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Amazon Effort To Build Warehouse In Florida Crumbles
May 17, 2013
A plan by Internet retailing giant Amazon.com to build at least one warehouse in Florida has been scrapped, with the company unable to reach an agreement on when it would have to start collecting state sales taxes, an official in Gov. Rick Scott’s office said Thursday.
Scott administration officials declined to offer many details of the scuttled proposal, including where the facility would have been and how many jobs it might have meant had a deal been worked out.
“Amazon officials discussed building a facility in the state by the end of 2015 if the Department of Revenue could reach agreement on their sales tax collections,” Scott spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said. “We were not able to reach an agreement in those discussions.”
Currently, Amazon doesn’t collect Florida sales taxes from state residents who make purchases through the site, but it would likely have to do so if it were to have a physical presence in the state, such as a warehouse.
In January 2012, officials in the governor’s office said in published reports that they were “aware” of a desire by Amazon to put warehouses in the state, creating as many as 3,000 jobs, in exchange for a two-year exemption from collecting state sales taxes.
In a statement issued Thursday, Sellers implied that if the Internet company were to locate in Florida and begin collecting taxes, that would amount to a tax increase on Florida residents who use the popular shopping portal. And she said the company could still decide to build here, anyway.
“Gov. Scott does not want to raise taxes in Florida, and we are confident Amazon will invest in our state because of our low-tax, pro-business jobs climate,” Sellers said.
Brick-and-mortar retailers in Florida had initially opposed the Amazon proposal. They’ve long complained that Internet retailers get an unfair advantage.
Officials from Seattle-based Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday from the News Service of Florida.
Under Scott’s direction, state economic development officials have pushed hard for a number of companies to open facilities in the state in exchange for tax breaks and other incentives.
Most recently, state and local officials in southwest Florida lured car rental company Hertz to move its headquarters from New Jersey to Estero. The state has touted what could be a more than $80 million incentive package for Hertz as a good deal because it will create 700 jobs, although many of those will be filled with the company’s current employees who would move from other states.
by David Royse, The News Service of Florida
Comments
3 Responses to “Amazon Effort To Build Warehouse In Florida Crumbles”
With the economy in shambles. How can Florida afford to pick and chose which major companies it wants to have here? I can’t believe how many industrial giants have come to Florida first, just to have Florida thumb their noses up at them and being shot down by those who are suppose to have our interest at heart.
Alabama, especially in Mobile is booming, because they see the long term investments.
Pensacola so desperately want to be rich mans haven and SO “cosmopolitan” that there main money makers 1) The Port and 2) the NAVY Base. That they are willing to dismantle and let rot. Hoping to make space for big $$$ businesses will come to this area.
Florida has nothing to offer, Who wants to have a business here with such high tax brackets?
Shoot we only have tourism, and even then visitors seem to be detested and put up with. In the hope they will soon go away.
It sounds to me like the only money being discussed was when they would have to collect sales tax from purchasers in Florida. No “added costs” were discussed. The collection of sales tax is for the state, not for the company. As Sellers commented, they could still build in Florida anyway. They chose not to because they didn’t get the deal they wanted on sales tax. Personally, I’m glad. We buy a lot from Amazon and enjoy not having to pay tax on big ticket items. However, I am sad for the loss of potential jobs for the state.
Keep adding costs and taxes to doing business and business goes elsewhere.