US consumers have started noticing Amazon sales tax being added to purchase prices when shopping on the marketplace.
To put in perspective, shoppers in the US are are accustomed to seeing the sales tax added to an items’ price at checkout in physical stores, in comparison to UK shoppers who see VAT included in the ticket price. Hitherto, sales tax wasn’t collected for online purchases but the change has resulted in shoppers noticing the new sales tax charges on Amazon purchases effectively making online and offline purchases equitable.
Online sales tax came about as a result of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. court ruling which says that states can now charge sales tax on purchases from out-of-state online retailers. The law is aiming to “level the playing field” as online leaders in the field have been benefiting from not paying rents unlike retailers with the physical presence. Now, we’re seeing eBay and Etsy collecting sales tax in line with the new law across US states and plan to introduce it to others in due course.
It remains to be seen how the US states will use the inflow of money and whether it will go to support health care, education and infrastructure.
