FICTION AND FACT WITH DONALD TRUMP

Trump's accusation against Amazon are fabrications:

Trump Tweet:
"I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state and local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!"

The Facts:
Actually, Amazon exceeds the Federal law on the matter of collecting state sales taxes.  It collects the sales tax on its own products in all 45 states that have sales tax whereas it is only required by law to collect the sales tax in states where it has a physical presence (e.g warehouses, office buildings, and other structures. *
SCORE: Amazon A+, Trump F

As to 3rd party merchant sales taxes, Amazon started collecting these in Washington state as of January 1, 2018, and Pennsylvania as of April 1, 2018.  These are the two states that mandate collection of such taxes by law.
But another chapter has opened, because while Amazon handles sales taxes on purchases from its own inventory, it's up to third-party merchants selling on its marketplace to tally and send in their own sales-tax payments. Many aren't doing it.**
SCORE: Amazon B, Trump F

Trump Tweet:
“I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy. Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!” he tweeted early Tuesday.***

The Facts:
"The postal service has lost money for 11 straight years, mostly because of pension and health care costs. In 2017, the service lost $800 million on $69.7 billion operating revenue. Under a 2006 law, it must pre-fund 75 years' worth of retiree health benefits. Neither the government nor private companies are required to do that. (It has defaulted on those payments periodically, with the last one made in 2015).
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The 2006 law also mandated that each line of business within the postal service cover its attributable costs. In other words, for the postal service to lose money on package delivery would be against the law.
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Amazon ships enough with the post office to qualify for bulk rates, giving it a significant volume discount that varies depending on package weight and number. "***
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The Post Office brought in $19.5 billion from shipping packages like Amazon’s last year, one of the few bright spots in a balance sheet marked by a $1.9 billion decline in revenue from first-class mail. Mail delivery that shrank by 5 billion pieces (4%), but package shipments rose by 589 million (11.4%). Package revenues were also up by about $2.1 billion year over year.
The Post has become essentially a package delivery company that also deliver mail.
SCORE: Amazon A, Trump D (Yes, Donald, the Post Office IS losing money)

For a list of rates for mailing packages see: https://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf


* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_tax
** https://phys.org/news/2017-11-states-third-party-sellers-amazon-marketplace.html
***  http://fortune.com/2018/03/29/donald-trump-post-office-amazon-losing-money/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-contract-usps-fact-checking-trump-tweets-amazon-post-office-03-31-2018/