MANHATTAN (CN) - Here is a link to the filing in which Amazon.com challenges the constitutionality of a new state law that "requires out-of-state Internet retailers with no physical presence in the State to collect New York sales and use taxes."
New York Tax Law § 1101(b)(8)(vi) requires the affected business to register with Albany and start paying state taxes by June 1.
Amazon claims the State of New York expects to reap about $50 million this tax year from this allegedly illegal tax. It claims that the state illegally defines affiliates of Amazon - which accept advertising from it and refer customers to it - as having a physical presence in New York. And it claims that if faces "hefty civil and criminal penalties" if it refuses.
Amazon claims the law violates the Constitution's Commerce Clause, and due process protections of the federal and state constitutions, "in that it effectively creates an irrebuttable presumption of 'solicitation' and is overly broad and vague;" and that it violates the Equal Protection Clauses of the state and federal constitutions "because it intentionally targets Amazon."
Congress has prohibited taxes on interstate Internet sales as a way of promoting what was only recently a start-up form of commerce.
Amazon is represented in New York County Court by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
(This is the same case Courthouse News reported on Monday. This updated story includes a link to the filing.)
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