Letters: The end of tax-free Amazon shopping

Re “Buyers get busy to beat Amazon sales tax,” Sept. 5

If any member of the Franchise Tax Board reads The Times, the consumers profiled in the article would be low-hanging fruit for their last-minute Amazon.com purchases; I seriously doubt that they’re reporting use tax. Going after them for what they owe on these transactions (and others that they probably declined to pay use tax on) would be a drop in the bucket, but it would be a start.

I understand everyone’s aversion to taxes. But we live in a society, one with crumbling infrastructure and undereducated kids. Don’t complain about potholes, or Mitt Romney’s creative accounting, if you are not paying your fair share.

Al Bonowitz

Huntington Beach

The Amazon tax is absurd. We live in one of the wealthiest states in the richest country in the history of the world, and we’re nearly broke? We have closed parks and laid off our children’s teachers while state agencies have squirreled away millions.

I don’t think California’s problem is a lack of money; rather, it’s a lack of sound accounting practices.

Ted Raimi

Toluca Lake

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