Internet Sales Tax

Here’s an interesting note about some legislation recently introduced in Congress that would permit states to collect sales taxes from internet sales. In a 1992 decision dealing with catalog sales, the U.S. Supreme Court said retailers are not required to collect sales taxes from customers in states where the retailer has no physical presence. That decision has been applied to internet retailers. And it’s expected to result in $23 billion in lost revenues by 2012. Given the fiscal crunch that most local governments have been experiencing, it’s hard to imagine there won’t be some effort to rake in this cash. We’ll see. Might be a good idea to do some early online Christmas shopping just in case.