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Retailers begin taxing online buys
By Anne D�Innocenzio - Dayton Daily News (AP)
NEW YORK | Some major retailers this week began voluntarily charging online sales taxes in 37 states and the District of Columbia, a move that could reshape the way business is done on the Web. Retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Toys ��R�� Us and Target, hope their first steps will help bolster the states� effort to mandate online sales taxes, leveling the playing field between themselves and Internet-only rivals. Under current laws, catalog companies and pure online retailers only have to charge sales taxes in states where they have operations, such as a warehouse or distribution facility. Nationwide brick-and-mortar retailers say this puts them at a disadvantage in states where catalog and Internet-only companies do not have operations. ��We can�t have a system that discriminates some vendors in favor of others,�� said Frank Shafroth, director of state-federal relations for the National Governors Association, he said. ��Why should there be a double standard?�� The states are eager to plug their budget shortfalls with help from Internet sales taxes. Last year, Internet sales ballooned to $79 billion, or about 3 percent of all retail sales, according to Forrester Research. Attorney John Coalson, who represented the merchants, said he expects five more states to join in the 37-state program begun this week. However, representatives of 34 states and the District of Columbia met in Tampa last month to discuss taxing Internet sales. Those states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon do not collect sales tax.

****I've not been in a Wal-Mart in over 6 years, and they've just guaranteed that I will never again walk thru those doors...Like the EU, there seems to be a concerted (though below-the-radar) effort to eliminate "state" identity. Pretty soon there will be no difference between the states - and states that now have no state income tax (like Florida) will conform to the majority. It's the beginning of the homogenization of the US.****

posted by A Curmudgeon 8:42 AM