Amazon Campaigns Against California Sales Tax

Sites include Amazon.com . Published on August 26th, 2011. Written by Debbie Parker.

Amazon added $2.25 million into its campaign against the California law that would require online retailers to collect sales taxes on transactions made by state residents. This is showed by the campaign finance filing made by the company.

Amazon started its More Jobs Not Taxes campaign with $3 million fund last July. The additional donation was made last August 10. The online retailer is the only reported donor of the campaign. It is collecting signatures to authorize a June 2012 referendum that would repeal the law that was signed last June 29. In order for it to qualify for the ballot, it needs to collect 505,000 signatures from registered California voters.

Retailers are against the Amazon-led repeal campaign but there are no efforts to start an anti-repeal campaign. More Jobs Not Taxes declined to comment on how it would spend the money and it hasn’t filed any expenditure reports as of press time.

A 1992 U. S. Supreme Court ruling allows states to require retailers to collect sales taxes if they have a physical presence in the state. Amazon argued that it doesn’t have any presence in the state. When the California Amazon law was passed, the company severed ties with 10,000 California-based affiliates.