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Hello, I know a lot of people have quit FBA already but, I’ve still been sending items in and I figured I will continue to do it until the fees and regulation gets to be too much. So, I was preparing my most recent shipment today and on one of the screens there was a message that read something like “you may be responsible for taxes where you have inventory” (it was interesting it said ‘may’). I had never seen that before. So I did a little bit of research and there is a thing called Tax amnesty proposed by the MTC where you have the opportunity to turn yourself in if you have not been collecting sales tax in states you have nexis. If you turn yourself in you wont have to pay back taxes but, you will have to collect sales tax and pay state income tax in the states you have nexis through the FBA program. I believe the deadline has already passed which was in November. I guess there are several court cases that are pending that will clarify the whole situation. Amazon wants the 3rd party sellers to handle the sales tax for the sales they make on the amazon platform. But, opponents say that 3rd party sellers are just seller and not merchants. Merchants are the ones that need to collect the sale tax. It sounds like a big mess. I may be transitioning out of FBA soon. Im going to do a little more research and continue to reduce my FBA input. Any other FBA seller here? What do you think of all this?
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Amazon should absolutely handle the tax. It’s not a simple as “seller is responsible for everything” like amazon wants. Amazon decides where to send your stuff to benefit them. You can reduce the amount of places you have nexus by paying more in fees, but they still call the shots. I also had many shipments “redirected” without consulting me first. This caused an extra week delay in my items being available and put my items in a completely different location.
On top of that, amazon has structured their monetary system almost like a paycheck system. The hold all of your money for an extended period of time, then every other week settle up your account and “pay” you. If they want to be the money handler like this, then they need to handle the tax as well. Otherwise, they need to be like ebay and just bill you monthly for all the fees and allow every purchased to flow directly to your own account. Trust me, amazon makes a TON of interest by holding all of your money for 2-4 weeks.
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As you suggest, there is no easy answer. States want the money. Amazon has relented, but doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork headaches.
This is a good article of where things stand: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/15/technology/amazon-sales-tax.html
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I have heard one comparison where the opponent of the tax said: “This would be like Coca Cola being responsible for collecting the sale tax for its items sold in the grocery store.” Also its not just sales tax its also state income tax that they want to collect. I here a lot of opponents saying they are not against the sales tax on the items sold, its just they feel it is Amazon’s responsibility to collect and handle the tax. Either way its not good. If the sellers have to collect it, most small sellers wont be able to handle the burden. If amazon collects it, we all know fees are going to increase a lot to compensate for compliance.
@Retro Treasures WV So, what are your plans for Amazon FBA and the future? Ive been thinking lately if amazon increases fees 1-2 times more or has more requirements I might pull out and now this sale tax thing is unfolding. I just feels like its inevitable that selling on FBA will eventually come to an end for me. Probably soon.
P.S like everyone else, I hate taxes. You get taxed when you earn money, then you get taxed when you spend that same money, then you get taxed again when you sell that item you already paid taxes on, and then you get taxed when you die (for some people).
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I think the “i hate taxes” thing gets really oversimplified.
We get taxed by different authorities at different times. Feds tax us once a year. States sales tax is on every purchase. Some states have state sales tax once per year. Counties charge property tax once a year.
It’d be great to keep all the money. But I also like good roads, safe communities, good sewage and drinking water, scientific research, libraries, social security and medicaid for grandma and grandpa and me later in life, and great schools for other people’s kids since they’ll one day be contributing to society…..
So if we get rid of taxes, trust me: we’ll paying for it another way. None of the above will ever be free.
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I reread my message and sorry about that the last part didnt really belong or relate to the thread and is an oversimplification of taxes.
Although I do tend to lean towards less taxes. Higher taxes or more taxes doesnt equal better quality. Private businesses from my experience provide much better quality and are more efficient. Toll road tend to have less traffic and are better maintained, private school students tend to have better grades, and private retirement accounts do much better than social security. If the government stopped many of its activities its not as though those goods or services would disappear but, private entrepreneurs and citizens would fill that need or want in a more efficient way. This may not apply to everything but, for many things.
Not all taxes are necessary for example, state sales tax. Not all states have sales tax. If we are just talking about sale tax, would you be with me on eliminating state sales tax?
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This is a much longer conversation that difficult to really be done here.
I think it comes down to the kind of society/community we want too create:
–every man for himself (aka individualism)
vs
–everybody in, and nobody out (aka pooling our resources for the whole)In the US, most of our history after the late 1800’s has been pooling our resources. Our grandparents who fought in WW2 paid high taxes and enjoyed a enormously successful country with a giant middle class, first rate infrastructure, and rapid technological development thanks to well-funded (often free!) research universities.
Starting with Reagan, we’re lowering taxes, removing regulatory protections, and stripping away shared resources. The Middle class is dying. Safety nets are disappearing. As you say, current conversations have morphed into more what private companies can offer you as long as you can afford it.
So yeah, Id love to keep every penny I make. Maybe Ryanne and I are smart enough to survive without help from anyone. Maybe we can trust that corporations will self-police themselves.
When people say they hate government waste and regulation, and then conclude government must go, it just seems so extreme. What I don’t hear is what exactly this new world will be like when things are run by private corporations. This is a unchartered road we’re on. I guess we’ll know soon enough.
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Definitely a long conversation. I dont think it is every man for himself rather, it would be every man can voluntarily belong to a community and share their resources as they best see fit. Community and interdependence is a good thing but, it should voluntary.
People came to this country originally to get away from their government in the country they lived. They just wanted to be left alone. This freedom is what made this country wealthy. The taxes and regulation came in after the wealth was already there. Take a poor country like Bangladesh, if we added taxes and regulations this wouldnt make the country wealthy and prosperous.
Im not saying every tax and regulation has to be eliminated but, a lot of it needs to be rolled back. A good example today in the market place is Uber. Traditionally local governments gives monopolies to taxi companies and taxi companies pay a large fee so, everyone is happy except the customer paying the high fee. With Uber people feel safe with the driver and service without the government licencing. I havent used it myself but, many people have told me their good experiences. Drivers are given reviews by the customers which keeps the drivers accountable, all without government. Most of all it is much cheaper than a traditional cab.
I respect your differing opinion and thanks for discourse.
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Sure, it’s all about the details. What exact taxes do people want eliminated and what services/protections are they willing to give up? We have too many people shouting about government overreach and “don’t take away my medicare!” in the same breath. What are you willing to give up?
We don’t want to pay taxes to fund good roads and bridge infrastructure? Cool, then are we willing to pay tolls every time we drive? Are we willing to pay more for goods because those toll fees get added to the item’s cost to offset higher transportation fee? Again, you don’t pay taxes, then you pay fees. Just different names for the same thing.
What if people can’t afford the toll fees? Do we then have groups of people “stuck” in certain locations? These libertarian dystopias are awesomely illustrated in classic books like Snow Crash.
Couple notes:
–The US became an enormously wealthy country because a small population landed on a huge landmass with seemingly limitless natural resources. After killing the native population, there seemed to be an infinite amount of room to grow. We are now living in the limits after we’ve cut down the forests, mined the mountains, and grown to 300+million population.–Uber is cool. We’ve used them (though we like the corporate policies of Lyft better.) Car sharing companies are so cheap now because they’re being subsidized by venture capital money as these companies fight for market control.
https://www.fastcompany.com/4026256/investors-are-paying-2-billion-per-year-to-subsidize-your-uber-ride-
And if you haven’t read “Snow Crash”, I encourage you to do so:
It’s definitely dark, but a lot of fun.“The story begins in Los Angeles in the 21st century, an unspecified number of years after a worldwide economic collapse. Los Angeles is no longer part of the United States, as the federal government of the United States has ceded most of its power and territory to private organizations and entrepreneurs. Franchising, individual sovereignty, and private vehicles reign supreme over the landscape. Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace in sovereign, gated housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads and all mail delivery is by hired courier. The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds where they transact tedious make-work that is, by and large, irrelevant to the dynamic society around them.”
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Well I dont read much science fiction but, since you said it was fun I went ahead and got it on Ebay for $4 free shipping. Im currently in the middle of a book so, I’ll probably read Snow Crash next.
Just to reply to some of your comments. Many government programs and services are definitely difficult to remove once they have been used for many years. For example, I dont think we should just remove social security but, young people should be able to opt out as the program gets phased out. The older folks that are already using it should still be able to use it since they have paid into it and are currently using it. Young people would be better off putting what they would pay in social security into an IRA. There are many things that should be cut from government but, one thing I think you would agree is defense spending.
Under the current tax system people do get stuck in certain locations and the prices of goods have gone up. Here in California gas tax is pretty high and they just raised the tax an additional .12 cents. I’ve had people many times ask me to buy them a gallon of gas because the gas is too expensive and they cant make it home. You notice in the grocery store as well prices of goods in a state like Arizona vs. the prices in California. Goods in grocery stores in Arizona are much cheaper.
As for Uber. I dont see anything wrong with people investing in Uber, it is their money after all. Venture capital is a common thing for companies starting out.
Well happy new year and it may take some time to finish the book but, I’ll let you know when I finish. Cheers
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Cool. Think of science fiction as “speculative fiction”. Its just people taking ideas to their logical conclusion in the future. Important and fun practice.
–Ask people retiring in 2008 if investing in IRA’s were a good idea. You can be against social security, but it dangerous to say that investment in the stock market for retirement is “safe”.
–Yep, i see that CA’s gas tax is 41-cents a gallon. Texas (a low tax state) has a gas tax of 26-cents. So for ten gallons, Californians pay an extra $1.50. I’m skeptical that $1.50 stops people from being able to fill up their gas tank. And in a free market world, can’t people just move to a lower tax state is paying low taxes is their priority?
–Sure, investors can keep subsidizing cheap rides for customers as is their right. But you said private ride companies are cheaper than public transportation. I’m just pointing out that we don’t really know the true cost of private transportation till these subsidies stop.
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