The Student Council Senate held an emergency Senate meeting on Monday to temporarily amend its burden and spending policies to accommodate the organization’s inability to purchase from Amazon.
According to Tendaji Ya’Ukuu, Assistant Director of SA Communications, Amazon will terminate all business lines of credit for Amazon Business effective mid-January, allowing SA to make payments to its most popular vendors. lost.
SA vice president Sammi Pang said in an email on Jan. 18 that Amazon currently accepts invoices by “invitation only,” but SA has not received any communication about its efforts to obtain invites. . According to the SA Senate, SA’s average annual Amazon usage for “programming, activities, events, and items” is about $107,000. minutes.
The club will continue to participate in the UB Student Association Financial Entry System (safety), providing clubs with a directory of other approved vendors optionWegmans and others.
Alana Lesczynski, SA’s treasurer, said clubs can still buy from Amazon if they decide not to use one of the approved vendors, but they can still buy from SA using their personal Amazon accounts. said it should be reimbursed from
Pan said clubs must submit refund requests “approved prior to purchase” and “orders must be delivered to the 360 Student Union for review and confirmation of receipt.”
burden and expenditure policy“SA does not pay NYS sales tax and in the event of a refund, NYS sales tax paid will not be refunded, except for those not eligible for NYS exempt status,” temporarily amended by a majority Vote from January 30th to May 21st, 2023.
A temporarily modified policy requires personal accounts to pay sales tax on items purchased from Amazon, so SA accountants can refund sales tax on purchases made through Amazon.
SA president Becky Paul Odionhin said refund options were available, but the club “needed to try every other possible avenue” SA already had, adding that Amazon’s order was “a last resort.” ‘, he added.
“SA understands that unfortunately the solution approved on January 30th is not complete,” said Ya’Ukuu. “This is intended to be a temporary solution to the problem…We are working to rectify the situation as soon as possible so that SA and the club can continue to purchase merchandise as normal.”
Kiana Hodge is our news editor and can be reached at: kiana.hodge@ubspectrum.com
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Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Commons
