Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 May 29

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May 29

Oregon sales tax on AWS services

Oregon has no sales tax AFAIK. But this page[1] says Amazon is collecting sales tax for Oregon on AWS services. Does Oregon tax online services or something? Scala Cats (talk) 00:49, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

The page actually says: "sales tax or other transaction taxes."

Our article Sales taxes in the United States says "Since January 2017, 5 states (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon) do not levy a sales tax," so two possibilities are that (i) your linked page has not been updated to reflect the recent change, or (ii) some "other transaction tax(es)" is (are) being collected for Oregon.

• This isn't a recent change. The list of 5 states with no sales tax has been the same for years—here's a version of the article from 8 years ago. In the current article, note that the reference for that list of states is dated 2014. I suppose the words "Since January 2017" are misplaced and are intended to apply to the other half of the sentence. --69.159.63.238 (talk) 08:49, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

I suspect the intended wording is actually "as of" not since. People in NZ have been buying stuff off Amazon sent to (Portland, ) Oregon for the Youshop parcel forwarding service from NZ Post since September 2012. And the service existed before than since it's from Singapore Post plus a number of other parcel forwarding services have also used Oregon for long. I don't know if they've ever had a sales tax, but they definitely haven't had one that affected Amazon for a long time. Nil Einne (talk) 10:01, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Read a bit more it's probably a combination of as of and since depending on what part. Nil Einne (talk) 07:11, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Further down in Section 4.40 Oregon, the article says:

"Oregon has no statewide sales tax, although local municipalities may impose sales taxes if they choose to do so, such as Ashland, which imposes a 5% prepared food tax.^[146]

Oregon does collect some business and excise taxes^[147] that may be passed along to (or must be collected from) consumers in some form or another. These include a 1% state lodging tax,^[148] various tobacco taxes,^[149] telecommunications taxes,^[150] and ″privilege tax″ (excise tax) on beer, wine and spirits.^[151] Many localities also collect additional lodging taxes.^[152][153]

Some of the above may be what the Amazon page is referring to. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.129.108 (talk) 07:50, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

Canadian Situation Room?

I know that the United States has the Situation Room and the UK has their equivalent, the Cabinet Office Briefing Room. However, I can't seem to find a Canadian equivalent. Is there a Canadian version of these rooms, where high level officials such as the PM, Minister of National Defence (or any other cabinet ministers or MP's for that matter), Chief of the Defence Staff (or any other military personnel) and other approriate officials meet during a time of crisis or any other situation where either the Situation Room or COBR would be used? Thanks, Jith12 (talk) 20:08, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

During the Cold War, Canada had CFS Carp and several other Emergency Government Headquarters, popularly known as the "Diefenbunkers" (c.f. John Diefenbaker). Can't find anything else more akin to what the OP is looking for. Still hunting. --Jayron32 00:45, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Can't find anything specific, but the Prime Minister's office is located in Langevin Block in Ottawa, while the defence ministry is housed at the National Defence Headquarters (Canada). Maybe some additional research there may help. --Jayron32 00:50, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

In Australia, the highly secured cabinet room in Parliament House was used for this purpose, until an even-more-secure situation room was created within the cabinet offices in the same building in 2010. If Canada has not made the equivalent change, it is possible that the normal Cabinet Room is still used for this purpose. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 17:05, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Hiding in a closet in the caucus room? Parliament Hill shooting... Adam Bishop (talk) 17:59, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for all the help. I think that PalaceGuard008 makes a good point. The Cabinet Room is probably the most logical place to host one of these meetings. Adam Bishop, that can't count! They didn't have any meetings in that closet, all Harper did was stand in there and quiver! Thanks for your help as well Jayron32! Thanks again, Jith12 (talk) 20:20, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Haha, well, in reality it probably must be the cabinet room. The Conservatives and NDP were apparently meeting in their caucus offices during the shooting, so maybe that is another possibility. Adam Bishop (talk) 01:54, 31 May 2017 (UTC)