Amazon Tax Blues: online sales tax fail.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Brief article

Despite difficulties presented by federal law, many states have recently instituted sales taxes on online purchases from out-of-state vendors. A study of the results of the so-called Amazon tax--referring to the online retailer most affected--as it operates in five states (California, Virginia, Texas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) found that it discouraged consumers from buying through Amazon.

The study was issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and was conducted by Brian Baugh, Hoonsuk Park, and Itzhak Ben-David, all of Ohio State University. The taxes, which went into effect in 2012 and 2013 across those states "resulted in a large decline across all states of 9.5 percent in the value of products (net of sales tax) purchased on Amazon." The authors concluded that this effect was not attributable to people...