Amazon Sales Take a Hit in States With Online Tax

Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) is taking a hit in states that are collecting an online sales tax.

In one of the first efforts to quantify the impact of states accruing more tax revenue from Web purchases, researchers at Ohio State University published a paper this month that found sales dropped for Amazon when the online charge was introduced. In states that have the tax, households reduced their spending on Amazon by about 10 percent compared to those in states that don’t have the levy. For online purchases of more than $300, sales fell by 24 percent, according to the report titled “The Amazon Tax.”

The findings add to concerns about how much the world’s largest online retailer can expand. The Seattle-based company, which reports quarterly earnings on April 24, has been grappling with decelerating revenue growth amid heavy spending by Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos on new initiatives. Amazon has enjoyed an edge against brick-and-mortar retailers because consumers didn’t have to pay a sales tax for purchases from the e-commerce site, yet that has eroded as states including California and Texas have unveiled the levies.

“There is no ambiguity,” Brian Baugh, one of the report’s authors from Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, said in an interview yesterday. “It has been their competitive advantage.”

No wonder Dick Durbin wants to tax the internet.