Tennessee’s tax giveaways to Amazon could be nearly as much as the company will pay the 1,476 workers it plans to hire this year in Hamilton and Bradley counties, according to a new study by a group opposed to tax exemptions for Internet retailers.
In this Nov. 11, 2010 photo, Leacroft Green places a package to the correct shipping area at an Amazon.com fulfillment center, in Goodyear, Ariz. Amazon.com, the source of many presents good, bad or ugly, (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)Tennesseans for Fair Taxation, a Knoxville-based advocacy group, estimates state and local governments could lose more than $30 million a year in sales tax revenues and millions more in property and franchise taxes because of tax exemptions granted to Amazon.
The world’s biggest Internet retailer is building $139.1 million of distribution facilities in Southeast Tennessee and plans to create more than 3,000 full-time and temporary, seasonal jobs by Christmas.
But some critics claim that investment doesn’t justify Amazon’s tax breaks and hurts conventional retailers that must collect and pay such taxes.
“The economic output from Amazon just won’t measure up to what is being given away,” said Elizabeth Wright, executive director for Tennesseans for Fair Taxation. “Amazon can afford to collect these taxes, but Tennessee can’t afford not to have them do so.”