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President Donald Trump, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos attend a meeting of the American Technology Council in the State Dining Room of the White House June 19, 2017 in Washington, DC.
President Donald Trump blasted Amazon on social media Wednesday morning saying the e-commerce giant is hurting retailers and causing job losses in American communities.
Amazon shares fell 1 percent in Wednesday’s premarket session after Trump’s tweet.
Amazon premarket chart
Source: FactSet
Trump’s latest comments come after he tweeted three times bashing the “Amazon Washington Post” from July 22 to July 24. He also blasted Amazon for “not paying internet taxes” in June.
Tweet Link
During a campaign rally in February 2016, Trump told the crowd: “If I become president, oh [does Amazon] have problems. They’re going to have such problems.” He added its CEO Jeff Bezos only bought the Washington Post to have “political influence.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also hinted in July the administration may soon take “a position” on Amazon’s tax collection policy.
Sen. Joe Manchin asked Treasury Secretary about his view on internet state sales taxes at a Senate hearing on July 26.
“So this is an issue that we’ve been looking at very carefully within the administration and we expect to come out with a position shortly,” Mnuchin said. “I am encouraged that Amazon is now charging tax, I believe, on their own sales but not the marketplace. I’m not sure I understand the consistency on that, but I respect the states’ ability that there’s an awful lot of money that’s not being collected.”
Mnuchin is referring to e-commerce giant’s “third-party” marketplace, where other firms sell goods on Amazon’s website. This compares to its “first-party” business where the internet company sell products directly to customers.
Amazon does offer a state sales tax collection feature to “third-party” sellers, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, it is unclear how many use the service.
As of April 1 this year, Amazon began collecting state sales tax nationwide for products it sells directly, so called “first-party” sales, with the exception of states that don’t have a sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Oregon, Montana and New Hampshire.
