Trump renews attack on Amazon: ‘Many jobs being lost!’

President Trump renewed his attack on e-commerce giant Amazon, saying Wednesday that the company is “doing great damage to tax paying retailers.”

The president has been a frequent critic of the company and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.

Many traditional retailers are closing stores and blaming Amazon for a shift to buying goods online. But the company has been hiring thousands of warehouse workers on the spot at job fairs across the country. Amazon has announced a goal of adding 100,000 full-time workers by the middle of next year.

Trump has said that Amazon does not pay “Internet taxes,” but it’s unclear what he meant by that. Amazon.com collects state sales taxes in all 45 states with a sales tax and the District of Columbia, according to their website. State governments have sought to capture sales tax lost to online retailers, though they have struggled with a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that found for a state to collect sales tax from a retailer, the retailer must have a physical presence within state borders.

The issue arose recently in South Carolina. This summer, the state Department of Revenue filed a case with the Administrative Law Court, alleging that Amazon had failed to collect taxes on third-party merchant sales.

Third-party merchant sales involve items that can be bought on Amazon.com, but the company acts solely as a middleman between buyers and sellers.

The state’s case is in its early stages, and a court date has not been set.