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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
Amazon = Suck.
California = Suck.
I was aghast when I read this. In theory, California can go after every little seller outside of California and seize their accounts and make tax payment demands going back 6 years. And I don’t think the Internet tax act was passed until 2-3 years ago. The owner shouldn’t fight it, but declare bankruptcy. Get out from under and start anew on Shopify.
Let’s see…were the laws in effect during the time they are collecting for? If not, then why is this even an issue? They cannot legally collect taxes if they did not have laws in place at that time which make a seller obligated to pay them.
Now, IF the laws WERE in effect, then why didn’t the agency go after violators then? In that case, I would say it’s California who dropped the ball. If you’re not going to enforce your own laws in or near the year the taxes were due, then that’s your problem. You can’t tell me that they can come after me 5 years down the road, out of the blue, and just start taking money from me without ever knowing that taxes were due.
Even if the lady had been notified via mail, she had no prior knowledge of any tax being due.