Amazon sales take a hit in states with online tax

People don't want to pay taxes on Internet purchases. Once a speculated upon theory, the statement is coming to fruition thanks to research at Ohio State University.

In an attempt to quantify the impact of new state taxes on Web purchases, Ohio State researchers published the paper "The Amazon Tax," last month which showed in states with a tax, purchases on Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) fell 10 percent. For purchases more than $300, sales dropped 24 percent.

Bloomberg reports 20 states currently have enacted a tax for online retailers. In those states, during the same time period, sales at brick-and-mortar stores saw a 2 percent bump.

The Ohio State paper tracked the spending of about 245,000 households that shelled out at least $100 on Amazon during the first six months of 2012, and then kept tabs on them through the end of 2013, according to Bloomberg.

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