DENVER – Don’t call it the Amazon tax anymore.
Changes to a bill on Internet sales taxes mean it no longer will affect the country’s biggest online seller, Amazon.com.
Democrats unveiled a top-to-bottom rewrite of the bill at its first hearing Wednesday, but they say the aim is the same: fairness for Colorado businesses. Local business complain they have to collect sales taxes, while big online sellers like Amazon do not.
“There is no reason an online-only business should enjoy an exemption,” said the sponsor, Rep. Angela Williams, D-Denver. “A sale is a sale, whether it’s online or in a store.”
But Colorado has not been able to force out-of-state Internet stores to collect sales taxes because the U.S. Supreme Court has said there must be a nexus between a business and a state.
Williams’ House Bill 1269 attempts to broaden the state’s nexus to online sellers. But Wednesday’s rewrite means it will not apply to Amazon – as least not yet.
Under the bill, Amazon would have a nexus if it opened a distribution center in Colorado, something it has done in other states but not here, said Phil Horowitz, a Department of Revenue official.
“As far as I know, this bill would not affect Amazon at all. It doesn’t have any effect on them,” Horowitz said.
Sponsors originally wanted to establish a nexus through independent bloggers who use their pages to link to Amazon and other sites. But they deleted a reference to “affiliate marketers” out of fears that big Internet sites would rather fire their affiliates than pay sales taxes.
The new bill declares that online businesses are presumed to have a nexus to Colorado, but the businesses can dispute it when the state comes to collect taxes.
Opponents weren’t happy with the change.
“It actually presumes the business is guilty until they’re proven innocent,” said House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland.
Sponsors unveiled their new bill Wednesday, but the House Finance Committee put off a vote until a later date.
Democrats passed an online sales-tax bill in 2010, but it was struck down in federal court, then reinstated, and just last week blocked again by a state judge in Denver.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
