Texas sends $269 million bill to Amazon.com for uncollected sales taxes

11:31 PM CDT on Friday, October 22, 2010 By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News

Texas has sent Amazon.com Inc. a $269 million bill for uncollected sales taxes on purchases made by state residents from the Seattle-based Internet superstore over a four-year period.

Now that Texas has gotten tough with the No. 1 online retailer, other states could be tempted to pile on with their own assessments as local governments face huge shortfalls, analysts said. Recent estimates put Texas' two-year budget shortfall at as much as $21 billion