Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle is writing publicly about what he perceives is a failure of the state’s agreement with Amazon to start collecting sales tax in the state.
In a statement issued this week, McNickle said his city is still waiting “for that bump” promised by the Governor after reaching a “gentleman’s agreement” with the giant company. He described Stillwater’s tax collections so far this year as flat.
“The problem is Amazon’s agreement with the State of Oklahoma seems not to have included Amazon’s vendors—and there’s thousands upon thousands of vendors—-who do business through Amazon,” wrote McNickle. “For example, if I go to Amazon.com and buy something, it may be through a vendor; however, the vendor may choose not to collect sales tax. This is an unexamined loophole at best or overt deceitfulness at worst.”
McNickle said he understands that online retail is here to stay but online retailers should collect sales tax at the time of purchase. He pointed out that only 170 of the top 500 online retailers collect sales tax.