A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping.
The proposal–expected to be made public soon after Tax Day–would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.
via CNET News – Democratic senator wants Internet sales taxes. I know it’s going to happen, it’s just an incredibly hard problem to solve. Tax laws from state to state much less city to city vary a ton in not just amount but what is taxed. When this goes through (though possibly not this year) some business is going to make a mint providing a back-end service to know how much taxes need to be applied towards a purchase. Amazon/PayPal/Google Checkout should start building that now, if they haven’t already.