If you're planning on buying any big Christmas presents online this year you might want to start shopping early. Online retailing giant Amazon.com will start charging Connecticut sales tax on all purchases from this state beginning Nov. 1 under an agreement the company reached with the state this past weekend.
The move will mean that any purchases Connecticut residents make from Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, will include the state's 6.35 sales tax when buyers place their orders. The state currently only collects the sales tax when Connecticut consumers disclose their purchases at tax return time, something few residents are doing.
The agreement, which settles a two-year disagreement between the state and Amazon, is expected to bring another $15 million in revenues into the state's coffers by the end of 2014, the Connecticut Mirror reports.
In addition, it is expected to give a boost to "brick-and-mortar" local retailers, who have seen lost sales to Amazon.
The state loses an estimated $7 billion annually in sales tax revenues to online purchases, the website reports.
The state also announced Monday that Amazon intends to build a $50 million distribution center somewhere in Connecticut in the next two years, a facility that would employ about 300 people. The company has not yet announced where that center would be built.
