Amazon spends nearly three times as much as the entire Australian government on research and development. Yet collecting GST from offshore merchants selling products into Australia has proved too complex even for it.

That's one way to view the announcement by the e-commerce behemoth on Thursday that it would limit the ability of local consumers to buy products through its US website - a decision that will significantly reduce the number of products available to Australian Amazon users.

Workers gather items for delivery from the warehouse floor at Amazon's distribution centre in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit:Reuters

So, should we be angry at the government for imposing a fiendishly complex and cumbersome tax on a company many expected would bring a bonanza of low prices to this country? Or is this yet another example of a tech giant circumventing an attempt by a government to claw back some tax from its operations?

Unless you are an ideologue obsessed with lower taxes, or a partisan who hates the current government (a Venn diagram of these two groups would make for interesting viewing), it shouldn't be hard to conclude that this one's on Amazon.