Regarding "Trump rips a favorite target — Amazon — again" (Saturday Nation|World Pg A15), AP reporter Joseph Pisani states that President Trump "has accused (Amazon) of failing to pay 'internet taxes,' though it’s never been made clear by the White House what the president means by that."
I'm not sure why Pisani is confused about Trump's meaning. The President has been complaining for years about Amazon and other on line retailers failing to collect local and state sales taxes - as all other retailers are required to do - thus giving Amazon a huge competitive advantage. Amazon claims they started to do so in 2012, and states that they now collect these taxes for all 45 states that have a sales tax, but this is simply not true. I reviewed my 24 Amazon purchases in 2017 and found sales taxes on only four transactions, and only two of those were for the full Texas state sales tax of 8.25%.
Amazon doesn't collect sales taxes on behalf of 3rd party vendors, but they represent less than 20% of Amazon's sales, so that hardly explains the discrepancy.
Pisani could have relieved his own confusion and shed light on the subject with a cursory web search, but he didn't. Was this due to laziness, a bias against Trump, or both?
Pete Smith
Cypress, TX
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