The great Internet sales tax debate is gaining traction once again. Gov. Eliot Spitzer raised this idea as a way to fill New York’s budget gap and earn about $47 million per year.
As expected, the main target of the debate is Amazon.com. According to the New York Times, the online retail giant is agreeable to this policy as long as the governing laws are simplified. While the tone is rather submissive, simplifying these laws will take years to implement and that will give Amazon.com more time to operate without paying taxes.
Then again, how difficult is it really to comply with these tax rules? Given the cutting edge payment system, other leading online stores such as Wal-Mart have a system that automatically sales tax.
Moreover, Target’s website is also equipped with this system. What is ironic is that Amazon.com runs this site. Indeed, Amazon is simply playing dumb to sidestep sales tax.
On the other hand, some argue this measure might hamper online trading and question the rights of any state to collect sales taxes when “ability to make its sale has no connection to any benefit received from that state?â€
How about you? What do you think about Internet sales tax?
Originally posted on February 14, 2008 @ 9:29 am