervous dealers who don’t want to mess up and get the tax boys after them!

Again, the last two paragraphs are just speculation on my part. But interesting, right?