Sales Taxes

PATTERSON, Calif. - Amazon.com Inc.for years has fought government efforts to tax e-commerce. Now it's poised to pocket millions of dollars in sales taxes paid by California customers. As part of a pact reached last year with state lawmakers, some online retailers agreed to begin collecting sales taxes this fall. About half of the projected $316 million raised in the first full year is expected to come from merchandise sold by Amazon, which is also setting up two California fulfillment centers that will employ at least 1,000 workers each.

PATTERSON, Calif. - Amazon.com Inc.for years has fought government efforts to tax e-commerce. Now it's poised to pocket millions of dollars in sales taxes paid by California customers. As part of a pact reached last year with state lawmakers, some online retailers agreed to begin collecting sales taxes this fall. About half of the projected $316 million raised in the first full year is expected to come from merchandise sold by Amazon, which is also setting up two California fulfillment centers that will employ at least 1,000 workers each.

Amazon.com Inc. for years has fought state efforts to force it to collect sales taxes from its customers. Now, instead of battling the tax man, the company is looking to profit — by hiring itself out as an Internet tax collector. In an abrupt about-face, the company is now offering to handle sales-tax chores for merchants who sell products through its site for a fee equivalent to 2.9% of the taxes collected. The optional service, which is set to roll out Feb. 1, will be offered to Amazon's third-party vendors in all 50 states.

Gov. Jerry Brown is testy. He's defensive. He's very frustrated. He's only human, after all - not a demigod, not the all-wise, powerful supergov he portrayed himself to be when running for the office. It's hard to know who believed that portrayal the most: the voters, the Sacramento insiders or the candidate himself. Regardless, it hasn't panned out the way most people had hoped, and certainly not the way Brown had envisioned. So on Monday, he was in the governor's press conference room - built by his father, incidentally - trying to explain why the state budget hole had grown 71% deeper since January, expanding from $9.2 billion to $15.7 billion.

Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive. Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time. Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don't pay to the state if online merchants don't charge them, is "a common-sense idea," said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

Amazon.com Inc. has insisted that California's new law requiring it to collect sales taxes from customers in the state would hurt the company's ability to compete in the nation's biggest retail market. Nevertheless, in New York, the company and other out-of-state, Internet-only retailers have paid $250 million in sales taxes over three years, thanks to a similar law that state adopted in 2008. New York holds no special sway over the world's largest online retailer. Amazon is following the state's tax collection law, the first in the nation, for one reason only — so it can challenge the validity of the statute in court.

The absurdity of it Re "Sick inmates a threat only to state's budget," March 2 Here we have a semi-paralyzed man shackled to his bed with three corrections officers to guard him. "But you can't argue with policy," says a guard. I guess I am not alone in asking: Whose policy? It really does not matter. If the policy is absurd, which it clearly is, it is a greater absurdity not to change it. The policy that could help ? the medical parole law ? has been on the books for almost six months, but the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has yet to schedule a single case for a hearing.

As revenue-hungry states eye Internet retailers as possible sources of new taxes, Amazon.com Inc. is firing back. Already, the nation's largest Internet retailer has cut ties with its affiliate websites in two states to avoid legislation that would require the company to collect sales taxes from its customers there. And it is fighting similar tax proposals in several other states, including California.

Animal lovers are decrying "the Fido fine." Vintners are stirring up wine lovers with warnings that the price of a bottle could rise. And golf course owners are taking to the Web to drive home to duffers that new taxes on greens fees could hit them right in the golf bag. A number of California industries are conducting aggressive lobbying and public relations campaigns to dissuade the Legislature from adopting Gov.

Funny how it works Re "Majority leader found Colbert embarrassing," Sept. 27, and "Taking satire right into Congress," Sept. 25 So poor House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) was embarrassed by comedian Stephen Colbert's congressional testimony? I noticed, as I watched Colbert's most brilliantly written and executed performance, that a number of others shared Hoyer's sentiment. How deeply sad that these men and women of such self-importance can't bring themselves to recognize the value of his appearance.

Off the rails Re "Blue Line's woes a black mark for Metro," April 21 No one should be surprised that the Blue Line light-rail system from downtown L.A. to Long Beach has high maintenance costs. The goal of Propositions A and C and Measure R, which raised the sales tax, was to build a rail system, but not necessarily to maintain and operate one. As more lines are built, more money must be spent to maintain the system. The question now is whether the system has reached the size where all the construction money is required for maintenance and none is left for construction.

Faced with a congressional stalemate over transportation funding, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants county voters to approve an indefinite extension of a half-cent sales tax used for transit projects. A proposed November ballot measure will be a centerpiece of Villaraigosa's State of the City address Wednesday evening at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, according to the mayor's office. It marks the latest effort by the mayor, who is trying to cement a legacy as a transportation visionary during his final year in office, to borrow against future tax revenues and rapidly expand L.A. County's transit system.

Here's the good news: Even if you didn't file your taxes today, you're not late. Even if you don't file Monday, you're not late. Tax day this year is April 17. So stop rushing! Here's the bad news: Californians may have to file four or more times. First, of course, with the Internal Revenue Service, and then for state taxes with the Franchise Tax Board. But do you owe sales taxes on Internet purchases? Do you run a business and are required to collect and remit sales taxes? Then you must deal with the Board of Equalization.

In a state where Republicans have all but disappeared from decision-making, this is what constitutes a debate today: Two leading liberals are arguing over how best to raise taxes to rescue the state from its economic and social decline. Gov. Jerry Brown, faced with a multibillion-dollar state shortfall, has joined with some of the state's leading unions to urge Californians to approve what he calls a "millionaires tax" that would help patch up the state's alarming budget gap, which still exists despite billions in cuts to state spending.

California voters strongly support Gov. Jerry Brown's new proposal to increase the sales tax and raise levies on upper incomes to help raise money for schools and balance the state's budget, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll . Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they supported the governor's measure, which he hopes to place on the November ballot. It would hike the state sales tax by a quarter-cent per dollar for the next four years and create a graduated surcharge on incomes of more than $250,000 that would last seven years.

  Months ago, Gov. Jerry Brown won business and labor backing for an initiative that combined higher taxes on California's top income earners with a half-cent sales tax - a strategy he said would share the pain of addressing the state's budget woes. But on Wednesday, bowing to pressure from liberal activists, the governor modified his proposal, agreeing to cut the sales tax hike in half and place a greater share of the burden on the wealthy. Brown cast the revision as a strategic move to reduce the number of tax proposals voters may face on the November ballot - and increase the chances that the electorate will embrace at least one measure to provide a sorely needed revenue increase.

Good bad news Re "Phone hacking scandal widens," July 12 I could not be more pleased at the damage inflicted on Rupert Murdoch's global misinformation machine. I regret the harm done to the victims of Murdoch's stooges, but I'm pleased the perpetrators have been caught and will probably pay a heavy price. I hope the left in Britain and the United States will take advantage of Murdoch's weakened state as an opportunity to inflict even more damage on him. As an expat American, I especially hope the left in my country will exploit every opportunity to use these and any further charges that may emerge against Murdoch's stooges at Fox News.

Whether the New England Patriots or the New York Giants win the Super Bowl this weekend, television buyers will be the ones scoring big. Retailers have been slashing prices on big-screen HDTVs ahead of the big game, and are throwing in extras such as free delivery and installation, offers to pay the sales tax and complimentary Blu-ray players and 3-D glasses to attract customers. "Consumers right now can definitely benefit," said Lisa Hatamiya, a research associate at market research firm IHS iSuppli, which tracks television sales data and trends.

Los Angeles transportation officials want to ask voters during next fall's presidential election to support at least a 10-year extension of the Measure R sales tax, a move that could raise billions more for transit projects and likely speed construction. When officials convinced the county electorate in 2008 to overwhelmingly approve the half-cent levy for rail and other transportation efforts, it increased the sales tax in Los Angeles County to 9.75% — one of the highest rates in California.