Congress is advancing online sales-tax pact
The Tallahassee Democrat
August 5, 2011
State Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda reminds — or attempts to remind — her tax-resistant colleagues in the Florida Legislature that collecting a sales tax on purchases made online is not the same as raising taxes.
Raising money, yes, but as Ms. Rehwinkel Vasilinda put it at the end of last session, “The concept of leaving tax revenue on the table, especially when we really need it, is really irksome.”
Taxes should be collected on purchases from online merchants, the same as on purchases in brick-and-mortar shops, which suffer from this not-so-level playing field of commerce. Business groups such as Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Retail Federation would like to see the disparity addressed.
It’s not just the tax avoidance that’s a problem for local merchants. In many cases, local stores end up functioning as a showroom for online shoppers who like to look at the merchandise in person, but buy it online where there’s no sales tax.
But because online sales cross state boundaries and tax rates vary so much nationwide, a meaningful online sales tax would be most effectively and uniformly collected under federal legislation.
This past week, almost remarkably given the debt-ceiling debate that dominated all other issues, a bill was introduced to give states and localities power to collect sales tax from online retailers.
And an unlikely endorsement for this tax collection comes from a critical source: Amazon.com, which has been fighting this for years. It wants a seat at the table of what it now considers inevitable.
Click here to read the full story at the Tallahassee Democrat.
