Notat Home not home.com wrote:

John Doe wrote:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/InternetSalesTa

They are "not raising taxes" they are "just helping to collect
taxes". There is a big difference...

Years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was
unconstitutional for states to collect sales tax on out of state
sales. I wonder what has changed?

After listening to a little bit of the Senate discussion...
Maybe what has changed is the technology for Amazon and others
(over a certain size) to charge the tax and have the tax instantly
credited to the appropriate state. In that way, Amazon will not be
technically collecting the tax because it won't actually receive
the tax, it might not see any benefit like cash flow or whatever.

Sales tax is complicated in that different places (states,
counties, cities, etc.) have different rates and different
definitions of what can be taxed. I know in Ohio, there is a
use tax, identical to the sales tax, that people have to pay
themselves when they buy something out of state, but because of
complexity and ignorance, I think few people pay it. The states
lose a ton of revenue because they can't effectively collect the
sales or use tax on out of state purchases.

Yup.
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It would certainly be fairer to all to have the same tax for
in-state and out of state purchases.