Web sales may soon lose tax break

Shopping online can be a way to find bargains while steering clear of crowds -- and sales taxes.

[chris]

I hope that they do not require amazon to start collecting sales tax. If you combine amazons already low prices, and no sales tax you can great deals. Recently i started using this site to find discounts on amazon:

http://www.zingsale.com

It's a free service that tracks prices of products from online stores (like amazon) and sends you an email when the price drops. I also used it over holidays to save on a new GPS for the car

[Conservative Republican]

It's obvious to me that if 100% of Internet sales were taxed by all 50 states, many merchants would go out of business. Consider that Internet sales prices would then be more costly by the sales tax rate plus shipping charges. That would place many e-tailers in a non-competitive position with brick-and-mortar retailers. While some may people may say "so what?", think of the inevitable increased unemployment. A good many e-tailers that would fail are mom-and-pop and small businesses.

[libertarian conservative]

yeesh. the last thing we need is more taxes. we need less taxes, less borrowing and less spending. we need to expect less from our govt. and expect more from ourselves.

[Fairness]

The states have been trying to come together for many years now on a uniform taxation method for the Internet, but all of the states have their pet items that they either want to exclude from the sales tax, want to tax at a different rate or something. There are also many states with special taxation districts such as cities and counties with a special tax. The states have not found a way they think is fair and that is why we will not have taxation on the Internet soon.

Once again, if our lawmakers were thinking about us instead of the special interests this could be resolved in a fair manner. It is true that non-brick and mortar merchants have an unfair advantage in the market place. However, it is also true that they do not cause the states to incur costs for police, fire, roads and regulations that local merchants cause.

I don't want to see it taxed either, but the local merchants have a legitimate complaint. Don't look for it to be resolved soon.

Also, the states that are trying to tax it are going to lose. The Supreme Court has already ruled definitively on this and is extremely unlikely to change the ruling.

Don't look for taxation of Internet sales to happen soon.