Texas Bills Amazon

As states grapple with increasingly squeezed budgets, one simmering battle -- trying to collect sales taxes from retailing behemoth Amazon (AMZN) -- has heated up considerably over the past year. The jury's still out on how much money states like Rhode Island and North Carolina (which is thick in litigation with Amazon over this very issue) will get from online sales-tax initiatives. But Texas has issued its own bill to Amazon -- to the tune of $269 million.

Although the state evidently said its bill, for uncollected sales taxes from December 2005 to December 2009 with extra interest and penalties, was sent to Amazon in August...(1)

The presumption of the article is probably partially true, but knowing Texas, this sounds like a power play on behalf of WalMart. Capitalists using their allies within the political apparatus to jockey for position.

1'Texas Sends Amazon a $269 Million Sales Tax Bill- Daily Finance