Amazon to bring 3,000 jobs to Florida in deal with state

Floridians also will start paying taxes for purchases from the online retailer

Gov. Rick Scott's office announced Thursday that Florida had landed the deal with Amazon to create 3,000 full-time jobs with benefits and more than $300 million in capital investment by the end of 2016. About 1,500 of those jobs could come to the Interstate 4 corridor.

TALLAHASSEE — Amazon will bring 3,000 jobs to the state in a deal that also means Floridians will have to start paying taxes on purchases from the online retailer.

It is unclear when Florida residents will have to start paying taxes on Amazon purchases, but it could be as early as next spring.

Scott was vague on most details of the deal, such as where distribution centers or offices for the company might be built or how much tax-incentive cash would be required to close the deal.

An Amazon spokesman would not give further details Thursday. But a source with knowledge of the negotiations said the company plans to build two 1 million-square-foot "fulfillment centers" somewhere along the I-4 corridor within the first year of the deal, adding at least 1,500 jobs. The company could eventually add an additional two to four centers in other parts of the state.

"Amazon will continue to work with Enterprise Florida on its ongoing projects, which will include a return on any taxpayer investment, and we look forward to the company's announcements as it chooses locations and creates jobs in Florida," Scott said in the news release.

It added that Amazon "will begin collecting Florida sales tax at such time as it is required under current Florida law."

The announcement comes months after Florida broke off negotiations with the Seattle-based retail giant over when it would have to start collecting Florida's 6 percent sales tax.

Lawmakers have considered bills to require online retailers to pay taxes in recent legislative sessions, and so has Congress. The question may now be moot relative to Amazon, because it is likely to begin collecting taxes by next spring once its first warehouses open, according to sources familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be identified.

Neither the Governor's Office nor the state's jobs agency, Enterprise Florida, could say specifically when the warehouses would open, and that "the availability of economic development incentives will be a material factor in any final location decisions."

As soon as Amazon has a presence in the state, that should trigger collection of sales tax unless the Department of Revenue has approved a delay, said John Fleming, a spokesman for the Florida Retail Federation. The department could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Bricks-and-mortar retailers have pushed for legislation allowing Florida to collect sales taxes from online retailers regardless of whether they have a physical presence here. The Florida Retail Federation estimates the state misses out on $450 million worth of tax revenue annually by not being able to collect those taxes.