Taxing the net: sales tax cartel.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Brief article

A COALITION of 22 states wants Washington to help them extract cash from the purchases their residents make over the Internet. It won't be easy, thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court decision that limits local jurisdictions' ability to collect sales taxes on online and mail-order transactions. Still, as e-commerce grows and state revenue shrinks, states are finding the Internet an irresistible target.

At press time, Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) were preparing to introduce a bill requiring online retailers to collect taxes from customers who live in any of the 22 states participating in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. By standardizing rates and the list of taxable goods, the participating states hope to get around the Supreme Court's concerns about the burden of forcing online merchants to follow different states' varied and complicated sales tax rules.

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Why not treat online purchases like...