On Mon, 5 Nov 2007, Jordan Hayes wrote:
>> Just for the record, there are four states where recipients have to pay
>> taxes on Amazon purchases: Washington State, North Dakota, Kentucky and
>> Kansas. Those are the states in which Amazon has a physical presence.
>
> It's not specifically a 'physical presence' -- it's whether Amazon is
> registered with the state as "doing business" there ... it could very
> well be that their 'presence' is virtual, but if they are registered
> with the state, the state requires them to collect sales tax ...
> there's an exemption for out of state delivery (because who would they
> pay it to if they aren't registered?).
This might be a dumb question, but what advantages lead a company to register as doing business in a state where they don't have a presence that outweigh having customers pay taxes there?
Michael