taxes

New York's expansive new online sales-tax requirements are drawing mixed responses from major e-tailers that haven't previously collected such fees in the Empire State.

Despite a pending lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality, Amazon.com has said on its Web site that it still plans to abide by the law and add sales tax to orders shipped to New York when the mandate kicks in June 1.

But online outlet store Overstock.com wants nothing to do with collecting the new tax, according to reports at the Affiliate Tip blog and The New York Times.

A few weeks … Read more

The Federal Economic Stimulus program checks are in the mail. When you get yours try and be a good consumer and spend it right away. That'll help our economy and remember the checks will do the most good if they're spent on made in America products. One of my favorite high-value, high-end audio brands, Outlaw Audio, would be a good place to start. Its multi-channel home theater power amplifiers are in fact proudly made in the USA. Outlaw sells direct on its website and all of their amps are now on sale--with free FedEx Ground shipping! If you'… Read more

Reportedly inspired by an ongoing legal skirmish in New York, tax officials in Texas are investigating whether Amazon.com should be collecting sales taxes from the Lone Star State's residents.

According to recent reports in the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Comptroller's office is currently looking into whether the Seattle-based e-tailer can be held responsible for paying as many as four years' worth--potentially millions of dollars--of back taxes. Some Texas officials said they weren't aware that Amazon had been operating a distribution center in Irving, Texas, since 2006, until receiving a call from a Morning News reporter … Read more

As expected, Amazon.com is hitting back at New York over a new law requiring online retailers to collect sales taxes from customers residing in that state.

In a complaint filed on April 25, Amazon asked the New York State Supreme Court to declare the recently passed law "invalid, illegal, and unconstitutional." (Wired.com, which reported the lawsuit earlier this week, has posted a PDF of the document.)

New York has long required vendors to collect taxes from customers in its state if they "solicit business" there, according to Amazon's complaint. But a few weeks … Read more

Now this is a passionate user base.

Protesters turned out to riot and burn photos at a press conference in Seoul Wednesday held by former Samsung top lawyer, Kim Yong-Chul, and the Associated Press got a great photo of the civil disobediance in action.

We're not allowed to run AP photos (we don't pay for the service, but if anyone has their own photos, please send them my way at Erica dot Ogg at cnet.com), but Engadget has the image, so be sure to check it out.

The company's former lawyer held the press conference to … Read more

Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee was indicted on charges of evading taxes on billions of dollars he hid in stock accounts under the names of his aides, The New York Times is reporting.

He also faces criminal charges of breach of trust, stemming from his involvement in arranging for company subsidiaries "to sell stock to his son" at "unfairly low prices" to help his son "take over management control," The Times says. Lee was cleared, however, of more serious allegations he starting a slush fund worth $215 million used to bribe prosecutors, judges, and other public officials.… Read more

A bipartisan bill introduced Tuesday in the House of Representatives would ban new state or local takes on mobile phone services for a period of five years. Sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and five co-sponsors, the bill is known as the Cell Tax Fairness Act (HR 5793 ).

In a statement, Lofgren said that between January 2003 and July 2007, the taxation rate on wireless services increased four times faster than the rate for other taxable goods and services. As a result, consumers pay 15.19 percent in federal, state, and local taxes on their cell phone bill, compared with … Read more

If tax-hungry politicians get their way, the days of ordering items over the Internet and not paying sales tax may become just a fond memory.

Right now, if a California resident orders something from Seattle-based Amazon.com, for instance, he or she won't be charged sales tax at the time of purchase. That's because Amazon doesn't have offices in the state of California.

Pro-tax politicians want to change this by allowing California to force Amazon to collect and submit sales taxes--and they may have found an ally in a U.S. Congress that's controlled by Democrats. (… Read more

Updated at 7:25 AM PDT with new information about the status of the California tax bill.

A growing number of state politicians are proposing new laws to levy taxes on digital downloads, including music, video, and books, as a way to remedy budget pains.

Call it the iTunes tax.

Two years ago, a CNET News.com special report found that 15 states and the District of Columbia said that their laws and regulations meant that digital downloads should be taxed. A few months later, New Jersey joined that list.

Since then, more states have become tax-inclined. In 2008 alone, … Read more