Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Speaking as an outsider, it seems very odd to me that an Internet purchase should be exempt from sales tax. Given the apparently wide-spread practice of tax-evasion relating to non-payment of use tax, perhaps the simple answer is to legislate that all on-line purchases should be taxed at source by the retailer?
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The Federal Government cannot dictate how State Sales Tax is generated and there is no Federal Sales Tax. States can only collect tax businesses that are physically located in their borders. Amazon is not physically present in most sStates which prevents the States from requiring Amazon to collect sales tax.
When California amended its sales tax policies to influence internet only businesses that reside in California, Amazon stopped allowing California based businesses from selling on Amazon as an affiliate in order to prevent California from being able to require Amazon charge sales tax.
The Constitution would have to be amended for the Federal Government to get involved and there is no way in hell that there is support for an Amendment that would give the Federal Government additional tax authorization.