Buying and paying for stuff online can be pretty burdensome. Because e-tailers only have to collect sales tax in states where they have an actual brick-and-mortar presence (thanks, SCOTUS), every time you buy from an online-only seller like Amazon or Zappos, you have to keep track of what you buy, tally up what you owe to your state in sales tax, and then pay up when you file your income taxes at the end of the year.
Wait. You don't do that?
Well, neither does most of America, costing states billions in lost revenue. States can go after you for the money, but since so few people actually pay the taxes, and each individual enforcement effort is expensive, they basically let it slide.
But now that states are struggling to balance their budgets, lawmakers are trying to drum up support for a bill that would help states collect the lost tax, reports The Washington Post. Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Republican South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds have proposed the Main Street Fairness Act, which would make it easier for out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax.
There's opposition, of course. Democratic New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes introduced a resolution to the bill that asks House members not to approve an "unfair" tax collection requirement on small online retailers, because it's likely they'll spend thousands updating their online software and accounting practices to meet new law requirements. (Note: Hodes' state of New Hampshire does not have a sales tax.)
If the bill passes, states would still have to streamline their tax codes (a prerequisite of the bill), which means it'll be years until consumers will be affected. Also, taxing online sales has been debated for years, with at least 20 states participating in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a collaborative effort to fix complicated state tax systems, since 2002.
Have you ever paid the sales tax for stuff you bought online? Do you support the Main Street Fairness Act? It's not burdening you with new taxes, just making sure you're paying what you're supposed to be paying. Or you can go back to pretending you didn't know. Sales taxes? What sales taxes?
Mike Dang is a New York-based writer who covers personal finance, politics, education and technology. You can contact him here.
Wait. You don't do that?
Well, neither does most of America, costing states billions in lost revenue. States can go after you for the money, but since so few people actually pay the taxes, and each individual enforcement effort is expensive, they basically let it slide.
But now that states are struggling to balance their budgets, lawmakers are trying to drum up support for a bill that would help states collect the lost tax, reports The Washington Post. Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Republican South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds have proposed the Main Street Fairness Act, which would make it easier for out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax.
There's opposition, of course. Democratic New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes introduced a resolution to the bill that asks House members not to approve an "unfair" tax collection requirement on small online retailers, because it's likely they'll spend thousands updating their online software and accounting practices to meet new law requirements. (Note: Hodes' state of New Hampshire does not have a sales tax.)
If the bill passes, states would still have to streamline their tax codes (a prerequisite of the bill), which means it'll be years until consumers will be affected. Also, taxing online sales has been debated for years, with at least 20 states participating in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a collaborative effort to fix complicated state tax systems, since 2002.
Have you ever paid the sales tax for stuff you bought online? Do you support the Main Street Fairness Act? It's not burdening you with new taxes, just making sure you're paying what you're supposed to be paying. Or you can go back to pretending you didn't know. Sales taxes? What sales taxes?
Mike Dang is a New York-based writer who covers personal finance, politics, education and technology. You can contact him here.
