Michael Cohn of Accounting Today reported this week on North Carolina’s Department of Revenue pulling back from an attempt to force Amazon.com and other online retailers to turn over data related to customers’ purchases. The ACLU has asserted that customers’ First Amendment rights would potentially be violated if online retailers complied with North Carolina DOR’s request.

Cohn quotes Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU of North Carolina, who asserts:

 “The NC Department of Revenue does not need access to private customer records that reveal which specific customers in North Carolina have ordered which specific books, music or movies in order to complete its audit of Amazon and collect any taxes owed.”

Cohn’s article also discusses North Carolina DOR getting pushback, in the form of a lawsuit filed by travel-related website companies (Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotels.com), “claiming that recent amendments to North Carolina’s sales tax laws that took effect on Jan. 1 are unconstitutional and constitute a violation of the Internet Tax Freedom Act.  The amendments require that the fees paid to the travel sites for hotel room bookings be included in the gross receipts of the hotels and thus subject to sales and hotel taxes.”

Read the complete text of Cohn’s article here.