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Comment by antiismist | Hacker News Reader

Amazon seems to charge sales tax based on where the goods are shipped to, not where they are shipped from:

"Items sold by Amazon.com LLC, or its subsidiaries, and shipped to destinations in the states of Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington are subject to tax."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=4...

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His point was that if Amazon has a physical presence in the state it's shipping to, it must charge sales tax in that state.

I think those are the states in which they have a physical presence. I know their headquarters are in Washington, for example, and that they have a big distribution center in Kentucky. New York, though, may just have laws taxing ecommerce (I'm not certain).

Nope, Amazon has distribution centers in 8 states, but they don't all get sales taxed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com#Fulfillment_and_ware...

I guess it would depend on the sales tax laws in each state.

Some states require sales tax on ecommerce if there is a physical presence, some do not. Some require tax regardless.

The argument I have always heard in relation to Netflix is that if Amazon were to acquire Netflix it would mean charging sale tax to a much greater number of customers.

Netflix has many more established physical presences across the US: http://www.listology.com/netflix_tracker_reports.cfm?report=...

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