Internet collecting sales tax in California as of July 1, 2011

From the San Francisco Chronicle, 7/1/11. "Beginning today, Amazon.com is supposed to start collecting sales tax on goods it sells in California. So are Overstock.com and other out-of-state online retailers and catalog houses doing business here. Ready or not, like it or not, it's now the law.  First payments will be due by the end of October, 30 days after the close of the third quarter, according to the State Board of Equalization, the state agency in charge of implementing the "e-fairness" law.

Amazon and Overstock, which announced they have cut off their California affiliates, are by no means alone. Approximately 2,000 letters and questionnaires are to be sent to individual out-of-state online retailers nationwide, to ascertain whether they fit the criteria outlined in the law."  

The process will take some time, board officials said - they've been given a meager $1,000 out of the general fund to get the law up and running - but suggest companies start collecting now to meet their October bill.
"Any retailer that falls under the new criteria should begin collecting the (sales) tax as of July 1," spokeswoman Anita Gore said.  According to the law, an out-of-state online retailer with any kind of "nexus" in the state - a physical or corporate presence, not just a brick-and-mortar retail outlet - is liable. With one exception: retailers who have sold no more than $500,000 worth of goods in California in the previous 12 months. (Full text of the law, ABX1 28, at sfg.ly/kkSCkM.)" Read more...

Posted by Kathy Meeh