Internet Sales Tax?
I'm not entirely sure if this is even do-able, but it looks like there is another push underway to tax interstate commerce on the internet (story here). Currently, I do not like to buy online from companies like Costco.com, Walmart, and other major companies with local branches of their business because they charge sales tax (in addition to shipping). Companies like Amazon.com can have only a few shipping facilities spaced throughout the country. According to my understanding, companies on the internet only have to charge sales tax in the state in which their "nexus of operations" is located. So I live in Arizona. I buy everything from Amazon, especially now that they have Amazon prime with free two-day shipping on any order. Because Amazon does not have a location here in Arizona, should they be forced to pay sales tax to Arizona? In which state did the sale occur anyway? I'm no legal whiz, so don't cite me on this, but the 1992 Supreme Court ruling Quill Corp v. North Dakota, it was decided that for a state with no physical operations within a state to collect sales tax for that state placed an unconstitutional tax burden on interstate commerce. They did caveat their ruling by saying that Congress is ultimately better qualified to resolve and has the power to resolve the problem of taxing interstate commerce. So who knows.Please feel free to comment if you know more than I do about this whole business (It probably wouldn't take much). Just like the days of the early internet when everybody was willing to give you free stuff for signing up for accounts (Remember the dot-com boom when you could sign up for an account with each of your email addresses and get $15 off a $15 purchase. I loved those day)...so anyway, just like those days, if sales tax hits, we can look back and say, "It was good while it lasted."
