Amazon offers to serve as tax collector — for a price

The L.A. Times reports:

Reporting from Sacramento—
Amazon.com Inc. for years has fought state efforts to force it to collect sales taxes from its customers. Now, instead of battling the tax man, the company is looking to profit — by hiring itself out as an Internet tax collector.

In an abrupt about-face, the company is now offering to handle sales-tax chores for merchants who sell products through its site for a fee equivalent to 2.9% of the taxes collected.

The optional service, which is set to roll out Feb. 1, will be offered to Amazon's third-party vendors in all 50 states.

Ouch.