Friday, October 18, 2013

Amazon To Collect Its Own Corporate Welfare

Amazon, the mega-etail business is going to build and open a huge warehouse in Kenosha.

People are excited, saying that it will bring 1,100 jobs to the community, which as an 8% unemployment rate (an obvious sign of Scott Walker's agenda at work!). Unfortunately, almost all of those jobs are only going to pay poverty level wages. Not to mention that the company has been caught running a literal sweat shop.

And of course, they come with their hands out:
Jennings says he’s also been working closely with Reed Hall at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. on putting together a package for Amazon. The city of Kenosha is already promising $18 million in tax incremental financing improvements.
But don't worry, Gentle Reader. Walker is not about to go collecting taxes from the people to pay for his largess. Especially as he is gearing up for his gubernatorial/presidential campaigns.

Nope, he's just not going to do it. Wouldn't be prudent.

Instead, he's going to have Amazon collect their own corporate welfare:
Wisconsin next month will become the 14th U.S. state to begin collecting sales tax on online purchases through Amazon.com Inc, joining a trend toward squeezing more revenue from e-commerce.

Effective Nov. 1, the Midwestern state said sales tax will be added by Amazon to purchases made by Wisconsin residents because the online retailer is opening a distribution center in Kenosha, giving it a physical presence in the state.

Under the law, that means the state can require Amazon to begin collecting sales tax. In states where Amazon has no physical presence, the company does not generally collect the tax, giving it a pricing edge over bricks-and-mortar merchants.

The new 5-percent "Amazon tax" will add about $30 million a year to state revenue, Wisconsin Department of Revenue spokeswoman Laurel Patrick said on Wednesday. The state collected a total of $4.4 billion in sales taxes in fiscal 2013.
So you better getting cracking. You have less than two weeks to get your Christmas shopping done. And you wouldn't want to pay any tax on Walker's book when it comes out. It might put it's value over a buck.

Actually, if you're going to buy a book, get the real "Unintimidated," book about some of the true freedom fighters of Fitzwalkerstan, the Solidarity Sing Along folks.

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