Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Report: Amazon Offers Jobs To Florida To Stem Tax Moves

Seattle-based Amazon.com is reportedly promising to bring between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs to the state of Florida, if lawmakers there agree to exempt the retailer from sales taxes for the next two years. The Associated Press reports that the offer comes after the state's legislature began pushing a bill to force online retailers to collect tax for the state. The issue--and tactics--are a familiar one for Amazon, which has faced a widespread effort by various states to bolster their lagging finances by forcing Amazon to collect sales tax. Amazon's latest tactic--which had been repeated in California earlier last year--has been to ask states to delay any tax moves for two years, in exchange for a distribution center or two in those states--in a bid that a national consensus on how to tax online commerce can be agreed upon across the nation.