Amazon fights demand for customer records from NC by April 19th???

Amazon.com filed a lawsuit on Monday to fend off a sweeping demand from North Carolina's tax collectors: detailed records including names and addresses of customers and information about exactly what they purchased.

The lawsuit says the demand violates the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon's customers. North Carolina's Department of Revenue had ordered the online retailer to provide full details on nearly 50 million purchases made by state residents between 2003 and 2010.

Amazon is asking a federal judge in Seattle to rule that the demand is illegal, and left open the possibility of requesting a preliminary injunction against North Carolina's tax collectors.
<snip>
Amazon did provide the state tax collectors with anonymized information about which items were shipped to which zip codes. But North Carolina threatened to sue if the retailer did not also divulge the names and addresses linked to each order--in other words, personally identifiable information that could be used to collect additional use taxes that might be owed by state residents.
<snip>
The 14-page complaint says that North Carolina tax collectors visited Amazon in Seattle last month in an effort to "obtain information from Amazon regarding Amazon's sales to North Carolina residents." They hand-delivered a letter that amounted to an ultimatum: provide customer names by April 19 or face the consequences.

Amazon did provide the state tax collectors with anonymized information about which items were shipped to which zip codes. But North Carolina threatened to sue if the retailer did not also divulge the names and addresses linked to each order--in other words, personally identifiable information that could be used to collect additional use taxes that might be owed by state residents.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20002870-38.html

WTF? "provide customer names 'by APRIL 19' or face the consequences"? April 15th was tax day. Why are those snudges using April 19th unless it is a not so veiled reference to other 'events'? Calling Governor Perdue. Do you know what the NCDOR is doing?

What? They thought that going to Seattle would scare Amazon?

Washington State has no income tax, and the state depends heavily on sales taxes to finance government. Surely North Carolina will find allies in Seattle who would support the concept of not letting people duck out of paying use taxes, and I'd bet there are loads of state Attorneys General who will be watching this play out in court, as well.

The Internet is a wonderful source of inexpensive items, in fact, I just got a Washington Wine Trails book from a Kent, WA seller for less than eight bucks shipped. But putting everything on a computer database just leads to an electronic paper trail that might come back to bite me in the ass someday. All it takes is the tax collectors to figure out how to do it either legislatively or judicially.