ABC News: President Trump Attacks Amazon in New Tweet

Earlier this week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan organization, released a report saying that Amazon has an advantage over brick-and-mortar businesses because Amazon does not collect sales tax from seven states. In other states, the retailer does not charge the full amount of the state sales tax.

Carl Davis, the research director at the ITEP, told ABC News today that he thinks Trump is “exaggerating but there is merit to the broader point.”

Amazon has openly fought against collecting state sales taxes, arguing that it would be forced to increased prices on its goods. Amazon and other online retail companies like Overstock have lost court cases with that argument.

“If you look back in time, a big part of Amazon’s business strategy was not collecting the same sales taxes that its competitors had to collect,” Davis said.

“That still occurs to a significant extent but less than it did even five years ago,” he said. Read more

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